More on KentOnline
More on KentOnline
Why sweat in the gym when you can pull on a top and show off some muscle?
Two Medway entrepreneurs claim their "padded bra for men" is a runaway hit.
Amateur boxing coach Ash Bhunnoo, 45, and his friend Ricky Robinson spent a year perfecting a "moob-busting" vest.
Their testament to male vanity is worn under a normal shirt and includes fake pecs, a flat stomach, broader shoulders and even padded biceps.
The idea came to them in a lightbulb moment one day in a cafe and they tried out the idea on skinny friends at Strood Amateur Boxing Club.
Since then they have sold 1,000 of the vests over the internet, despite running the business from their living rooms.
Dad-of-two Mr Bhunnoo, of Gladstone Road, Chatham, said: "There are skinny guys who are perfectly healthy, but when they go out on a Friday night they want to look a bit more buff.
"A lot of our customers come from California. I don't know what it is about Americans and vanity but they just love it.
"Around Medway it's mainly people at gyms. Bouncers like them too.
"Women have always been into padded bras and that kind of thing. They've been around for years and guys now want a bit of the action too.
"Back when I was younger we were never like that. We would go out to the pub, have a drink and you might get a belly, but it was alright."
The pair even admit to occasionally wearing the Funkybod vests themselves, insisting friends cannot tell the difference from the real thing.
"We tried so many different materials and it failed dramatically so many times," said Mr Bhunnoo. "Eventually we found a material that worked when we sewed it into the top."
What happens when one of their customers brings a lover home, however – well that's still a mystery.
