Will Spanx for men really catch on?

For generations, women have used various garments to augment and conceal their physical strengths and weaknesses. Panty hose, push-up bras and body shapers to just name a few.

Now, the fashion industry has tapped the male market share as increasing numbers of men have become a little vainer recently.

Spanx, which was awarded a patent for panty hose in 1998, has largely kept its attention on female garments, from underwear, to tights, to swimming suits. But The New York Times recently reported that shaping products for men have hit store shelves and have enjoyed skyrocketing sales.

“We are selling them as quickly as Spanx can make them,” the Times’ quoted Nickelson Wooster, the men’s fashion director at Neiman Marcus as saying.

Neiman Marcus was the only department store to carry Spanx, until last month when it was sold at Bloomingdale’s, Saks Fifth Avenue and Nordstrom.

While the main men’s products are T-shirts and golf shirts, Spanx also sells a more discreet product: “profile-enhancing underwear, which has been called 'the equivalent of a push-up bra' for men."

Before you dismiss these products as a dent to your ego, men, you should embrace technology much like our female counterparts have done for more than a century. Plus, Spanx could help on job interviews for an extra boost of confidence.

As the Times’ article suggests, men should use the Spanx products as an extension of the metrosexual look much like moisturizing lotion was 10 years ago.

The obvious problem with Spanx is trying to make a good first impression, particularly with the opposite sex. Things go well, and all of a sudden, when the form-fitting shirt is on the floor, the bulges you tried to hide have spilled out to their old places.

What would you do if you had a new boyfriend and when the lights are dimmed, he looks like Paunchy or Lumpy, a finalist for the Seven Dwarves? Should you take the advice of some women, who say just change in the other room?

Will women be OK with their man wearing Spanx, or will they expect him to hit the treadmill more often to prevent the soft belly?

Me? I’d work on the spare tire mid-section as much as possible, and take solace in the fact that your significant other probably has some kind of performance enhancer themselves. So relax, and enjoy each other’s love handles.