episode 141: How an undergarment is revolutionizing women’s body confidence with Marnie Rabinovitch, Founder & CEO of Thigh Society
I am thrilled to bring you today’s episode of The Diet Diaries featuring Marnie Rabinovitch, Founder, CEO and Chief Anti Chafing Champion of Thigh Society.
Thigh Society shorts literally changed my life. I can’t think of another product that has ever made me feel more at ease and comfortable in my own body than this one. I have loved everything Thigh Society stands for and it is an incredible honor to have Marnie sharing her story and the evolution of this brand on the podcast.
This conversation will resonate with so many of you as Marnie talks about why and how she created the Thigh Society shorts. We discuss so many topics that will help you feel less alone, normalize our bodies and give you tangible tools to improve body confidence.
This episode is not just about undergarments. It's about changing the conversation around body image, rejecting fat-phobia, normalizing all aspects of living in a human body and creating a culture where women have the freedom to feel comfortable and at ease in their own bodies.
Here are some of the conversations we cover around body confidence:
Marnie’s personal experience that inspired her to create slip shorts for women
Why Thigh Society won't add shape wear to their product line
How these shorts impact body confidence by creating wardrobe freedom
How clothes and undergarments can be an incredible tool to improve negative body image
Why thigh chafing has created shame and embarrassment and what we need to do about it
The insidious role of fatphobia in women’s clothing
The impact of these shorts on body autonomy
How Marnie self funded and built this company with tenacity, patience and grit
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Welcome to the Diet Diaries, a podcast where we have candid, heartfelt conversations that will help you figure out what, why and how to eat so you can feel amazing in your body. Because it's time to break the all-or-nothing mindset of yo-yo dieting, food obsession and feeling ruled by the scale. I'm your host body image and nutrition coach, Jordana Edelstein. I'm so happy you're here.
jordana
Host
00:29
Hey everyone, welcome back to episode 141, which is crazy of the Diet Diaries. I'm super excited. I have a really special guest today I'm so grateful for her time and I'm talking with Marnie Rabinovich, and she is the CEO and anti-chafing champion of Thigh Society, and if you guys know me at all, you know that I'm obsessed with the Thigh Society shorts. They are the kind of slip shorts that you can wear. I wear them under dresses. I actually just started wearing them to work out. So they're kind of multi-purpose and they are literally a game changer in terms of getting dressed, wearing clothes you want to wear, feeling comfortable kind of physically and emotionally and mentally, and so I just I'm so grateful to have you here to talk about the product and your life and why you created them and all the things. So welcome. Thank you, I'm so happy to be here. Yeah, so I guess the first thing I'd love to hear about is why, what happened in your life or what were you hearing about that gave you the idea and what was it like to create these?
marnie
Guest
01:32
Okay. So the short answer is I needed a comfortable long leg underwear that wasn't shapewear, and I couldn't find it on the market, and so I have. I wouldn't say I've ever identified as a plus size person, but I certainly had struggles with weight throughout my life and I've been various sizes, ranging from a size six to a size almost 14. And no matter what size I was, my thighs always touched and that was always problematic for me. In the summer, I could never wear short shorts. You know, I had to wear bicycle shorts underneath all of my skirts and dresses.
02:10
And ultimately, it was one summer in 2008 where I was walking on my lunch break at my then government job and I live in Toronto and it is very cold most of the year here we get about three, four months of summer and we basically skip spring. So on this first, you know, in this first week of June, I had put on a dress that morning, completely forgetting about my trusty bike shorts that I would normally wear underneath every single skirt and dress, because it had been basically a year since I had last worn them. And so I'm walking at lunch on this hot day and suddenly my thighs start burning.
02:45
They start rubbing together and burning and I'm like, oh God, how could you have forgotten those shorts? So I ran to the nearest pharmacy and obviously they don't sell clothes there but I ran to the baby powder section, got some baby powder and then waddled back to my office and sprinkled the baby powder on my thighs, because that was like my, you know, that was like a last resort solution, yeah, and of course I was wearing a black dress and the powder got everywhere and it was like a hot mess and I just sort of you know, shook my fist in the air like there has to be a better way. I'm tired of this. So I really spent the rest of the summer looking for an undergarment that I had been searching for effectively all my life. I had just accepted, until that point, that I could wear a ratty pair of bike shorts that was, you know, like spandexy, thick, heavy, but they were the best I could find. So I started asking friends if they had any solutions.
