A couple visiting Kaua’i last week are the inventors of Under-Ease, a product that eases the embarrassment of those who suffer from Crohn’s Disease and other disorders that cause excessive flatulence. The problem can be caused by digestive system disorders,
A couple visiting Kaua’i last week are the inventors of Under-Ease, a product that eases the embarrassment of those who suffer from Crohn’s Disease and other disorders that cause excessive flatulence.
The problem can be caused by digestive system disorders, diabetes medication or poor eating habits.
Chester “Buck” Weimer and his wife of 32 years, Arlene, were looking for a solution to her acute attacks of Crohn’s Disease, whose sufferers get recurring bouts of bad-smelling flatulence. (The Weimers were on Kaua’i this week celebrating their 32nd wedding anniversary.)
Buck said the first clue came to him while lying in bed next to Arlene one night, “suffering silently.” He said while staying up all night he discovered that because the covers were pulled tight over the bed, gas could only escape through where the covers were untucked.
He wondered if the principle could be applied in another fashion: Could air-tight underwear be made with a hole in the rear to let the gas out?
The first Under-Ease prototype was a refashioned pair of Depends, the incontinence briefs, with a hole in the rear. Arlene said they experimented with many different materials before coming up with a reasonable prototype.
Buck remembered that during his work as a clinical therapist, he met some coal miners who used gas masks while rescuing a coworker. He said he decided to use a similar material as a filter, in a porous pocket sewn right into the “tush end” of the underwear.
When they aren’t working for their Pueblo, Colo.-based business, Arlene and Buck have day jobs as a clinical psychologist and clinical therapist.
After years of design trial and error, raising three sons and stomaching lots of good-natured joking about their invention, the Weimers finally received a U.S. Government Patent and international patent.
“Under-Ease” is made from airtight polyurethane-coated nylon with elastic sewn around the waist and leg openings. The filter is made of layers of sheepskin and a core of activated carbon, and placed into a pocket sewn from ordinary fabric near the bottom of the underwear. The filter traps bad-smelling gas molecules. The smaller, non-smelling gas molecules, pass through the filter with ease.
“I have worn a prototype pair of these underpants for the past four years and have found them highly effective,” said Arlene, who has suffered from Crohn’s, or inflammatory bowel syndrome, for 30 years. She said the underwear is comfortable, durable and can be worn without anyone knowing.
In March 2001 they began selling their “protective underwear for flatulence.”
Their motto: “Wear them for the ones you love.”
In one year, 5,000 customers from all over the U.S. and the world found their product and they’ve received 400,000 hits on their Web site, thanks in part to an October appearance on the Howard Stern radio talk show and a column by Dave Barry in the Miami Herald.
Last October, they won the Annals of Improbable Research and Harvard-sponsored “Ig Nobel Prize” in biology. The Ig Nobels are awarded to people who achieve something in science that cannot or should not be reproduced.
They’ve found that girls buy the boxer shorts for their boyfriends who like to eat fatty fast-food and have bad gas, Buck said.
“While we appreciate the humor, it’s a serious medical product and it’s for people in need,” Buck said.
Arlene said she realized something had to be invented to help those with particularly bad gas. People do have other personal hygiene concerns, like underarm odor and bad breath. As embarrassing as it is, people do suffer from the problem of bad gas, and Under-Ease is proven to help.
“It’s a human function, and gas taboo will come out of the closet,” Arlene said.
Under-Ease comes in female and male styles (briefs or boxer shorts) in six sizes from extra-small to XXL. One pair, with filter, costs $24.95, and lasts for six months to a year, depending on how often they’re worn and washed. For more information, call the Weimers at 1-888-433-5913, contact them at undertec2@hotmail.com or access their Web site at www.under-tec.com.
Staff Writer Kendyce Manguchei can be reached at kmanguchei@pulitzer.net or 245-3681 (ext. 252).
Under-Ease inventors bring special underwear to Kaua’i
