Brotailers Are Redefining How Guys Buy Clothes

Brotailers are redefining how guys buy clothes.

- Sam Grobart

On a cloudless, 70F February morning in San Francisco, wild parrots fly from branch to branch on Telegraph Hill, and on the exposed, winding Filbert Street steps below, an adult man is dressed in a gorilla suit, throwing empty plastic water jugs at a half-dozen costumed grown-ups. For safety, they’ve put on red helmets, an “M” above the brim. Some have fake mustaches; others have real ones. They’re all wearing shorts.

Inside the gorilla suit is Grant Marek, editorial director of Chubbies, retailer of brightly colored shorts with thigh- baring hemlines—motto: “Sky’s out. Thighs out”—and producer of extremely popular online re-creations of retro video games. Today, Marek and his fellow Chubbies staffers, modern-day Marios, are shooting a real-life version of the Nintendo classic Donkey Kong. The video’s shaky camerawork—a generous term, given the use of GoPros and selfie sticks—and near-absence of product close-ups would get an F in Commercial Directing 101, but the Chubtendo squad doesn’t care.

In January company members reenacted the racing game Mario Kart, filming themselves riding small plastic scooters down the city’s twisty Lombard Street. More than 24 million people have watched it, and typical Facebook comments include “Holy s---, this is hilarious” and “This would be so much fun drunk!” Which is exactly the reaction Chubbies expects. “We started making things for our friends,” says co-founder Kyle Hency, 31. “That’s still the guiding light for what we do.”