03:39
Most people were doing hack jobs, you know cutting pantyhose, cutting long johns, wearing men's boxer briefs, putting on creams and gels and deodorants and all that which, by the way, you know are fine, but on me they last like 10 minutes. I guess I'm like a sweaty beast, because I'm applying, reapplying, and I thought you know why isn't there a long leg underwear, like, why do men get boxer briefs in a million different leg lengths? But if a woman wants a long leg undergarment, she has to squeeze into shapewear. And I really resented that. You know I had had a complicated relationship with shapewear. I would say, and still do, and I'm not anti-shapewear in any way. But I was really focused on the summer weather and the last thing anyone wants to do when it's, you know, a million degrees outside is number one try to get those things on, never mind one of the bathroom and taking them off, but they squeeze you in, they're hot, they're not breathable, you feel like a sausage. They're the last thing you want to put on in warm weather.
jordana
Host
04:38
And.
marnie
Guest
04:38
I literally just wanted a long leg undergarment to wear underneath my skirts and dresses, and so that's pretty much how the idea started. I looked high and low, I pounded the pavement here looking for you know, every single specialty boutique, all the way up to big department stores for what? This sort of magical underwear that I was looking for, and couldn't find it. Then I started looking online. I mean, the internet was completely different back in 2008 than it is now, but even then there was really not much. I found a few yoga shorts, and nothing was really fitting the bill for what I was looking for, and that's sort of how I embarked on the journey to start Thigh Society.
jordana
Host
05:14
I think what you see, you know what, hang on, I have to shut my air conditioner off, no problem.
marnie
Guest
05:18
Okay.
jordana
Host
05:21
It's real life. I think what you said about the options were basically regular underwear or shapewear, and it's like giving people the choice right. If shapewear feels good for you and that's what you want to wear, great, but there needs to be another option. But it's like the absence of that option says so much.
marnie
Guest
05:43
Right it does. And the other thing is is when I was looking for a short like this, interestingly, the only closest thing I could find was from a select few plus size brands that were catering to a size 18 plus. Okay, and I really thought that said a lot as well that this, that thigh shape, was so taboo and so stigmatized as being correlated to weight, as if it was like the worst thing that could happen to you and, oh, you must have to lose weight. I was really resentful about that and I was really like for me, that was the beginning of understanding the fat phobia that exists in our society and I was like this is not related to weight.
06:18
I know, and through my, through my research and as I started talking to people, I would find out size women who were size zero to two telling me yes, my thighs chafe, I hate it. And women who are size 22 who are like I don't know what you're talking about, my thighs rubbed, but I've never had chafe before. And so it's this complete misconception that we have in our society, even today, 14 years later, that chafeing has to do with weight and that it should be stigmatized. It's a totally normal skin condition, like put deodorant on under our arms every morning, right, presumably to prevent sweat and BO. So right, you sweat between your thighs. You want to put a fabric barrier there.
jordana
Host
06:53
Great, yes, you know nothing to talk about here, no, and it's totally normal for thighs to rub together Like our body, our skin. You know, belly's fold and things rub Like that's just how human bodies move, how human bodies move and exist. Yes, and it's just such like a. It's just. It's, in a way, it seems like so obvious, but it's not because we're just, you know we're. There's so much stigma against it and there's, you know, an idealized body that we're shown from a very young age is like oh, this is what a woman's female human body looks like and it's like what?
07:31
that's actually not even possible, except for maybe you know certain people, right, certain genetics, yes, but there's such a huge variety and it just it normalizes something that we have always felt a lot of shame over and I remember like I would get terrible, chafing and be afraid and have to think about, well, can I wear this dress on this day for this long? And I don't think I can, and like, and then it's like you feel bad, you feel like there's something wrong with you Totally and this product, like takes that away and it's like it's miraculous.
marnie
Guest
08:03
Thank you. Yeah, I mean, you really hit the nail in the head Like I wanted to give women wardrobe freedom.
jordana
Host
08:08
Yes, that's it, you.
jordana
Host
08:10
Great.
marnie
Guest
08:11
Like I. If I look back to all my vacations to hot places. Before I developed my society, you can bet I was never wearing a dress during the daytime. I always had on a pair of leggings, like crop leggings, and then like like a sporty look because I could never go bare-legged. It was just not an option for me. And wearing skirts during the day with my bike shorts, like I didn't always like the look. Like the bike shorts were also hot and like they wore a lighter dress. I mean, forget having a beige option in a bike short like or skin colored, you know whatever. But no, I mean I was just like why I see all these other women wearing whatever they wanted, you know, who obviously didn't have thigh chafing or or ignored it or whatnot, and I'm like I want to be able to wear dresses on trips too, during the day and travel and have all these cute pictures, but yeah.
jordana
Host
08:55
Which is we were. I was mentioning this before we kind of hopped on. The recording is that I can't think of another product, I don't know, ever, but especially within women's clothing, whatever it like the category is. That is about like functionality and making you feel better in your body, not about changing the way that you look and changing aesthetics. Right, this is not about aesthetics. This is about comfort. This is about, I mean, freedom and just not feeling distracted. Right, so you can be present and do what you're doing and put this on and go out to whatever it is that you're doing without feeling. Oh, my God, my thighs are chafing. I got it. I used to put powder in my purse so I could go to the bathroom and rub it on halfway through. Totally what?
marnie
Guest
09:40
It's ridiculous, totally, yeah, and I mean that's the part that I'm the most passionate about. Right, yeah, it's. We've never been a shapewear brand. I never set out to develop shapewear Again, I'm not anti-shapewear, but there's plenty of companies offering shapewear out there and you know it's such a personal decision to wear shapewear and you know the decision comes with all kinds of, I guess, consequences about how you're going to feel in it good or bad.
