I've said this more times than my friends probably want to hear: a Hunky Tops shirt is about identity. It’s about you and who you are.
And when I say you, I mean You. The whole thing. What you put on your chest in the morning tells the world who you are before you've said a single word, and I think that's worth taking seriously, even when the shirt in question has a muscular bunny on it.
Most shirts say nothing. They're fine. They cover the parts that need covering and they ask for nothing in return. But a shirt that actually says something, that names a piece of who you are, that one does work. It starts the conversation you were going to have to start yourself.
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Sexy, funny, silly, because you are
When a shirt of mine is a little thirsty, or a little stupid, or makes a joke only three guys in the room will get, that's not me being unserious about identity. That is the identity.
You contain a werewolf boyfriend and a filthy pun and a soft spot for a merman and a real, earned pride in who you are. All at once. So the shirt gets to hold all of it too.
One of our guys, Troy, reviewed a merman tank with, and I quote, "there are simply NOT enough merman shirts on the market." He's right, and more to the point, he found the one that was his. Armando bought a tank and told me, "love the muscular bunny." That's not a man describing a graphic. That's a man recognizing himself.
You already know which one is you
Nobody has to be talked into who they are. They just find it.
Daniel wears his sign on his chest, "I am Taurus," and means it. Scott called himself a Silver Fox and wore the shirt to match. Another guy bought an otter tee for a friend because, in his words, the friend "is built like an Otter." Bear, otter, silver fox, whatever your particular flavor of magnificent, you don't really shop for it. You run into it. Oh. There I am.
That recognition, the one that happens between you and the shirt on your phone’s screen, that's the whole point. Everything good comes after it.
And then the right people read it
Because here's what happens next. You wear the thing that's actually you, out into the world, and the right people clock it.
Not everyone. That's the feature, not the bug. Mike wore one of ours to bear night and said it "was a hit." Another of our guys, also a Mike, told me the shirt "starts conversations," then added the line I keep coming back to: "that was the point for me." James said it best, honestly. He loved "the subtle meaning for those who know," and mentioned the compliments he got at an LGBTQ+ happy hour on a cruise. For those who know. That's it. That's the shirt.
A trend can copy a silhouette. Anybody can borrow a look, and lately a lot of guys are borrowing ours. Good for them. What nobody can borrow is the reference, the wink, the thing that means something specific to the specific guy across the room who speaks your language. A shirt that talks to your people still only talks to your people.
At your own pace
I won't pretend the world is safe everywhere, because it isn't. Some rooms are hostile. Some days you get read before you're ready. Coming out on a t-shirt is still coming out, and only you know which rooms are yours. So go at your pace. There's no wrong one.
And here's the thing: the power isn't in being seen, it's in knowing. You can wear it under a jacket in a room that feels dangerous, and you'll still know exactly who you are all day. You can save it for the guys who get it. Or you can wear it on the couch, cleaning the kitchen, halfway through a movie, seen by nobody but you, and it still counts. It still does the job. The shirt is yours before it's anybody else's.
Why this hits different at 40
My t-shirts resonate with men who have lived a little, and I don't think that's an accident. After all, I’m one of them.
Somewhere in your forties, if you're lucky, you stop performing and you start just being. You've done the work. You know who you are, you know who your people are, and you can spot a fellow traveler across a crowded room in about half a second, because you've been reading these signals your whole life. It used to be about survival. Now it's just fluency.
A shirt that says who you are isn't loud because it's insecure. It's loud because you finally have nothing to hide and no reason to whisper.
Wear who you are
So that's the whole philosophy, in one shirt.
Don't dress to be understood by everyone. You'll water yourself down to nothing. Dress to be recognized by your folks, the ones who get it, the ones who're going to grin and walk over. Wear the werewolf. Wear the sign. Wear the joke. Wear the thing that's so specifically you that the wrong people stroll right past it and the right one stops dead. Wear it loud when you want to, close to the chest when you need to. Either way, it's yours.
You already know which one it is. And if you don't yet, that's what Find Your Next Top is for. Find the one that's you, wear it loud, and drop it in the Hunky Tribe gallery so your people know where to look.
Stay Hunky.
