Consumer Superbrands- 2nd edition(Main) 1/15/07 7:24 PM Page 100

Market Today, Jockey is the number on everyone’s list was Jockey. The men’s underwear and women’s intimate one selling brand of men’s The more they thought about it, apparel categories are multi-billion dollar underwear and women’s the more they liked it. In that businesses. Status designers, mainstream brands in the premium innerwear room, that day, the Jockey brief and store labels all compete for a share of this category in India.The brand has was born. lucrative business.The demand for comfortable, high consumer awareness and The brief’s public debut was high quality, fashionable loyalty and is one of the top as unusual as the garment itself. continues to grow each year. In recent years apparel brands in India. On 19th January 1935, ’s ‘unmentionables’ have generated widespread Internationally the brand is sold Marshal Field & Co. set up a interest from the fashion and mainstream press. in over 120 countries. department store window Underwear has evolved from a basic white display to introduce the strange product, still the number one seller, to a History new Jockey underwear. But category featuring the latest in fabrics and In 1876 Samuel T. Cooper’s when the city was hit with one styling innovation. dedication to serving and of the worst blizzards of the The innerwear market was just a basic helping others gave birth year, the store’s management necessity when it was introduced to mankind; a to the company now was afraid that the brief would necessity, that is, until comfort, quality, price, recognised across the world be an absurd contrast to the fashion and the brand conscious segment as Jockey International. biting winds, freezing started realising the need for something For the Jockey brand, it all temperatures and drifting snow. essential to add, not only to their personality started in 1934, when a senior It was decided that the window but also to their wardrobe.To cater to this vice president at Coopers, display would be pulled out and mindset, Jockey was born. It had enduring and Arthur Kneibler, happened to the promotion cancelled. ironclad strengths, many of which evolved from see a postcard from the French However, the display team its founder, the Reverend Samuel Cooper. Riviera, which showed a man wearing a was delayed and the window remained as swimsuit.The garment ran from the waist to the it was.The entire stock of Jockey was Achievements upper thigh. He was immediately inspired with sold out before noon, in the midst of the The Jockey brand is a remarkable success story. an idea for a men’s , which would snowstorm – the economic hardships of the Jockey, has not just pioneered the underwear provide the same support as an athletic era notwithstanding. industry but has continued to dominate and supporter, known colloquially as the jock strap. That same year, Kneibler refined his invention influence worldwide markets for over 130 years. In subsequent strategy meetings, it was further by developing the Y-Front opening, so Its success has stemmed from revolutionary decided that the new garment would need a named for the design of fabric panels, which Jockey inventions, such as clever name, which would somehow connote offered consumers a button-less fly. the world’s first brief in this function, yet would be discrete enough for In 1959, the company created a briefer 1934, the brief, sensitive lady shoppers. After several brief that was to cause the string bikini, box brainstorming sessions, almost as much of a packaging and a the one name that sensation as the original host of underwear appeared Jockey brief did in fashion and fabric innovations.

100 SUPERBRANDS