10:07
Right, some people feel great in shapewear, but the actual garments pressing on their stomach doesn't make them feel good. And when I started Thio Society, I was very cognizant of the fact that I wanted this to feel like a no-brainer, like just put the shorts on and move on with your day. You know we have so many more important things to be thinking about that self-objectification, right, and focusing our attention inwards just takes us away from all the other important things we could be thinking, doing, problem-solving, all of that. So I was very intentional in terms of, you know, when we were designing these garments from the get-go and we've been asked over the years by some customers to say, hey, can you just add a little bit of shaping in, like the tummy area, or it would be great if you had a shapewear option, and you know I've just, it never has felt. It's never felt on brand and it's never felt right, and so that's why we haven't done it.
jordana
Host
10:57
Yeah, and now I appreciate you sharing that, because I'm sure that's not easy as a business owner. Right, there's a potential business opportunity to maybe make more money, but it's not true to what you stand for and that that's hard to find Like that's. That's, that's really powerful, and I could see that there's a lot of shapewear options out there, right, and it feels good to have a brand. That is not about that.
marnie
Guest
11:22
Yeah, I mean by default. I mean you've tried our products. They are second skin fitting, so they will provide some quote unquote light smoothing. Yeah, but that's not necessarily their goal. I mean, people sleep in these shorts, people wear these when they're pregnant. People wear them post surgery in the hospital under those awful gowns with open backs, like you know. So these, this is a comfort undergarment. It's not going to bag or sag on you, but it's also not going to make you feel compressed in a way that, right, distracts you from living your life or being comfortable. Right, right.
jordana
Host
11:51
Yeah, because I mean, that's the thing. I have a very distinct memory about shapewear, of being at a friend's wedding. This was, I don't know almost 20 years ago. I was in the summer and they were, you know, kind of typical brides, strapless brides, made dress, fitted on top of the zipper, and we were all wearing shapewear underneath. And I remember it was very like high waisted.
12:11
It got so uncomfortable at one point we had to go. We went and cut, like with scissors, like cut because we couldn't breathe, right, and it's like, okay, well, well, do I get a dress that fits the way it fits my natural body, or do I get a smaller size and have to wear shapewear and it pushes my stomach in and compresses my organs and then I can't breathe and then I get gasp pain, right, right, it is, it's. And look, there's different ranges of compression. Again, to your point, like, I'm all for autonomy, so putting on a piece of shapewear makes you feel more comfortable in your own skin, right? I just don't want people to feel like physically in pain because of it, right, that's no, so it's just not worth it.
12:53
Yeah, yeah so what was it like you come up with this idea, which?
jordana
Host
12:58
is amazing.
jordana
Host
12:59
What was it like to? I don't know if like if you got funding or how that worked, but what was the response in terms of coming up with a product that wasn't about aesthetics and shapewear and like within this category?
marnie
Guest
13:09
So fun times here I was when I, when I had this idea in 2008, I was 32 years old and my background until that point I'd been working for about 10 years in corporate jobs. I worked for a big consulting firm doing consulting, training and development, hr strategy like nothing to do with garment manufacturing, e-commerce. You know, I knew nothing and nor did I consider myself to be like somebody particularly interested in fashion, but I was looking for a bit of challenge in my life and my career at that point. So I approached this like a side project or a side hobby although I resented the word hobby at the time. So when I first so at 32, I took six months off. I did. I did quit my then government job. I was there for two years just to sort of hit the ground running with finding a factory here in Toronto that could manufacture these shorts that I had conjured up in my mind, and I did quite a bit of market research as well. I did some online surveys. I was talking to pretty much everyone I knew, asking them if they experienced thigh chafe, if you know what were their solutions, if they could weigh their magic wand and create an underwear and undergarment, what would that look like. And so I spent six months developing the product and getting prototypes, at which point I realized this is going to be a while before I can launch and a while before I'm going to make any money and I think I can do this while working full time.
14:42
So that's when I went back to the workforce as a career coach at a big university here in Toronto and it was supposed to be like a two year thing I thought you know what I'll get thigh society launched and I'll stay for two years working, getting my income and then I'll go full time, Then I'll go full time. But two years turned into seven years. Because yeah, that's how funny how life goes. Because I was enjoying my job. I mean, I was coaching MBA students, I was helping, you know, many students change their careers completely, and here I was embarking on a career change myself in real time, working on the business, and I liked the stability of a full time job. I liked the stability of a paycheck and I was enjoying my work, and so I. Also, because I was such a reluctant entrepreneur which I call myself and I like security and predictability and routine, which is none of the things you get as an entrepreneur. I was leading this like, yeah, I was leading this double life where I was working full time and then I had this business on the side and I didn't want to raise money.
