Like most larger men, Bruce Sturgell has spent a good portion of his life wearing some variation on ill-fitting khakis and tentlike polo shirts. “It’s the fat-guy uniform,” says Sturgell, founder of Chubstr, a fashion blog for plus-size men. “I hate it so much.”
Sturgell, who has a 46-inch waist, has struggled since his teens to find stylish clothes that fit. Many menswear brands don’t go beyond a 40-inch waist, even though the average American man measures 40.5 inches around, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Since Sturgell launched Chubstr 12 years ago, men’s fashion has become a little more inclusive, he says: Brands like Nike and Target’s private label Goodfellow & Co. now offer shirts up to 5X and pant sizes up to 42 or 4XL, and use bigger models in their ads. Meanwhile, online brands with names like Johnny Bigg have cropped up, offering more on-trend styles and elevated looks. But, still, the pickings are slim. Plus-size menswear makes up an estimated 12% of the U.S. men’s apparel market, and is just a fraction—0.6%—of the global plus-size clothing market.
Part of the problem is practical. It’s simply more expensive to make plus-size clothes that fit well. Over the past decade, pioneering women’s brands like Universal Standard—followed by others—have made investments, enabling them to increase garment sizes without sacrificing quality. Plus-size women’s apparel sales total more than $6.8 billion in the U.S., with brands from Old Navy to Christian Siriano offering extended size ranges. Many men’s brands, however, haven’t made such investments. What’s standing in their way, to some degree, are the customers themselves; cultural forces make it hard for men to tell brands what they need, obscuring the demand. But a growing number of plus-size men are starting to speak up by launching their own brands.
Recognize your company's culture of innovation by applying to this year's Best Workplaces for Innovators Awards before the final deadline, April 5.