TomboyX boxer briefs are 'not your granny's panties'

It was spring of 2014, and Carma Clark was at a crossroads. But it wasn't the type of turning point you might suspect from a 46-year-old detective in the Seattle Police Department.

Clark was having a boxer-brief crisis. Her favorite line of underwear from Calvin Klein had been discontinued, and her investigation of other limited offerings wasn't panning out. She found few pairs made for women, and the ones made for men didn't fit right.

"I'm in the androgynous zone, and most women's underwear are not comfortable and are not me," she said.

Lucky for Clark, she met a pair of women at a WNBA Seattle Storm basketball game who felt the same way.

In early 2011, Fran Dunaway and her spouse, Naomi Gonzalez, founded TomboyX, a women's clothing company in Seattle. Dunaway dealt with similar frustration. She wanted a shirt that fit well and was made with high-quality fabric, but she couldn't find it in women's departments, and men's shirts didn't fit right.

"Naomi said, 'Well, how hard is it to start a clothing line?' and then off we went," Dunaway recalled. "Oh, my god, it's incredibly difficult."

One part that wasn't difficult was finding an audience. TomboyX put a couple of products up on a Kickstarter campaign and raised more than $76,000. The entrepreneurs found that people responded to the "tomboy" label for clothing.

The pair just wrapped up a road trip across the U.S. called the Not Your Granny's Panties tour, showcasing the briefs in a custom-wrapped RV.

At its start, TomboyX experimented with shirts, hats, tank tops, you name it. But now the company has found its core product — boxer briefs for women.

Clark joined Gonzalez and Dunaway in a warehouse with a pile of boxer briefs to experiment on the best way to make a pair for women. Clark's wish list included a soft waistband and buttons.

TomboyX created samples and brought in women of all different body types to try on the pairs again and again.

After months of trial and error, the Good Carma line (about $27 per pair) was born. It was quickly joined by the Feeling Frisky and the Bobbie — all paying homage to women in uniform. The first run of boxer briefs sold out in two weeks.

Holly Custis, a middle linebacker for the Seattle Majestics, a women's football team, prefers boxer briefs, and cuts made for men just weren't working.

"If you like that kind of underwear style and you're female, they are all designed for men," she said. "This gets away from that."

TomboyX sells mostly online (­tomboyx.com), and its wares are sold in one boutique in Provincetown, Mass. TomboyX has no plans to change the retail model for now — it can barely keep the website and boutique in stock as it is.

Sydney Mintle, founder of publicist firm Gossip & Glamour, said boxer briefs for women are just what the market needs. It's all about giving people options, she said. Skimpy or feminine lingerie just doesn't resonate with everyone.

"Women want to be empowered, and for a lot of women that starts with how they present themselves and what they wear," Mintle said. "I think that giving women underwear that resonates with them really helps."

Now Clark, the police detective "underwear connoisseur," as Dunaway calls her, has introduced the line to a few co-workers and has taken to wearing the boxer briefs around the house, to work and in everyday life.