15:43
To your point earlier I thought I'm super risky, I'm going to sell fund and and I didn't mention this but I did start the business with about $8,000 Canadian, which is like $5,000 American, and it would have cost a lot less. Now Most of that money was actually spent on a web designer, because back then, shopify, which is the e-commerce platform that we use to sell our products, was really just like a, like a checkout, an online checkout tool. It wasn't a full blown website. Nowadays, you can go online, pay 30 bucks and pretty much have an out of the box website ready to go and start selling product with a logo and whatnot. Yeah, so it would have been a lot less than that. And then I think about $2,000 was inventory.
16:24
So I started with a little bit of money and then found that in the first year we were already I say we, but I, it was just me at that time I was already profitable and I thought, okay, this is fun, like I can, you know, I can learn the ropes of this business, grow it really slowly with in a controlled way where I'm not borrowing money and I can do it my way and just you know see how that goes. And so I took that that slow, slow approach to growth for seven years, pretty much while I was working, yeah, which is, you know, not the usual story that you hear from entrepreneurs. But I think people have to follow their own path and what they're comfortable with, and I was, quite frankly, terrified of doing this as my full time job. What business did I have? Running a business in in shorts, like, in underwear, like, like, and even the thought of going overseas to manufacture or hiring people. It was very scary. And so I really took my time and I think I was able to do that because, quite frankly, no one else was doing it. I couldn't figure it out. Every day I was waiting for another brand to come out with these shorts. I'm like these are not that complicated, like why won't any of the big brands produce this? But I guess it was meant to be right. It was meant to be that Thigh Society would, would you know, come in and make these. It's actually a funny story. I I left this out, but One of the early stories that I love to tell about the summer of 2008, when I was sort of Contemplating whether or not to do this like to quit my job at the time and take those six months to lay the groundwork I was at a big department store here in Toronto, like the equivalent of like like a Nordstrom, and I was rifling through a men's underwear section of a big brand Just to see if they had different leg lengths of men's underwear.
18:09
So, because I actually wanted to find a pair of underwear that I could wear, at this point I wasn't even interested in starting a business. I was like, let me just find what I'm looking for so I can solve my problem. Yes, and I'll never forget a salesperson who was visiting, who was one of the I guess she's a rep that came to check on the, the department store layout and whatnot. She sort of sees me rifling through the men's underwear and she comes over and she sort of whispers in my ear and like a hushed tone and she was like an older woman. She's like hey, sweetie, like are you shopping for yourself or your boyfriend? And I look around and like did she just ask me if I was shopping for myself and I said I'm like, do you find a lot of women in here looking for themselves? She's oh yeah, people are always looking for long leg underwear, oh. And I was like, yeah, I'm like there's an idea here. And so, you know, that's how the idea for the business those are little stories that I tell that validated idea.
19:04
I mean the same thing when I was, you know, knocking on doors, you know, literally going to these bra fitting boutiques and specialty lingerie boutiques in Toronto Asking if they sold a product like this, if they got asked by their customers for a product like this, and the answer was always an overwhelming yes. And again, I couldn't figure out why isn't anyone doing this? And the irony is I did try to reach out to Spanx, which is which is ironic given our whole shapewear conversation. Yes, but I thought at the time in my naïve day that I could potentially get some advice from Sarah Blakely and pay her for some advice on how to start an apparel, an undergarment brand, and I did. I have a post about this on my socials, actually, where I screenshot the actual email that I sent. It's so cringe right now. Did you hear back? Did I? What? Did you hear back from anyone? No, I did hear back with an auto responder. That was basically like please note that anything you submit in writing is now the property of Spanx.
jordana
Host
20:04
So I just sold my idea.
marnie
Guest
20:06
Thankfully, I was smart enough not to put my idea like okay paper, but I did. You know, I was asking for, you know, her time and I was offering to pay for her time because I felt there was this Untapped market that Spanx wasn't going after. Huh, and you know, it's interesting because we have started to see Spanx use anti-chave in their marketing this summer all these years later, because I think they're seeing the opportunity. But it is completely the, you know, the antithesis for what we stand for. I mean and again, kudos to Sarah Blakely and the Empire she's built. Yes, because you know she's offering products that women want. But it would definitely, yeah, it would be tricky to navigate that. I think now, when I think about everything we stand for, I don't know how we Get into Spanx's umbrella, yeah, and, and you know what? And I don't know, I don't know. I have nothing more to say about that without getting into trouble.
jordana
Host
21:00
I Know, before, when I mentioned wearing shape right at at the wedding, I was like, oh, it was, it was Spanx. I'm like, is it okay to say that I don't know? I mean, like, I mean.
