History

Nasty Pig is many things. For starters, we're a trailblazing brand that makes hot clothes that get you laid. But we're also an art project, a love story, and an expression of the Great American Dream. We're innovators who have created unique and trendsetting products for over 20 years. We're 100% a product of Downtown NYC, and we're worldwide. We're as influenced by hip-hop culture as we are by gay culture. We're two guys - Frederick Kearney and David Lauterstein - who founded a company and found a life together. And we're the team they built to realize their vision. We're in our third decade of kicking ass, and while we're more popular than ever, very few people know our whole story. So sit back, relax, and enjoy the ride.

Nasty Pig is born on the floor of the original Sound Factory on West 27th Street in NYC. David and Fred make their first product, "re:vision goggles" with refractive lenses, which they sell to club kids out of a knapsack. They use the profits to buy fabric, which they then use to make clothes for their friends. While at GMHC's Morning Party on Fire Island, a notable fashion industry executive approaches the couple to compliment them on their looks, which Fred had designed. David turns to Fred and says, "I told you you're amazing. We are starting a clothing company."

Our first store - which we call "re:vision" after the line of sportswear we're selling alongside Nasty Pig at the time - opens on December 24th. It has no bathroom, no air conditioning and no counter. But it's ours. We are open three nights a week and Saturdays. Sundays are optional. That's Fred in the store as seen through the front door in the middle shot. In this rare instance size doesn't matter.

As our business continues to expand rapidly, we outgrow our retail space again and need to find yet another new location. We have our hearts set on a space just around the corner, but it's currently occupied, by a toy store. Knowing the chances are slim, David nevertheless approaches the store's manager to ask if they might possibly be moving soon. As luck has it, they are. A few month's later Nasty Pig's retail headquarters "re:vision" opens at 265A West 19th Street. Having moved our retail operation to a larger space, we transition production to the back of our store. We make the gear in plain sight where our customers can see the work we do first hand.

One Sunday morning while leaving Twilo, David stops dead in his tracks and says "we need to make rubber sheets!" The rest is history. We introduce one of our most innovative and enduringly popular products, Nasty Pig Playsheets and the response is tremendous. Our machine washable rubber bedding are an immediate hit at IML, where we're on the main retail floor for the first time, thanks to then Coordinator RJ Chaffin - who tells us that we're the "future of the community." RIP RJ...we will never forget you. While at IML, we have the opportunity to meet Richard Hunter, the owner of Mr. S - and forge a partnership that endures to this day.

We open our first dedicated design studio in an artist's collective above legendary NYC nightclub Twilo, formerly Sound Factory. We are right back where we started and it feels so good.We also learn an important lesson. For the first few years of our graphic tee shirt program, we leaned heavily on parody. Since Nasty Pig customers are usually a good-humored bunch, this is initially a big success. But trouble strikes when Absolut Vodka takes issue with our "Absolute Nasty Pig" shirt. They try to sue us but we get away without having to fork over any cash. Unfortunately, we're not quite as lucky when Major League Baseball sues us for our "Major League Pig" shirt. We lose the lawsuit, but in the end, we're given a gift - the realization that we have to abandon parodies and move our graphics toward our own unique brand vision. We also learn the value of trademark law and take full ownership of our name.

As our wholesale business grows, we finally open our first fulfillment center and warehouse. Up until now, we've been servicing our wholesale customers from some odd places - such as David and Fred's apartment, or the back of our retail store. The warehouse pictured is where we ship from to this day.

Seeing that our clients are identifying much more strongly with the Nasty Pig brand than they are with re:vision, along with the news from our legal team that we can't trademark that name, we decide to focus our energies entirely on Nasty Pig. Henceforth, all our gear is produced and distributed under the NP label. We launch our very first website and start selling Nasty Pig online. We start receiving orders from customers all over the world and are amazed at the global reach of our brand.

In keeping with our new focus on the Nasty Pig label, we go back to the drawing table on our brand identity, and end up with the brand mark and visual iconography that we still use today. Our snout logo immediately becomes an identifier with which our customers flag each other. We call it "a private nod in public world."

We relaunch our website and start taking pictures of the hotties who roll through our store on a daily basis and posting them up on the Internet. It's the beginning of one of our best traditions - we turn customers into our models. The tradition continues today on our site and our social properties. We also partner with NYC nightlife impresario Daniel Nardicio and Folsom Street East to throw "BadaBang," the first - and last - gay stripper party at Scores - an infamous Manhattan strip club. The New York Post's Page 6 covers the event. The champagne rooms are scandalous.

We take the last step to clarify our brand identity, closing our re:vision boutique, remodeling, and relaunching NPHQ as Nasty Pig's flagship store.

We keep the product innovation going by introducing the first ever Leg Harness, a product that leads us to continue to believe that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery hehe. We join Facebook. Since our brand has always been about our long-term love affair with our customers, we're perfectly positioned to jump into social media. Our Facebook page becomes a gallery of our incredible clientele, as well as a place for them to gain instant popularity.

