San Clemente sock maker Stance moves into the underwear market

Stance, the San Clemente-based company that reinvigorated the men’s sock market, officially launched its first brand extension — men’s underwear — on Tuesday, as well as announcing that it has tapped professional basketball player James Harden to serve as a brand ambassador, a role that will include a signature line of socks and undertrou.

The debut holiday 2015 collection includes three styles: a boxer short, a boxer/brief hybrid and a variation on the boxer/brief called the “Wholester” with a gusseted front pouch that acts as, well, a holster, to keep things in place, all served up in the range of eye-catching colors and patterns Stance is known for.

The 6-year-old company became a standout in the moribund men’s (and later women’s) hosiery market for sweating every last construction detail of the seemingly simple sock, an approach that has carried over into the new category where efforts were made to not only develop a stitching process that would reduce irritation (“It’s an overlock stitch that uses a special thread we found in Germany,” Stance’s chief creative officer Aaron Hennings told us) but also a soft, lightweight fabric that makes the finished product feel closer to a silk pocket square than a pair of underpants.

“It’s a proprietary fabric called ‘Butter Blend,’” Hennings told us during an early October tour of the San Clemente offices, describing the soft fabric as a blend of Modal and a fiber made using the milk protein casein — though he declined to elaborate on the specific percentages of each fiber in the blend. “That’s the proprietary part,” he said.

“The design idea with any one of these [styles],” said Hennings, “is that if you had to run across the parking lot at the beach or your towel accidentally drops, it looks like you’re wearing a pair of trunks.”

That’s particularly true of the knit boxer silhouette, dubbed the “Mercado,” that even from a relatively close distance is nearly impossible to distinguish from a standard-issue board short or walk short silhouette, thanks to a generous 6-inch inseam, button fly compete with metal button and contrast-stitched buttonholes and bar tacking in a standout shade of turquoise.

The debut collection ranges from relatively subdued (at least for Stance) tonal solids and intermediate stripes to riotous patterns that include bold floral/polka dot combinations, paisleys, and a woven blanket print called Calexico that Hennings says it’s one of the popular patterns carried over from the sock line.

Tuesday’s announcement also included the news that the Houston Rockets’ Harden was joining Stance’s stable of brand ambassadors — which the company calls its “punks and poets,” an eclectic group of collaborators that currently includes Rihanna and fellow NBA player Dwyane Wade — and will be launching a signature collection of socks and undergarments at some point in the not-too-distant future.

We can already imagine the tagline now: “Fear the Beard — and buy the boxers.”

Stance men’s underwear, $28 to $36, available now at stance.com and at select retailers including Tilly’s, Kitson, Bait, Drill Surf & Skate and Huntington Surf & Sport locally.