marnie
Guest
21:11
They're like the Kleenex of shapewear right like we use. When we say Spanx, we're sort of encompassing every single brand. That's yeah yeah, and, like I said, no shade, and actually I've learned, I think, over the years that there is a lot. There are a lot of women out there that wear it for compression when they have you know skin, skin conditions or just you know things that make them just feel better Not even from a confidence perspective, just from a pain reaction To where those compression under undergarments can be super helpful.
jordana
Host
21:38
Yeah, I think, just. I think it's just about giving people Choices. Yes, the absence of this product. Before you brought it into existence, it was like, well, I wear underwear, or or I have to wear something for compression. Yeah, maybe a functional purpose, like you just mentioned, or maybe because I need to be smaller, or this cellulite doesn't look good, or this belly roll doesn't work, and there's something wrong with me.
22:07
And Now it's like, well, yes, and there's reasons and times and places where that product is right, but then there's also a space for this functional product, which is just about how I feel in my body and being comfortable and being myself as I am and kind of embracing something that I thought was a problem. Right, because I can imagine women. I never occurred to me to look in a men's underwear section, but I'm imagining like she comes up and whispers to you. I love that story because there probably is like there's shame around it. There was, I'm the only one that this is happening to, right. And then I'm kind of like jumping around.
22:44
But when you said that no one in all these seven years, no one else, because I'm sure in the back of your head you're like, well, shit, what if some other big brand comes out with this and I've lost my two I know, I know that is fascinating to me that nobody was looking at this because it wasn't look and maybe this is my bias because of what I do but it wasn't about aesthetics, it wasn't about body size, it wasn't about how someone looked, and I think when people think about women's fashion and undergarments it's like, oh, a pushup bra or a minimizer bra or a back fat smoother or all of that, not about just comfort and, like I'm just gonna say, embodiment.
marnie
Guest
23:20
I don't know if that's the right word, but yeah, just being comfortable in the skin you're in, yes, and allowing you to just live your life right. Because we, our products, solve for so much more than chafe, which is it's crazy because I invented the product concept to prevent chafe specifically. But, like I said earlier, there's so many other use cases that people will put these shorties on for. And also just for sweat management. I mean, we can't control a body's gonna sweat. Bodies are normal, body's sweat full stop. But if you wanna be drier down there, right, or you don't wanna have sweaty butt and leave a butt imprint on the chair which is, by the way, totally normal because body's sweat here's just a comfortable option to say, okay, we can help you with that, we can help.
jordana
Host
24:02
Yeah, without making people feel bad. Yeah, it normalizes all the things that we've had shame around or that women like it's cool for guys to sweat, but women like oh no, don't show your butt sweat after your workout.
marnie
Guest
24:14
Right, exactly the double standard.
jordana
Host
24:16
Yeah, yeah, I actually just I had. I just started wearing them for fitness for my dance class, the originals like the slightly thicker ones, and I'm like, yeah, they're awesome.
marnie
Guest
24:27
They are, yes, I'm biased, but I wear them to workout all the time and for dance class.
jordana
Host
24:32
Yeah.
marnie
Guest
24:32
I wear them all the time.
jordana
Host
24:33
And I love we haven't talked about this yet. I mean, it makes it's so obvious as to why, but obviously you show such a wide range of body types right. There's such huge representation, which is amazing, and there's more of that happening, but definitely not enough, and it's just. It feels so good to see that.
marnie
Guest
24:54
Thank you. Yeah, that was another intention, I would say, when I started the business, because of the stigmatization of this perfectly normal skin condition that I knew had nothing to do with weight. I mean, in some cases it might have to do with weight, but it's not to the exclusion of everything else. Right, I thought it was really important that we offered a size range that was that was not just plus size. And so we started from. I mean, our size range has expanded over the years as we've been able to afford to you know, buy more inventory in different sizes, and now we offer sizes extra small to 6X, which is one of the biggest size ranges out there.
jordana
Host
25:31
That's amazing.
marnie
Guest
25:32
And I definitely would like to expand that in both directions as time goes on. Yeah, but I think it's important and we see that a lot. Actually, it's funny.
25:40
We do a lot of advertising online on Meta and when we use models who are, who appear to be more straight size or who are somewhere between the ranges, let's say, of a size two and a size six, we get so much hate on our ad comments from people who are just being introduced to the brand Like you don't even know what side shape thing is if you're showing a skinny model and you know our customer service team is amazing, our social teams amazing, and they're in there in the comments Like actually, did you know that? If I do, it can happen to people of any weight, our size, right? Yeah, it's so core to our mission to feature women of all sizes, but it's so interesting that we get backlash from people of all sizes. You know, sort of saying like that's not true. People like you don't understand your target customer and it's like actually we really do understand our target customer and it's everybody potentially.
jordana
Host
26:32
Yeah.
