Nasty Pig Casts Customers in Joe Oppedisano Photo Shoot
New York, New York, February 6 2007 — When asked what makes his menswear company Nasty Pig so progressive, founder and CEO David Lauterstein has only one answer. "Our customers. They're the most bad-ass, loyal audience in the world. And it doesn't hurt that so many of them are gorgeous exhibitionists who love to be walking ads for Nasty Pig.

The inspiration Nasty Pig derives from such a fantastic customer base is why the company recently launched a new website that enables customers to post pictures of themselves showing off in Nasty Pig gear.

NastyPigPics.com enables a new and more intimate level of interaction between Nasty Pig and its customers. It's a development that has already resulted in unanticipated and exciting benefits, such as when celebrated fashion photographer and Nasty Pig collaborator Joe Oppedisano took one look at the photos that customer Mark LaMorie posted of himself and exclaimed, "I must photograph him."

LaMorie, who works as a personal trainer in Boston and has been one of the company's most loyal customers for over eight years, was immediately game to become a Nasty Pig supermodel. "I am an exhibitionist by nature," LaMorie says, "and since I try to live my life without giving too much thought to what other people think, Nasty Pig's rebellious attitude has always appealed to me. I was more than happy to take the opportunity to be a part of it. Getting to work with Joe Oppedisano was icing on the cake."

Oppedisano, who says that the one thing that most inspired him to work with LaMorie was his "tremendous ass," quickly conceptualized a scenario in a raw construction setting that would showcase Nasty Pig's collection of blue-collar industrial looks. His addition of New York local Stephen (another NastyPigPics.com discovery) to the shoot's roster of models put some extra testosterone in the room.

And although Nasty Pig plus Joe Opppedisano plus several hundred pounds of muscle sure does seem like a sure thing, the raw power of the shoot nevertheless took LaMorie, for one, by surprise: "It was incredible how much energy the clothes contributed. I put on the Industrial Rubber Apron and immediately felt sexier. And working with Joe was an amazing experience. He really brings the best out of everyone he photographs.

The photographs that resulted more than justify LaMorie's confidence. Infused with Oppedisano's unique masculine energy and plenty of Nasty Pig attitude , they have been published in media outlets as diverse and as influential as New York gay magazine HX, German fashion glossy Manner Aktuel, and American fetish quarterly Instigator.

The shoot's broad appeal testifies to Nasty Pig's arrival as a global brand with high-level impact on ideas of fashion-forward masculinity. And the groundbreaking, intensely modern way in which Nasty Pig plucked a great customer off the Internet and cast him as its newest supermodel demonstrates two of the company's most defining values: that its customers are its greatest asset, and that innovation is the only way forward.

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