Nasty Pig is an American men’s fashion brand based in New York City. The gay-owned company was founded in 1994 by Frederick Kearney (creative director) and David Lauterstein (CEO). It began as sportswear aimed at leather subcultures and expanded into a full clothing line—underwear, jockstraps, jeans, shorts, T-shirts, swimwear, and fetish-edged accessories. The brand ranked on the Inc. 5000 in 2013 and moved into its current Chelsea flagship store in 2014.
Aesthetic: Punk, Sport, and Unapologetic Fetish
Nasty Pig still carries leather-bar and gym-floor DNA. Product history includes bondage harnesses and straps, rubber jockstraps and bedding, plus silk neckties with the logo intricately hidden in the weave. Press tracks the mix: Out’s Stacy Lambe called it a refined combo of punk attitude, street graffiti, and high-tech materials; The Underwear Expert’s Michael Kleinmann labeled it a masculine sportswear line with an unabashed fetish edge and connection to raunchy sexual subculture; ChicagoPride’s Ross Forman cast it as the ultimate edgy brand for masculine, sexually self-assured male consumers—bold stripes and loud colors. The motto is “fun clothing that gets you laid.” The primary market is gay men, but the look travels through broader queer and fetish fashion circuits.
From Apartment Sewing to IML Fame
Nasty Pig Incorporated formed on October 31, 1994. Kearney and Lauterstein met in New York City in 1993 and first sold “re:vision goggles” with refractive lenses to Club Kids; profits funded sewing and sales from their West 23rd Street apartment. Named after their dog Piggy, the brand was created partly in response to stigmas from the HIV/AIDS epidemic—assertive queer masculinity instead of shame. Lauterstein cites influences from New York hip hop culture and sports including baseball, basketball, CrossFit, football, mixed martial arts, and weightlifting.
Their first closet-sized roughly 72-square-foot store, called re:vision, sold Nasty Pig T-shirts, rubber chaps, superhero sleeveless shirts, vinyl pants, and more. First retail clients were the Leatherman in New York City and Mr. S in San Francisco. National growth accelerated after heavy featuring at Chicago’s International Mr. Leather, the annual fetish and leather conference and contest. According to Forman, Nasty Pig gained notoriety for machine-washable Nasty Pig Rubber—highlighted by Nasty Pig Playsheets—and became the brand of choice for New York’s younger fetish scene before spreading worldwide. The company has been described as the first sportswear firm in its industry to sell branded jockstraps, and the NP Jean stretch denim line became a best-selling style.
Growth, Advertising, and Celebrity Wear
In 2013 Nasty Pig ranked number 3,060 on Inc.’s list of fastest-growing U.S. companies. That year’s video lookbook featured Juliana Huxtable and several gay nightlife personalities. The brand relocated to a larger flagship on West 19th Street in Chelsea, Manhattan, in 2014. In 2015 the company’s 30-second “Give/Receive” advertisement was considered “too hot for TV” by Time Warner Cable executives. Scheduled for Cartoon Network, Lifetime, Logo TV, and TBS, it was pulled after four runs on Logo in New York markets. Nasty Pig also advertised during American Horror Story: Freak Show in Los Angeles and New York before launching its first national advertising campaign in 2015 during RuPaul’s Drag Race. Products have been worn by James Franco, Lady Gaga, and Madonna. Nasty Pig and Versace outfitted Olly Alexander for his 2018 Paper magazine photo shoot.
In 2020, Queerty, Slate, and PinkNews praised Lauterstein’s advice for navigating the COVID-19 pandemic. He also helped the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene update its “Safer Sex and COVID-19” guidelines with more specific recommendations for dating and sex during the pandemic. Crain’s New York Business included him in its 2020 list of notable LGBTQ leaders and executives.
Activism and Cultural Impact
In 2013 Nasty Pig launched Shred of Hope, an auction of celebrity-designed “shredder” T-shirts benefiting New York City’s Ali Forney Center, described as the largest LGBT community center in the U.S. Participants included Dustin Lance Black, Keith Boykin, Andy Cohen, Alan Cumming, Isis King, Adam Lambert, Bob Mould, Njena Reddd Foxxx, Mike Ruiz, JD Samson, Dan Savage, Jake Shears, Ally Sheedy, and Michael Stipe.
The Advocate framed the brand’s arc as a $50 investment grown into a global apparel name with an indelible role influencing kink, fetish, queer, and even high fashion—a “trailblazing menswear label.” Forman wrote that Kearney and Lauterstein developed the first gay culture brand that thrived rather than merely surviving. Out noted Nasty Pig was among the first companies to champion hairy, bearded models in marketing, contradicting era male beauty standards. Related themes for readers include fetish fashion, LGBT culture in New York City, and underwear fetishism as consumer desire. For leather and fetish audiences, Nasty Pig proves harness energy, rubber, and jock culture can scale from IML booths into mainstream queer menswear without fully sanding off the dungeon—fun clothing built to get someone laid and keep erotic subculture visible on the street.
Fetish Fashion Meets Retail Scale
Nasty Pig’s path from a seventy-two-square-foot re:vision closet to a Chelsea flagship maps how leather and rubber aesthetics entered branded menswear. Early wholesale through the Leatherman and Mr. S proved the product-market fit; International Mr. Leather exposure nationalized the look among younger fetish consumers. Machine-washable rubber and Playsheets solved a practical barrier—gear that could leave the dungeon for travel and laundry—while branded jockstraps and stretch NP Jeans translated pig-play energy into daily wear. Advertising fights over the Give/Receive commercial and national campaigns during RuPaul’s Drag Race show the brand constantly testing how much explicit queer sexual swagger mainstream cable would tolerate.
COVID-era work with New York City safer-sex guidance and Crain’s recognition of Lauterstein underline that the company is not only apparel: it is a long-running queer business voice rooted in leather subculture. Shred of Hope’s celebrity shredder auction for the Ali Forney Center ties merchandise culture to LGBTQ youth shelter funding. For bdsmwild readers, Nasty Pig sits with fetish clothing manufacturers who refuse to bleach kink out of the product—harnesses, rubber, jocks, and slogans that still promise fun clothing that gets you laid, from AIDS-era defiance to high-fashion photo shoots with Versace and Olly Alexander.