marnie
Guest
26:32
Yeah, so I think that, sorry, go ahead. Yeah, no, I was just thinking it was just having an inclusive size range and showcasing diversity was a core tenant of the brand since we launched in 2009. Like we were, you know I had been inspired by so much of what I was seeing in the early days of the quote unquote body positivity movement, you know, which has evolved over time and you know now we talk more about body neutrality and I guess you know there's all kinds of ways we can digress into conversations about that. Yeah, I was very inspired by showcasing women, in particular in our ads and in our marketing back in 2009 anyway, who were not represented typically in brand marketing and so, yeah, I'm really proud about that.
jordana
Host
27:18
Yeah, I mean back. I mean I don't remember when I first heard about the brand or how I think someone told me about it and then all of a sudden, I started seeing it every over. It was only a couple of years ago, so in 2009,. For sure, I mean, you had to be one of the first brands representing a wide range of body types. Like it wasn't, you know. I mean, I know summer salt has been big in that space. That's really only been within the last couple of years, and we were tiny in 2009 too.
marnie
Guest
27:42
I mean, we were really. We had our stride closer to like 2016, so 17, so Okay.
jordana
Host
27:48
Yeah, but yeah, what you mentioned about you know people kind of criticizing people in more kind of straight or smaller bodies is I find this in my work is this kind of pertain. Negative body image affects everybody 100%. It's not just people in bigger bodies. People in bigger bodies are underrepresented and absolutely have different challenges. But people in smaller bodies suffer from negative body image as well, and I think that's something I continually remind myself. Right, I'm a size 12, 14. So right on the upper end borderline of straight size plus sizing, and also, you know, have thin privilege that someone who's a size 18, 20, 22 does not have. Yeah, and I have, you know, publicly speak about my body image struggles, right, even at you know, considered to have, you know, that type of thin privilege. So it's interesting all the places that that shows up.
marnie
Guest
28:41
Yeah, totally. I mean someone asked me a couple weeks ago what impact my like struggles with eating and body image had on the business. I mean it undoubtedly helped shape my entire approach to the business. Yeah, because, yeah, like, I had yo-yo diet. I mean I was on a diet since I was 12. I mean I had a pediatrician tell me I was fat when I was 12 years old. I have diary entries in my cute little diary. So sad it breaks my heart to read it now. But where I'm talking you could see the shift of like, from one day I'm writing about all the fun pizza parties I'm having with my friends at their birthdays to like calorie counting and like weight watchers tracking and like oh, so yeah, I was a disordered eater from 12 until probably 30, I would say yeah, oh, yeah, so yeah.
jordana
Host
29:31
Do you find that actually makes me think of some R tween and teen girls wearing the product, wearing Thigh Society?
marnie
Guest
29:39
So it's interesting. The short answer is yes, and I'd love to get more of them into Thigh Society. A lot of my friends will send me pictures of their daughters wearing the products because they've bought them for them, because they just want some modesty, undergarments underneath whatever they're wearing. They don't need shapewear. I mean, they're like 12 and 13. And sometimes a little bit older than that. But yeah, and I would love to do more teen focused, even for little kids. Right, like my niece wears a school uniform and those short skirts come with little shorties underneath, but they're not seamless, they're not necessarily breathable.
30:18
They're very basic right, they're just very basic shorts, but I'd love to be able to provide for that market too, because I just think they're a no brainer Thigh Society, like they're just totally.
jordana
Host
30:30
And also just like to all the things we talked about normalizing at a younger age, right? Oh yeah, for sure, it was just so powerful.
marnie
Guest
30:39
For sure, for sure, for sure. I mean I think I hope this generation is better set up, this younger generation now, than we ever were. I mean, yeah, I just think about, like Bridget Jones' diary Shaming Her and Seventeen Magazine, and I mean there's so many things on the internet now that are coming up on socials where people are like, and this is why this generation has long image issues.
jordana
Host
31:02
Yes, my son and I. My son is 11, and we're watching Friends Together.
31:08
And there's a lot of stuff that goes over his head, but there's a lot that's really funny. And then there's Fat Monica. So I know, oh my God, he and I had a whole conversation about it. They show her in this flashback and I'm like she's like a size 14. And I watched that show. It came out in 1994. I was 14 years old. I watched it for the 10 years it was on. I love that show.
31:34
I idolized Jennifer Aniston and it was like, well, if you don't look like Jennifer Aniston, then you're quote fat and that's bad and no one will like you. The number of jokes about fat people and I'm saying the word fat in the way that they used it and knowing that like they were using it in a derogatory way, and knowing that now we're trying to use it in a more neutral way, but it just is mind blowing and I'm like, yeah, well, obviously that played a huge role, in an unconscious way, as to how I was perceiving my own body, because I never I was always. I was like I went from like being a size six when I was like 10, and then I was just a size 12. I just I don't know. There was never an in between for me. But yeah, it's insidious.
marnie
Guest
32:19
It really is. I mean, and there's still so much of that insidiousness today. I mean, you see less of that overt fat shaming in the media.
