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ManPacks.com - a different kind of startup
- zaidf 17y agoMost interesting startup I've run into all week=)
- ojilles 17y agoIf it was truly "Girlfriend Approved" I (male) should be able to pick a subscription, pay for it and have someone else (female) pick the actual pieces of clothing ;-)
- Qz 17y agoNow that's an interesting possibility.
- timbonicus 17y agoThe Trunk Club uses a model in this vein: http://techcrunch.com/2009/06/03/the-trunk-club-for-men-never-shop-for-clothes-again/ http://techcrunch.com/2009/06/03/the-trunk-club-for-men-neve...
- pufuwozu 17y agoI think this is a great idea! I wonder if I can get them to ship to Australia...
- bugs 17y agoYour site is really slow for me and quite a few times has thrown up error pages for php though I didn't screenshot them. edit: here you go http://imgur.com/fFQ4G.png http://imgur.com/fFQ4G.png I might have given it a try if these were available as boxers: http://www.hanes.com/Hanes/Products/Men-Hanes/Men_ShopByCategory-Hanes/Men_Underwear-Hanes/Men_Underwear_Boxers-Hanes/20222.aspx http://www.hanes.com/Hanes/Products/Men-Hanes/Men_ShopByCate... some of us just prefer buttons
- tjmc 17y agoI'm getting the same errors. Site doesn't load at all for me.
- coderdude 17y agoI don't know about the owner of the site, but I would not have appreciated that screenshot. Then again, if you're letting your site spit out detailed errors, you're doing it wrong.
- madeby 17y agoWe appreciate the screenshot -- issue should be fixed.
- jrnkntl 17y agoI knew I've read about this on a site that was submitted here a couple of months ago: http://www.halfbakery.com/idea/Subscription_20Underwear http://www.halfbakery.com/idea/Subscription_20Underwear
- sanswork 17y agoI'm seeing all errors. One suggestion on a technical side is that one of the errors is a problem parsing the xml from a remote geoip service(http://ipinfodb.com http://ipinfodb.com). Maxmind offers their maxmind light products for free and will probably have equal or better quality to the service you're using. It will also most certain improve the performance of your site(I hope you're not doing the geoip look up on every request).
- mattblalock 17y agoYeah, looks like the geoip is happening every request.
- jamesbritt 17y agoWhat? No pocket T's?
- dzlobin 17y agoThis is a great idea, but they need to expand to american apparel gear as well. I really dislike Hanes undergarments
- Ennis 17y agoI agree that they should not seem like a Hanes shop unless the goal is to get acquired by Hanes. If that were the case, I would instead focus on selling gillette manpacks and getting acquired by Proctor & Gamble (they have more money).
- Groxx 17y agoI'm thinking some Lightspeed Briefs would go over well too.
- vaksel 17y agothis idea has been around for years there are a ton of sites doing this. Google around, I'm sure you'll find one selling the brands you want.
- madeby 17y agoHanes has a great wholesale program which made it the most logical choice for launching our business. The brand offers great value, but not for everyone -- we are looking to expand our offerings in the coming weeks.
- jmackinn 17y agoHave you looked into the American Apparel wholesale pricing? I bought from them a few years ago (only tshirts) and yes, their prices were higher than Hanes, and while the quality was only marginally better, customers assumed they were much higher quality and were willing to pay much higher prices.
- mattblalock 17y agoI love the idea (I managed to get the home to load once)! But some errors being thrown up mighty hard.
- sumeeta 17y agoBeautiful. The site really made me feel like this is something I need. I’m also confused about whether it's `Manpack` or `ManPack`; I see both. I recommend you stick to one.
- anonymousDan 17y agoThe latter looks better imo.
- deleted 17y ago[deleted]
- SwellJoe 17y agoNew socks are so cheap that I don't consider it a "very successful" kind of habit. It's cheaper than a smoking habit, for example, even if you really do want a new pair every day (which is stupid and wasteful, IMHO, though not money-wise; just in terms of resources, and labor, and pollutants and such; bleached white fabric is somewhat environmentally yucky). So, I don't go overboard...I just buy a new pack of six pairs of socks every few months, which is enough to where my socks are never worn out, I can wear two or three clean pair per day (I change socks every time I put my shoes on, and I don't wear shoes around the house, so every time I go out, I wear a clean pair of socks), and not have to do laundry more than once every ~10 days or so. I throw them away at about the same rate, so I always have a drawer full of socks right after doing the wash. In short, I have about 25-30 pair of socks in good condition at any moment in time. I buy the same kind of socks so that sorting is simpler. Hanes changed their thread color a while back and pissed me off a bit, but things have stabilized again and I'm down to only one remaining pair with black thread. The "return box for charity" idea is a good one...my biggest problem with buying new clothes is getting rid of the old ones.
