Jock Strap knowledge

Way back in the day, ancient Egyptians covered their organs of generation with a loincloth, a piece of cloth brought up between the legs and belted, to form a sort of skirt, open at the side. This was the earliest ancestor of the jock-strap we know today. In other climates, the loincloth wasn’t so popular, but the idea moldered in the collective psyche until the early 14^th century when men began wearing pants.

I use the term pants loosely here, because they were really just two legs fastened together at the front and back, leaving all that dangled free exposed to the breeze. I’ll give you a moment with that image.

The Christian church, very powerful at this time in Europe, was not impressed, and insisted that parishioners cover up down below. Enter, the codpiece. Initially little more than a cloth sack, these covering evolved into  flamboyantly decorated and hugely exaggerated accessories that were often made of wood or tin, and stuffed with cotton and wood shavings to emphasize virility and masculine power. I think we can all agree that this should immediately come back into fashion.

Fast forward a little more. The Jock Strap as we know it first came into being in the mid 1870’s, invented by a man named C.F Bennet. Bennet was the owner of a Chicago based sporting goods company, Sharp and Smith, and felt the need to protect the nations’ testicles from the rigors of bicycle riding.  Thus, the Jock Strap, or Jockey-strap (so named for the bicycle jockeys it was designed to protect) was born.

(Fun Fact: the term jock, that we so often associate with high school and college athletes, were actually so called because of the jock straps they wore. Who knew?)

Over the years the Jockstrap has had a number of uses from curative (a jock strap charged with a mild electric current was said to relieve insomnia) to strictly precautionary (school and professional sports.)

In the 1980’s and 90’s Jock straps fell somewhat out of favor, ceding ground to compression shorts. Recently they have been making a comeback as users tout the breathability as a major benefit, and possible infertility preventative.