32:27
I mean although there's debatable movies coming out for you I'm not gonna name names, but like, yeah, there's still a lot of that. I was I like to point out to people little things where you see like brands that have skinny in the name or less guilt, or things like that, where all of these messages are very subliminal and what they're telling you every single time is mind yourself, fat is bad, you don't wanna get fat. It's all this. It's terrible. People aren't even conscious of it, and so then you wonder why we live in such a fat phobic society, because so much of it is like, I mean, lots of it is still very overt, but there's so much of it that's still allowed to seep in, and I think it does seep in it absolutely does.
33:10
It's my goal to just I call things out when I see them and I hope people can become more aware of it, right, the more you know. It's almost like it's conditioning yourself to become aware rather than and then, otherwise you'll miss it, you'll completely miss it, so yeah, how did you this kind of speaks to?
jordana
Host
33:27
I was curious about where you came up with the name Thigh Society, where there are other names Like what did you want it to communicate? Like what was that piece like?
marnie
Guest
33:34
Oh my gosh. So I'm gonna disappoint some people, but the short answer is my friend's husband came up with it. I had initially come up with a bunch of other names. The front runner was thigh candy, but upon doing a Google search of that, it did not get the results I was hoping for. They were a little, you know, r rated, got it, I don't know. Well, I was like you know and I don't think I want to compete with that. And so we were with some friends in our living room talking about possible names one afternoon, because I had had a list of like I don't know 20. And we were talking about puns, because I love puns and so does this friend friends husband, and he was the one who came up with it. Like, what about a play on on high society? Yeah, like high society. And I thought, oh my God, I think that's gonna work.
34:21
That would be amazing and so, yeah, I actually was able to get the URL thigh societyca at the time, but, believe it or not, thigh societycom was owned by somebody else and so we did not own thecom.
34:34
I think I finally got it in 2014, because you could find out who owns certain websites. And I reached out to the guy and I don't know what his story was he wasn't, he was just some guy, I think, who had bought a bunch of domains and was just parked, you know, parked them and was sort of holding out for a big payout. And so I emailed him and he asked me for some crazy number back and I was like hell, didn't know, I'm not doing that. And you know, a year went by and I touched base with him again hey, are you interested in renewing? No, and then I think it was the third year that finally, I was like, hey, what's your price? And because we were starting to grow at that point in the U S and I thought I can't have a dot CA, it's just, I need to have two, I need to have both.
jordana
Host
35:09
I need to have.
marnie
Guest
35:10
Canadian site and an American one and finally ended up purchasing that, that domain name from him for thecom. Yeah.
jordana
Host
35:19
Two things. I want just the seven years you spent, and you just mentioned it took three years to even get the website. Like I just it was such a long time. Right, yeah, it was a really long time, really long time. And and this is not really necessarily related to anything specific that we're talking about, except that, like, things that you love and things that you care about and change like take a long time and we think things are like overnight successes, right, and it's just not. And like your tenacity and perseverance with this is just really amazing. Like because it like I feel like I sound like a fangirl, but like it isn't a life-changing product, and Just to know what you went through to make it happen and it was something that I mean, it's like, oh my god, holy shit, this is incredible. Yes.
marnie
Guest
36:05
Yeah, thank you. It has been my life for the last 14 years, you know it's, and it's a passion project at the same time as being, now, obviously, a full-fledged business. Yeah, and things do take time, I think. You know. For anyone out there who's thinking about starting a business or has an idea or is already in business, I think we're we're fed one narrative by the media about, you know, overnight successes. You know, and like that's not the majority, I mean kudos to those people and those entrepreneurs. It's amazing, you know, but for most of us it's not necessarily always about that.
36:35
And you know, you, you can build something that is meaningful, profitable, successful, enjoyable, impactful On your own terms. You know it may not look like something else, that the, it may not look like that narrative, but it doesn't have to be. Yes, there's so many different permutations and combinations of Entrepreneurs out there and I think the more stories we hear, the the more Accepted that reality is going to be. And what's right, the way I built my business, maybe the complete opposite of how someone else would have built theirs with the same exact products, right, yeah, so, yeah, I just sort of focus on here and now and think you know, touch wood. To be lucky that I they stuck with it, because there, you know, there were some tough times. For sure there's it's a tough business apparel, you know, inventory forecasting. We have to do that six months ahead of time. How are we gonna know what's gonna sell right now? I have an amazing, amazing CFO COO who's incredible, and an amazing team in general. But, yeah, it's a tough business to be in. You know, I mean all businesses tough to be in and you never.