- constantinople 17y agoHow often do you need to buy new underwear? The last time I did so was sometime in the mid 1990s. They don't look as good as they used to but they still do the job. When it becomes a necessity to do so, most underwear can be bought pretty cheaply locally without paying for shipping costs. This seems rather fussy to me.
- Qz 17y ago"How often do you need to buy new underwear?" If you're asking that question, the answer is yesterday!
- constantinople 17y agoWhy? In case I need to come out and say it - My underwear is clean! It's just not new. Sounds like typical consumerist propaganda.
- aw3c2 17y agoI wonder about that too. Maybe people are not washing theirs properly (hot)?
- zaidf 17y agoSeems like the site can't keep up with the HN traffic. Hope the guys are able to fix it(I've no idea who they are)!
- Shamiq 17y agoInteresting. Is it actually cheaper to get the single pack ($13 per unit) than it is to get the macho pack (13.33 per unit)?
- olalonde 17y agoCool concept, I hope it works out !
- Groxx 17y agoI like the "Free Your Mind" up-side. Time to see if I can finally jump to that other building! An interesting idea, and the price isn't too bad... but I get out to department stores at least this frequently. Remembering isn't that hard, though I wish them good luck on the business. I know some people will go for it, and it'd make a great parents-to-college-students gift. Having a functioning website is always a good thing, though. Getting YC'd?
- dnsworks 17y agoThis sounds quite a bit like Amazon's Subscriptions. I've used that for diapers, so I'm thinking that underwear and socks would probably work the same way.
- jdietrich 17y agoI'd be more interested if the underwear on offer wasn't such lousy quality. I can see that they're looking for hefty markups, but it makes no sense to me to set up a service like this and then sell really crummy socks. From the link: Hanes Classics Comfort Cool Ankle Fiber Content: Cotton/Polyester/Acrylic/Nylon/Spandex/Other Fiber I don't know about you, but I have a general policy of not wearing anything made of "Other Fiber".
- Monkeyget 17y agoRazwar has the same model for razor blades : http://www.razwar.com/products/blade-subscriptions http://www.razwar.com/products/blade-subscriptions
- chaosmachine 17y agoI'm not sure what's "different" about this. Google "subscription socks" or "subscription underwear", you'll find about 10 startups doing the same thing. One of them was even featured in the WSJ last year. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=534330 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=534330 http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2009/03/19/socks-dont-match-how-about-a-subscription/tab/article/ http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2009/03/19/socks-dont-match-how-...
- muxxa 17y agoThe underwear sizing chart link on this page: https://www.manpacks.com/order/manpack_24 https://www.manpacks.com/order/manpack_24 incorrectly pops up the shirt sizing chart
- Entlin 17y agoInteresting. This reminds me of blacksocks.com, which have been doing nearly the same thing for over 10 years now.
- sdfx 17y agoI understand that you'd pay a premium for convenience, but if you compare the prices to hanes.com I can't see the additional value. I've compared a sample "Manpack" (8 of each for 120$ per year) with similar items on Hanes (45$ + 10$ shipping, free above 50$). Why don't you buy 3 years worth of stuff in advance and open a new pack every few month? You still have to decide what items to throw away. I get the "stuff gets icky and you'll forget to change" argument for toothbrushes, maybe for razorblades, this one smells more like marketing spin.
- Ras_ 17y agoThere could be a market for monthly pack, including a pair of socks, t-shirt, toothbrush, underwear etc. in other customer segments. I'm thinking of all of those over-protective moms, whose offspring leave home for good (or for extended periods). There's plenty of recurring occasions where this could apply. Summer job away... This would be an alternative to usual "sending food & money". Mothers could be a sizeable market and since they often can't get to you, sending stuff is the only option. This could be easily outsourced (both options lead to mailing packages). The package can even include a personal note from mom, if that's needed to make it as good as DIY-option. For the user himself ordering mail-in packs instead of buying stuff locally is much more drastic choice. In this case the other option has nothing to do with mail packages.
- sheldonwt 17y agoI think this is a brilliant. You know how many goofy girlfriends there are out there who would find this to be a unique, funny, yet functional gift for their boyfriends? Lots.