'Panty men' use lyrics to get sales

Though once taboo for them to handle panties unless they were about to receive sexual favours, Jamaican men are now said to be eating into the lucrative underwear garment industry, using lyrics as their main weapon to woo customers.

One of the men who are responsible for the pioneering act is Ices, who has been selling panties on Beckford Street, downtown Kingston.

"I have been selling panties from I was 12 years old and I am 30 now," Ices told THE WEEKEND STAR. He said he has come to realised that women prefer men to sell them panties.

"When mi tell dem how mi would love see this one pon dem, dem love that, so dem buy," Ices said. "Dem like when mi flirt with them."

A female vendor who sells panties, Simone Robinson, said: "My son sell more panties than me when him come sell."

Robinson's friend chimed in, saying that the men's sales pitch appeal to women more than their female counterparts.

"When dem a sell panties, a pure sweetness come out of their mouth," the woman said.

Having seen the way women gravitate towards the 'panty man' downtown, 23-year-old entrepreneur Jason Lindsay decided to expand into this line of business via the Internet.

"When me see the man dem downtown a do it, it give me that push because I know at the end of the day, a nuh me alone a do it," Lindsay said.

The young entrepreneur currently sells perfumes and colognes online. He said he suspects the panties will sell as fast as the perfumes have been selling.

He said he would have never thought of venturing into this type of business 10 years ago, but he realised also that women like men selling them clothes they would want to see them in, especially underwear.