• by Fern Siegel , March 28, 2024

The underwear brand Pair of Thieves likes to mix things up.

The first campaign by creative agency Haymaker invites customers to reject tighty-whities for more colorful briefs.

The 30-second “Escape Basic” spot features the Pair of Thieves’ mascot, the bandit bear, who tosses the company's underwear to various men while being chased.

In a nod to movie-chase scenes, the bear parkors through parking garages, skates through city streets, and even hijacks a basketball game with an amazing dunk. Didi Alaou, Red Bull art of motion champ, performs the stunts.

The campaign also includes four 15- and six-second spots. “Escape Basic” launches across CTV, social, digital display and OOH.

“Pair of Thieves being unapologetically themselves in this category immediately stood out to us. The brand is dedicated to doing things differently, to prioritizing quality, design, and, above all, fun,” said Jay Kamath, founder-CCO at Haymaker. “The Pair of Thieves bear going on a benevolent, altruistic underwear rampage felt like the exact kind of fun to be had.”

Alan Stuart, founder and executive creative director at Pair of Thieves, added: “The vast majority of people out there don’t know our name, even some who wear our products. But our bear bandit logo is more recognizable than all of our other brand elements combined. This was our opportunity to make the bear famous, so we coined 2024 The Year of the Bear.”

The Los Angeles-based agency has also done work for Top-Chico, Powerade, Pluto TV and Seattle Kraken.