During a time when retailers see store windows as an unnecessary expense, we totally up our game and make Nasty Pig windows a Chelsea institution. Racked magazine names us as one of NYCs best retail windows alongside Barneys, Bergdorf Goodman, Moschino and Paul Smith.

Nasty Pig has always been, at heart, a culture brand - intimately influenced by the art, music and pulse of New York City. So when our first track - David Lauterstein's collaboration with DJ Chad Jack, "eZbreeZ" - went to #1 on certain influential dance charts in 2010, we were beyond thrilled. And we find a new home for our product...iTunes. In 2011, our followup "Gag On It" becomes an international club staple, eclipsing the sales and popularity of "eZbreeZ." David's vocal hook "You gagging on these mother fucking BEATS!" becomes a rallying cry for butch and banjee boys alike.

Recognizing that our customers around the world are every bit as important as the customers who walk through the doors of our retail flagship, we plan and execute a complete modernization and relaunch of NastyPig.com, allowing our site to better communicate the Nasty Pig in-store experience.

With distribution of our product soaring we launch our Nasty Pig Choice Cuts program, a series of limited edition products made in New York City. Choice Cuts jackets, shirts and accessories become coveted pieces as well as an incredible new creative outlet for our team to show off some of their best work.

After our success in raising money for the Trevor Project in 2011, we decide to bring Shred of Hope back, bigger and better, as a fundraising campaign for the Ali Forney Center, the largest shelter and advocacy organization for LGBTQ homeless youth. The campaign raises more than $30,000, 100% of which goes directly to AFC programs.

Shred of Hope primarily raised funds through an online auction of celebrity-designed one-of-a-kind Nasty Pig Shredders. Participating celebrities include Adam Lambert, Michael Stipe, Dustin Lance Black, Andy Cohen, Alan Cumming, and John Cameron Mitchell.

Under the guidance of our Marketing Guru Christian Schraga, and in collaboration with LilInternet, we shoot our first tv commercial for our Fall 2014 "Fuck Your Idols" collection. The spot airs during American Horror Story in NYC and LA. Our customers lose their minds seeing Nasty Pig advertised in such a legit manner.

Our holiday commerical "Give/Receive" runs during AdultSwim once and gets pulled off the air due to a complaint. Gawker picks up the story about the blatant censorship and it goes global. Our CEO is interviewed by Huffington Post Live. Time Warner Cable concedes and not only puts our spot back on TV, they issue an apology to us as well. We graciously accept.

We are invited to show our collection at Liberty Fairs, North America's most exclusive business to business mens wear trade show, alongside brands like McQ, Ben Sherman, G-Star and Zanerobe. The men's editor of WWD, our industry's most influential daily trade magazine, stops by our booth to tell us to "keep doing what you are doing. Keep it dark and sexy. You are three years ahead of fashion."

“As Nasty Pig turned 21, I wanted to show off both a maturity in our style and the permission to do whatever the fuck we want to do. We paired crisp flannel styles and mixed media fleece with tailored shirts and stretch jeans. I used censor bars across many of the graphics. The imagery from this collection was raw and loaded with BDSM overtones, Polariod photos, and featured one of our favorite models Matthew Camp.” - Frederick Kearney, Creative Director

”I found myself having spent a couple of seasons doing a lot of creative exploration so we could expand what Nasty Pig could be about. But I was feeling the pull of our roots again. Designers were using lots of straps and dangles so I took those concepts and applied them like BDSM pieces. The idea of Restraining Order also came with the concept that people were always trying to hold Nasty Pig back...telling us we needed to tone it down to get success...but I was feeling more and more like turning the sex UP so we used lots of vegan leather as details as well as head to toe fetish looks.” - Frederick Kearney, Creative Director.

”We had done a lot of black and white gear and I wanted to move away from that. While doing research I came across the idea of black and white thinking which is based in the fight or flight instinct of the hunter gatherer. Very simple. Now we have many many more options and ways of thinking. But with the political climate it was left or right. No room for the middle. Too partisan. I saw a hip hop artist who had some lyrics about labels destroying society by looking at a man by the color of his skin and thats like looking at a car not the man driving it. Boom...Under The Hood...motorcross gear, blue collar garage workers, rough and polished. The end.” - Frederick Kearney, Creative Director

We often refer to the Nasty Pig movement as a global Army Of Lovers. We truly believe that when we join forces and proudly embrace ourselves and each other we are fighting stigmas about sex and not the other way around. With Spring 2019 we wanted to express what that army looks like as we have fun. In exploring the history of how gay have men served their countries we came across the phonetic Military Alphabet and t’s terms, and we learned that “Alpha Charlie” is a euphemistic way to refer to an “ass chewing, a harsh or angry scolding.” In the Army Of Lovers we imagine Alpha Charlie takes on a totally different meaning ;@)

100% of the sales of the limited edition SCRATCH pink vinyl record will be donated to the Ali Forney Center, an organization that supports LGBTQ+ homeless youth. Each purchase of this record will put 50 hot meals in the mouths of homeless kids directly helping our community. Only 100 units were made.