Global Trends

Men Discovered Shapewear

Men are buying girdles. They call them “compression shirts” because girdle sounds like something their grandmothers wore. But they’re

By Conor Healy

March 19, 2026

Men are buying girdles. They call them “compression shirts” because girdle sounds like something their grandmothers wore. But they’re girdles.

They’re also buying full-body shapers, chest binders, and torso slimmers. The men’s shapewear market hit $500 million in 2025. It’s the fastest-growing segment of an industry men spent forever mocking women for using.

SKIMS – Kim Kardashian’s brand – launched men’s shapewear in October 2024. The same men who called Spanx pathetic are now shopping at a Kardashian store for products that do the exact same thing.

The irony is beautiful.

The Mental Gymnastics

Men buying shapewear perform Olympic-level rationalization. Men are not hiding their bodies. They’re “optimizing their silhouette.” They’re not insecure. Men are “maximizing confidence.”

Market researchers call the primary buyers “Fitness Warriors” – men aged 25-40 who position shapewear as wellness. These are guys who post gym selfies while wearing compression gear that hides the fact they skipped abs for six months.

The marketing works because it reframes identical products. Women’s shapewear emphasizes hiding flaws. Men’s shapewear emphasizes performance and enhancement. The garments do the same thing. The language differs enough that men can buy without admitting what they’re doing.

Compression shirts account for 70% of sales. These aren’t workout gear. Men wear them under dress shirts to work, under button-downs on dates, under everything because they hate how their stomach looks.

Body shapers – full torso garments from chest to hips – represent 20% of sales at premium prices of $80-200+. Men buy these for weddings, photos, job interviews. Special occasions where looking good matters more than comfort.

Some men wear shapewear daily. It becomes routine like wearing deodorant. They claim it’s about confidence, not insecurity. The distinction is meaningless. If taking it off makes you feel worse, that’s insecurity regardless of what you call it.

Women Noticed

Women who spent decades wearing Spanx noticed men discovering shapewear. The reactions range from amused to vindicated to annoyed.

“Men made fun of women for Spanx for years,” one Twitter thread noted. “Now they’re buying the exact same products and acting like they invented body positivity.”

The double standard is stark. Women wearing shapewear meant they were vain, fake, or trying too hard. Men wearing shapewear means they’re optimizing their appearance and taking self-care seriously.

Women’s shapewear has always been positioned as shameful necessity. Magazines ran articles about whether shapewear was dishonest, whether men would be upset discovering it on dates, whether wearing it made you less authentic.

Men’s shapewear gets positioned as empowerment. Articles celebrate men caring about their appearance. Nobody asks if women will feel deceived when the compression shirt comes off.

The messaging shifted completely despite the product being identical. This reveals the marketing wasn’t about the garment. It was about who wore it.

Instagram and TikTok destroyed whatever body confidence men had left. Fitness influencers with perfect physiques dominate both platforms. Men compare themselves to enhanced and curated images daily.

Dating apps made it worse. Profile photos determine match rates. Looking fit matters more than personality when photos are the first filter. Men who previously cared about appearance occasionally now obsess over it constantly.

This created the same pressure women experienced for decades, condensed into five years. Women had time to develop coping mechanisms and support systems. Men got hit with full-force appearance anxiety all at once.

Shapewear provides instant relief. Diet and exercise take months. Compression garments work immediately. Put one on, look 10-15 pounds lighter, feel better about yourself for eight hours until you take it off and reality returns.

The psychology is identical to what drove women’s shapewear purchases for a century. Men just arrived late and act like they discovered it.

The Gym Excuse

Men claim shapewear extends from athletic compression wear. They wore compression shorts at the gym for performance. Using compression under regular clothes seemed natural.

This is partially true. Athletic compression did normalize the concept. But the motivations differ completely.

Compression shorts at the gym serve functional purposes: muscle support, reduced chafing, moisture management. Compression shirts under dress shirts serve one purpose: looking thinner.

