Good old fashioned athletic cups
Thom in DC
Don't get me wrong, jockstraps and athletic cups have come a long way
since they were invented as we know them now. The athletic supporter
was first created for bicyclists in Boston in 1874. It was known as
the Bike Jockey Strap. Athletic cups came a little later around the
turn of the twentieth century when baseball players and boxers began
wearing metal athletic cups to protect their best assets.
As regards cups, we have seen an increasing sophistication and
diversification of technologies which have brought us banana cups by
BIKE and OBC to flex cups by XO and Shock Doctor, to such progressive
and innovative (shall I say visionary?) cups as the Nutty Buddy
invented by MLB great, Mark Littell. I have many of these brands. I
treasure them all, especially the Nutty Buddy Cup.
About five-six years ago, there was a belief that the jockstrap was
becoming passe, actually dying. The jockstrap is alive and well. Just
witness the diversity of brands of jockstraps of all types on
International Jock.
But athletes in most contact sports continue to wear athletic cups. It
is standard equipment, mandated by the rules of the sport or even by
team regulation.
Most baby boomers such as myself began wearing jocks and cups because
our dads, uncles, brothers, and friends wore them or our coaches told
us we had to wear them for sports. BIKE no. 10 jocks, BIKE swimmer
jocks, and BIKE cup supporter units were displayed in the shop window
of the toy and hobby store in my hometown in Connecticut. The town
drugstore a block away sold jocks and cups by Bauer & Black. Seeing
such displays made a big impression upon me as a adolescent who
discovered in himself an intense jock/cup fetish, closely akin to what
his genitals can do for him -:)
I wanted them all so bad.
Wearing my first several jocks gave me intense pleasure. They made me
proud to be a male. But I really wanted a jock/cup supporter unit.
Finally in tenth grade I summoned enough courage to go to our
drugstore and purchase my very first Bauer & Black supporter unit. The
jock and cup came in a fairly large box with a burly athlete on its
front wearing it. That gave me a throbbing hardon oozing precum.
Athletic cups in the 1950's, 60's, & 70's were the traditional flat
triangular shaped cups with a thick rubber gasket. Most of them had
ten large ventilation holes. For me, this was/is the archetypal
athletic cup. This design disappeared with the coming on the market of
the banana and flex cups of today.
To my knowledge, only two companies here in the USA manufacture
traditional flat cups. They are the Martin Manufacturing Co. which
continues the Flarico brand well known to boomers and Adams. Both
companies make accompanying cup jocks with a cup holder with metal
snaps on the pouch. Now Adams has taken its flat cup a step further.
Adams has traditional flat cups (which they say are contoured) in a
boys size, and mens medium and large sizes. Most men I am sure will
enjoy wearing a men's large Adams cup like the one I am wearing right
now. Feels so really good! You can get Adams cups and jocks at Hit!Run!
Score! in Plano, TX, Frank's Sports in Bronx, NY, and Epic Sports out
in Kansas. You can order from these stores on the Internet. Take care.
Thom. in DC