What lies beneath

This guy hand-knits his own jockstraps — and they’ve become hugely popular

Why did JR Carillo start hand-knitting his own jockstraps? Well, to impress a guy he had the hots for.

This was in 2016, when he was trying to master the art of knitting a scarf.

“He joked that I should hit him up,” he tells Gay Star News, “when I figured out how to knit a jockstrap of all things.”

So… he rose to the challenge:

“There are very few places that you can find a knitting pattern for such a garment as I am sure you can imagine, so I just decided to take a stab at doing it without. After a couple of prototypes I was finally happy with the end product and took it to Instagram to see if folks approved and, to my overwhelming surprise, they loved them.”

Based in Southern California, the 40-year old designer admits he had no idea what he was doing.

Related: PHOTOS: Bury Your Face In These Musky Jockstraps

“I just went to the craft store, bought some needles and a ball of yarn and went straight to YouTube!”

The product proved so popular that he quickly found himself producing the jockstraps in abundance.

“Since then I have tried to make it my mission to be as diverse as possible on my page, showing that you don’t have to look any certain type of way and that everyone has the right to feel fun, flirty and sexy!”

 

“I do make all jocks to order,” he says, “because if someone is going to spend their hard earned money on one of my pieces, I want to make sure it fits just how they want and for them to be happy.”

“I love when people know exactly what they want, but for that very reason, I don’t have a back stock of inventory waiting to be embellished.”

“As far as time is concerned, since I work a full time day job [as a call center manager], I can crank out a couple Monday-Friday, but on the weekends is when I get most of my work done. I can double my productivity on the weekend.”

So: are they itchy AF? And can you wash them (if you’re into that?)

‘The first question I always get is … Are they itchy? No, they are very cozy and until I get the request for something made out of burlap, I imagine they will remain comfy.”

“And yes,” he says. “They are supportive and they are definitely washable. I always recommend hand-washing, just because some design are more intricate and I wouldn’t want anyone to accidentally ruin their piece in the rinse cycle.”

Interested? You can contact Carillo on his Instagram page.

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