Men wearing “performance compression” to sit at desks aren’t optimizing anything except their appearance. The performance narrative provides psychological cover for vanity they’re uncomfortable admitting.

Gymshark, Nike, and Under Armour all sell compression products marketed as athletic wear that men use as shapewear. The brands know this. The marketing emphasizes performance while the product photos show aesthetic benefits.

It’s brilliant marketing. Sell men girdles by calling them workout gear.

The Historical Angle Nobody Mentions

Men wore shapewear throughout history. Cavalry officers in the 1800s wore tight buckskin breeches requiring assistance to put on. Military uniforms incorporated shaping elements for centuries.

Girdles for men existed in the mid-1900s. They failed commercially because the cultural stigma was too strong. Real men didn’t care about appearance beyond basic grooming.

That stigma collapsed over 20 years. Metrosexual became mainstream in the 2000s. Male grooming products exploded. Skincare routines normalized. Shapewear was inevitable.

But men discovering shapewear in 2024 act like they’re pioneers. They’re not. They’re just late.

SKIMS Made It Official

When Kim Kardashian’s $4 billion shapewear empire launched men’s products on October 24, 2024, it signaled the market reached critical mass.

SKIMS dominated women’s shapewear by positioning it as confidence and empowerment instead of shame. Applying that same marketing to men worked perfectly.

The launch included compression t-shirts, tank tops, and briefs. Nothing revolutionary. The same products other brands sold for years. But SKIMS’ cultural cachet made buying shapewear acceptable for men who previously avoided it.

Other brands followed. Spanx expanded men’s offerings. Department stores increased men’s shapewear floor space. Amazon’s men’s shapewear category grew 40% year-over-year in 2025.

The normalization accelerated. What seemed embarrassing in 2022 became routine by 2025.

The Money Perspective

Global shapewear reached $2.73 billion in 2024. Men represent only 6.2% of that market. Women still dominate at 93.8%.

But men’s segment growth exceeds women’s significantly. Analysts project men’s shapewear hitting $1-1.5 billion by 2030. That’s triple the current $500 million in five years.

The growth makes sense. Men’s shapewear started from near zero. Massive percentage gains are easy when the baseline is tiny. The question is whether growth sustains as the market matures.

E-commerce helps. Men buy shapewear privately online instead of shopping in physical stores. Discreet packaging removes embarrassment. Amazon reviews normalize purchases by showing thousands of other men buying identical products.

Younger men drive growth. The 25-35 demographic grew up with social media body image pressure. They internalized appearance standards older men encountered only in magazines.

Older men remain resistant. They remember when caring about appearance too much was considered unmasculine. That stigma weakens yearly but hasn’t disappeared.

The Cognitive Dissonance

Men wear shapewear while claiming they don’t need it because they work out. They buy compression shirts while insisting they’re not insecure about their bodies. They position it as optimization, not compensation.

The rationalizations are elaborate. One Reddit thread featured men discussing shapewear benefits while simultaneously insisting they only wore it occasionally for special events. The thread ran 500+ comments of men convincing each other and themselves.

This mirrors how women discussed shapewear for decades. The same justifications. Same defensiveness. The same insistence that it’s about confidence, not insecurity.

The difference is women eventually stopped pretending. Spanx became openly acknowledged. Women joked about it. Men haven’t reached that stage yet. They’re still in the denial phase.

Where This Goes

Men’s shapewear continues growing until it normalizes completely. The stigma decreases yearly. Younger generations accept it as routine.

Eventually men will reach the same place women did: open acknowledgment without shame. That probably takes another 5-10 years.

Or the whole thing collapses when men realize shapewear doesn’t fix the underlying issue. You still have the same body when you take it off. The instant gratification wears off. Then what?

For now, the market grows. Men buy compression shirts and call them performance wear. They buy body shapers and call them confidence tools. They buy girdles and pretend they invented something new.

Women who wore Spanx for decades watch this and laugh.