37:43
Yeah, if you're running your own business, you're. It's always on your mind right, so you can't not think about it. Yeah, yeah, it's like part of who you are, part of who you are. But on those tough days, like I'll, you know, I always say this it'll never change. For me, it's always about the customers. It's always whenever I'm like having a moment, I will go literally read our reviews. They're public on our website. I will read the reviews and I will feel this instant high of this lift. Yeah, this is why we're doing this, yes, doing this, because people need these products. Yes, products are game changers. So, yeah, that's what, that's what keeps me going and I think it's important to have that. And, whatever you do, even if you're working in a corporate job just to be like, hey, what am I doing to make a difference, yes or not, or not, I mean some people, you know, listen, there's nothing wrong with having a job that you clock in and out of you.
38:28
I think we're also all this narrative that you have to be passionate all the time about everything and yeah, okay, no, work doesn't have to be your identity. Yeah, no, yeah, so what?
jordana
Host
38:37
do you? I mean, I don't know to the extent that you can share, like what do you envision for the company or where do you Want it to go? I know those are like big, lofty questions you probably get asked all the time.
marnie
Guest
38:48
Well, I mean, I guess the way I described you know Spanx earlier and Kleenex you know, spanx is like synonymous with shapewear and Kleenex is synonymous with tissue, even though there's other brands. I would love for Thyside to be synonymous with you know, slip shorts or boxer breeze for women, or long leg underwear for women, or yeah you know even anti-chay funder wear in general for men and women. So that's sort of the big audacious, hairy goal in the future, audacious, hairy goal. And then there's lots that has to happen before that.
jordana
Host
39:16
Yeah, Whereas I know. I mean I didn't try them, but I had a client I think I had told her about them and she bought like a imitation pair on Amazon. I'm sure you I don't know if you've Tried- I know what's on Amazon. Yeah, and she was like they were terrible. She was like so then, I went.
marnie
Guest
39:35
Yeah, yeah.
39:37
I mean it's easy on the surface, like of the product is, is not simple in design, but it is simple in appearance and people don't necessarily always understand is yes, they're. We do have some like copycats on Amazon, but they're not doing the fitting on real bodies, they're not grading according to, you know, plus-size grading and and you know the whole, the whole gamut of product testing to ensure this is gonna fit well on right real people. We also have lots of leg length options because we acknowledge that the leg length, you know, could depend based on how your body's built Size. I mean, the quality of our yarns is bar none. I mean I'm not gonna. Yeah, we definitely offer a premium product, for a reason for sure, and that was again very intentional. And we started when I started, because I had had the experience of like one size fits all type of brands where, whereas buying like leggings, for example, or those like Bando tops, where I'm like one size fits all, is really one size fits one.
jordana
Host
40:33
Maybe, two.
marnie
Guest
40:34
Yes, right for everybody else. If you're like, if you imagine a bell curve and you're on like any end of the bell curve, forget about it.
jordana
Host
40:40
Like I'm not gonna get a great fit out of that.
marnie
Guest
40:42
Yeah, and that's going and and I had had the experience, even with buying bike shorts, of things riding up on me or rolling down, I mean, and there's nothing more awkward and having to adjust, you know, looking around to see if anyone's, you know, staring at you and you're like sort of adjusting yourself underneath your skirts and dresses, like no one wants to do that. So, yeah, I gotta put something out there that I can be proud of that people love.
jordana
Host
41:03
Yeah, you know so. But, and just like everything you shared, like there's so much insight into like what really made that, like what, what, what the experience is of being in your body and wearing these different garments and what it feels like and addressing all of those seemingly little Issues or challenges or annoyances but that really make a huge difference in like how you feel. Yeah, we're, like, fully dressed and wearing whatever it is that you want to wear. Yeah, definitely little things make the huge, the biggest impact.
marnie
Guest
41:34
Definitely, I think you can do that when you're I mean, I think you can do that when you're a small company, for sure, because you have the smaller team and the time and attention, but I think I think you can still do that as a larger organization. You know, and I think there are some great brands out there that are doing that, that are really taking customer feedback Into account as they do their design and offering better fitting clothing on the whole. But it is, it can't be hard to do at scale. But something I feel lucky about is that, yeah, I did come into this very intentionally and we, you know, we made sure to test on different body types. We still do, because we don't want to just, you know, slap something together and sell it like that's not and and that's fine. There are brands that are doing that right, but we are definitely very deliberate and intentionally always put our customer first at the center of Everything we do.
42:19
You know, and I would like always say I was customer zero. You know I don't represent all of our customers because I'm like one size right, you know, hey, like I'm, I get it. I needed this product. Yes, I created this brand.
jordana
Host
42:30
Yeah so it just, it's like, if you feel, seen by this, like by this and that's really special.
marnie
Guest
42:37
Yeah, thank you, that's. I could not ask for more, yeah.
jordana
Host
42:42
Well, thank you so much. This has been awesome. I appreciate your time and sharing your story and like the little tidbits, like the little insider of what this was like. It's just fun and and just awesome and really thank you for your time, but Thank you for creating this, for the work and everything that you do, because it's really it's really been life-changing for me and, I know, for a lot of other people as well that means the world, thank you, thanks for having me.
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