Graduates Market Novelty Boxer Shorts

Three members of the Harvard community have amassed a small fortune this fall by marketing novelty boxer shorts for men.

Jeff Hall and George Rohr '76, both recent graduates of the Business School, designed the boxers, which are printed to look like the stock market page of a newspaper.

The shorts sell for $9 each and come in a small, brown-and-white cardboard briefcase which says "the briefscase" on the side.

Sylvia A. Stein '79 designed the box, which Rohr said this week is "crucial" to the appeal of the product.

"The shorts have been selling like hotcakes," Frank Wright, group manager of the stationery department at Bloomingdale's in New York, said this week. "They're the third-best selling item in our entire gift catalog," he added.

Rohr and Hall formed a new company, Seat-of-the-Pants Management, Inc., to market the item.

In addition to Bloomingdale's, more than 40 department store chains and 400 gift stores around the country are now selling the shorts.

"I can't believe people are paying $9 for a pair of underwear," Rohr said.

Nevertheless, Rohr said he hopes to sell 100,000 of the boxers by Christmas, and estimates Seat-of-the-Pants will clear about $1 per pair.

Practical Schooling

Hall got the idea for the boxers more than a year ago, but began the project last spring while taking a course with Rohr at the Business School entitled "Starting New ventures."

Hall and Rohr originally used a photocopy of stock market quotations in the Wall Street Journal as a negative for a silkscreen, but after receiving legal advice, they decided to typeset a fictional stock market page instead.

Hall's wife Susan sewed together the first pair of shorts, while Stein, a graphic designer, created a prototype box.

Last June, Hall and Rohr began pounding the pavement to sell their underwear. "Without financing, a manufacturer, or an order from a buyer, we faced a Catch-22 situation," Rohr said.

The crucial breakthrough occurred when Frank Wright, the buyer at Bloomingdale's, fell in love with the boxers, Rohr said. Wright placed an order for 5000 shorts, and Seat-of-the-Pants was suddenly in the driver's seat.

Hall and Rohr bought a three-week unlimited mileage ticket on Eastern Air Lines, and jetted across the country to promote their product.

Success does carry its benefits. Telephone callers to Rohr's Manhattan apartment these days are greeted by a tape-recorded message that says, "Seat-of-the-Pants: helping to build a better world through novelty underwear."