Katie Smith, senior analyst at retail analytics firm Edited, says that the challenge is that brands are either neglecting the male plus demographic altogether or focusing only on certain types of apparel while ignoring others, like activewear and formalwear. While women’s plus-size apparel offerings have grown by 375 percent in the last five years, plus-size menswear has actually shrunk by 54 percent, according to data from Edited.
Kelvin Davis, founder of the plus-size fashion blog Notoriously Dapper, says that to the dearth of brands that sell larger sizes, the retailers that are experimenting with plus-size styles don’t have an adept sense of sizing. A common practice is to conflate “big and tall” with “plus-size,” though Smith says that there is no global data that correlates the two.
As a result, Davis also says that brands like Asos, which launched its first plus-size men’s line in December 2016, tend not to fit his 5-foot-9-inch, 240 pound frame. The problem is these are typically designed with a taller man in mind.
Bruce Sturgell, founder of the plus-size menswear blog Chubstr, says while progress may appear slow, there have still been promising advancements in the past year, including the rise of smaller, lesser-known brands that are breaking into the market.
He further adds that there are a rise of bloggers and influencers advocating for plus-size menswear, societal pressure to adhere to ingrained gender norms is still a significant barrier to advancement in the market. He says it’s less culturally accepted for males to speak out about body positivity than women, which makes it difficult to gain visibility and generate the public demand that helps encourage fashion brands.
