Press

The fashion brand Nasty Pig will be celebrating its 30th anniversary next year, as will its two co-founders, Frederick Kearney and David Lauterstein, who met that year. From a $50 investment it has grown into one of the most recognizable LGBTQ+ fashion brands whose easily recognizable logo can be seen on their underwear, jockstraps, jeans, shorts, T-shirts, and swimwear.

David Lauterstein, co-founder of the popular clothing brand Nasty Pig with his husband, Frederick Kearne, spoke with the Washington Blade by phone on Thursday about his company’s work with the Biden administration on public health initiatives targeting the LGBTQ community.

"The brands [including Nasty Pig] acknowledge not only that their consumers are sexual people, but nod to their sexual interests and build upon those interests to create points of social reference. The clothes provide ways to start conversations that may be rooted in sexuality, but can become bigger than that."

"Started in 1994 in a tiny 64-sq ft store in Chelsea by boyfriends David Lauterstein and Fred Kearney, with only fifty dollars clothing brand Nasty Pig has morphed into a global sensation. Now twenty-eight years later those boyfriends – now husbands – are taking their company to the next level."

"All the sultry scholars at the Hall can also attend kink classes, which will include a keynote from Nasty Pig CEO David Lauterstein as well as a class from TikTok titan of "backdoor stuff" Doctor Carlton."

"I was terrified of coming out of the closet in 1992 because being gay seemed pretty fucking scary thanks to AIDS. Despite all the safe-sex messaging, the idea that being intimate with another man could lead to my death was still a pretty pervasive reality with which I had to grapple."

"It has been 25 years since David Lauterstein and his partner Frederick Kearney first founded Nasty Pig in response to the gay stigma that spurred from the AIDS epidemic."

"David Lauterstein fancies himself a poet. He’s also the CEO of Nasty Pig and presides over one the most recognizable gay men’s gear brands in the world today."