Men Are Buying 'Manpons,' a Tampon That Comes in a Tactical Pouch

The waitlist has 14,000 names from 43 countries, the resale market is brisk and nobody can say what one is for.

Men around the world are buying Manpons, a tampon made for men and sold in a matte-black tactical pouch, and the Los Angeles company behind them says it cannot make them fast enough.

The Venice startup says its waitlist passed 14,000 names this month, from 43 countries. A three-pack costs $48 on the company’s website when it is in stock, which the company says has happened twice. On resale sites, sealed three-packs have listed for as much as $210 in Los Angeles, £160 in London and 300 Australian dollars in Sydney.

“We didn’t take a women’s product and rebrand it,” said the company’s founder, a 33-year-old former logistics consultant who asked to be identified only by his first name, Trent. “We took a women’s product and put it in a pouch.”

The pouch is most of the product. It is water-resistant, closes with a magnetic flap and comes with a chrome carabiner rated, according to the box, for 400 pounds. Each Manpon is wrapped in matte black and scented “Cedar Garage.” There are three absorbency levels: Regular, Super and Deadlift. The company declined to say what Deadlift absorbs.

It also declined to say what a Manpon is for. Asked directly, Trent was quiet for 11 seconds. “Readiness,” he said.

That word comes up a lot. “It’s not about what it does. It’s about what it says,” said a wellness creator with 1.8 million followers who goes by Kade and films his morning routine on a balcony. “And what it says is, I’m ready.” Asked ready for what, he said he had to jump on a call.

Most owners carry the pouch clipped to a belt loop, the way some men carry keys or a multitool. Of the 11 owners interviewed for this story, none said he had ever taken a Manpon out of its wrapper. Several seemed surprised by the question.

The trend has a ritual now, too. It started in the company’s hometown, where every Saturday at 6 a.m. about 40 men meet at a trailhead in Griffith Park for what they call Manpon Mornings: a two-mile hike, a quick comparison of carabiners and five minutes of standing in a circle in silence, which the organizer describes as “staying ready.” Chapters have since started in London and Austin. No one, in any city, has been seen opening a pouch.

Not everyone is sold. “It’s a tampon in a nicer bag,” said a retail analyst who tracks men’s grooming spending and asked that his firm not be named. “I want to be clear that it is a very nice bag.” He said he is on the waitlist.

Demand appears to be growing anyway. The company says third-quarter sales rose 400 percent, from 12 units to 60. A holiday gift set with three Manpons, a second carabiner and a smaller pouch for the first pouch sold out in four minutes. Next spring it plans to release Deadlift Max, which it says is not designed to fit anything.

Manpons are sold worldwide through the company’s website, by waitlist, and on the first Sunday of each month from a folding table in a Venice parking lot, cash only, two pouches per person.

One owner, a 34-year-old commercial real estate broker, wears his to every closing. He has bought 14 three-packs and opened none of them.

“Why would I open it?” he said. “Then it’s just a tampon.”