It is usually superheroes that sport underwear with special powers, but British men are rushing out to buy hi-tech smalls that promise to suck in beer bellies, tauten buttocks and offer what marketers politely call "frontal enhancement".
While women have been sucking in their wobbly bits for centuries, with stays, girdles and magic knickers, now men are coming under the same pressure to create the "perfect" shape. Marks & Spencer, the UK's biggest underwear retailer, said its Bodymax pants, which have a built-in "shelf" in the crotch area, had been flying off the shelves since their launch two weeks ago.
Selfridges in London started selling American import Spanx for Men yesterday, and sold 350 of the super-stretchy T-shirts and pants on the first day.
The range, which is made from powerful "compression fabrics", is aimed at men who hanker after the athletic torso of David Beckham but see something more like James Corden in the mirror. Dubbed "mirdles", or man girdles, it includes briefs that appear to go a step further than M&S's, as they feature an alarming "3D pouch" and also promise the trussed-up wearer that there's "no chance of a sagging bum".
Dave Binns, M&S's head of buying for men's underwear, said the retailer launched its "enhancing underpants" after an earlier range of slimming vests were a hit with customers. "Our technologists have worked hard to engineer styles that are comfortable to wear and give real results," Binns said of the pants, which promise a "38% visual enhancement in size" on the packaging.
Spanx was started by the American entrepreneur Sara Blakely, who spotted a gap in the market after being unable to buy underwear that would avoid VPL under cream-coloured trousers. She ended up cutting the feet out of a pair of tights, and the power-pants phenomenon was born.
Today the Atlanta-based company has annual sales of $150m (£94m). It sells everything from high-waisted shorts to complete bodysuits in three grades of suction – "medium", "super" and "super-duper" – and has the motto that it is "changing the world one butt at a time".
The brand has a surprising mix of A-list ambassadors, from Oprah Winfrey to Gwyneth Paltrow and Jennifer Lopez, who have both confessed to "double-spanxing" to achieve extra oomph.
Whether or not to spanx is surprisingly not a feminist issue. A number of the women featured in a recent article in US magazine More on "the new feminists" admitted to pouring themselves into Spanx to look good in the pictures.
Spanx realised there was latent demand for men's products when Hollywood agents started requesting extra-large sizes of their existing products. "I had been at so many cocktail parties when men would elbow me and say, When are you going to do something for me?'," the Spanx chief executive, Laurie Ann Goldman, said. "They were either athletic and didn't want a bunchy shirt or they had gained a few pounds and had a bit of a beer belly. The challenge was to create a concept that made them feel normal."
When the men's range launched in the US in February, the first batch sold out within days and it has since won a cult following thanks to the tongue-in-cheek endorsement of Hollywood, even featuring in a recent Saturday Night Live sketch.
According to Mintel, the UK men's underwear market is worth nearly £700m, with demand for shapewear increasing due to "rising levels of body awareness and obesity". But judging from the feedback on M&S's website, the jury is out on the £10 Bodymax pants. One writer posted: "I bought these, and if you wear them properly they really do work. You need to position yourself in the inside fabric pocket and they will enhance what you've got! I don't think they will work miracles – they are designed to enhance, not give you what you haven't already got."
Another shopper was less impressed: "I bought three pairs and sent them straight back, the same day ... there was no lift or enhancement whatsoever. Not even 1% let alone the 38% claimed."