About Thunderpants USA

A little bit of history…

My little sister moved to New Zealand in 2005 and dove right into the Kiwi way of life. One of her early discoveries was an amazing line of underwear called Thunderpants. Knowing my on-going search for a pair of comfortable underwear (I mean really!) and my love for Calvin and Hobbs, she sent me a pair of rocket ship print Thunderpants. --Lucky rocket ship underpants I call them for those of you who are Calvin and Hobbs fans.  I still have them: talk about quality. They instantly became my favorite underwear and when I opened Radish Underground in 2008, a little boutique in downtown Portland, Or, I had to sell them. Thus began my long and deep love affair with Thunderpants.  

In 2016, to meet US demand and keep in line with our mutual commitment to local production we launched Thunderpants USA made right here in Portland, Or. We continue to use the NZ knitted organic cotton to keep the consistency and quality to the very high standards Thunderpants are known for.   

Exacting standards and keeping it local

One of the things we do take seriously is the exceptional quality of our clothing and we are pretty uncompromising when it comes to this. That’s why all Thunderpants USA clothing is made from organic cotton and all of the production process is as local as we can feasibly make it.

The organic cotton we use in our fabric is grown in India without the use of chemicals or pesticides and processed to strict SKAL standards (International Standards for Sustainable Textile Production) and knitted in Levin, NZ (close to Thunderpants NZ headquarters). Water based inks and dyes are used for printing and dying our fabric so only the best quality materials are used to make Thunderpants USA clothing.

All Thunderpants USA undies are sewn in Portland, Or.

Every aspect of production, from how our fabric is made and our clothes sewn is traceable, tested and controlled for quality.

Our aim is to produce clothing you can feel great about. And that’s not only how and where the clothing is made, but when you wear it too!

Take pride in your undies.

The birth of Thunderpants…

Thunderpants NZ a small, family-owned and operated company, based in the Wairarapa, New Zealand.

We came up with the idea of designing an ultimate undie way back in 1995, so you could say our undies have a bit of provenance! At the time we were two design students frustrated by irritating undies, so we put both our brains and bums to work creating the ultimate undie - Thunderpants. 

Now, twenty years on, Thunderpants NZ has grown from just two people to a company with a staff of twelve where the balance between lifestyle and work is truly blurred. Our focus has always been on producing underwear and clothing of exceptional quality and design and this ethos permeates all aspects of the clothing we produce.

We started with undies and now, each year, we produce over 30,000 pairs of our wonderful Thunderpants in New Zealand.   

Our clothing is designed to fit and built to last.

Quality over quantity - a philosophy

We work hard but we also believe life shouldn’t be taken too seriously. As a family run business, work has become an extension of home. We make a habit of communal lunches and bringing our dogs to work.

We love New Zealand, our families and our jobs. The Thunderpants business model is based on similar principles of slow growth, family before business and lifestyle over work. And it’s worked pretty well for us for the last 20 years, proving that it is entirely possible to work in a sustainable way that supports your local economy.

More than just underpants, Thunderpants are a way of life and, yes, it may seem a bit daft and cliched - it is only clothing afterall - but for us, Thunderpants embodies the Kiwi dream and embraces the more important things in life like slowing down and enjoying the fruits of our labour.

We really hope you experience the same freedom and peace of mind when you wear Thunderpants.