At DailyJocks, we are all about serving the community with clothing that makes you look and feel your best. From gym shorts to joggers to tank tops, we have designed our sportswear to be as much about comfort as it is about sex appeal.
While being comfortable is important when it comes to clothing, sometimes being out of your comfort zone is an unavoidable part of evolving as a person.
On the set of the DailyJocks sportswear shoot, we chatted to campaign stars Chaye and Kel about ‘self love’ - and how the parts of themselves that they once wanted to change are now the qualities they are most proud of.
For Chaye learning to appreciate her red hair has been a big part of her trans pride journey. For Kel, acceptance of an inherited disability has been one of the key steps in his evolution.
DJs: Chaye, what part of your body do you love the most?
Chaye: The part of my body that I love the most was the thing that was once the hardest for me to love, and it’s actually my hair.
DJs: What’s not to love about that incredible hair!?
Chaye: Growing up as a male, I used to get comments about my hair and my colouring, like “oh, it’s so pretty”... You don’t want to hear that when you’re going through gender dysphoria!
DJ: What was the tipping point for accepting that part of yourself?
Chaye: Once I leaned into it and actually went “Okay, this is something that people recognise. I’m transitioning now, I want to embrace that side of myself.” And that’s evolved into the career I’m now pursuing, which is modelling.
DailyJocks: Kel, what do you love most about your body?
Kel: What I love about myself is that I’m imperfect and fragile, and what I love most about my body is its ability to endure.
DJs: What do you mean by ‘endure’?
Kel: From the outside, it’s not obvious but I have certain physical disabilities that I inherited from my mum, so I’ve always appreciated my ability, and my family’s, to move through those.
DJs: Chaye, what do you look for when it comes to activewear?
Chaye: It’s gotta be comfortable, definitely, and it’s gotta be practical. But I also think it’s incredibly important to look cute - especially for me, and how my body is a form of expressing not only where I’ve come from, but also where I’m going.
Being someone of trans experience, especially, to know where you’ve come from and still have this kind of vision of where you want to get to and seeing how clothes fit into that experience is deeply important. We all come in different shapes and sizes and everyone just wants to feel comfortable.
DJs: Kel, Is comfort important to you when it comes to what you wear?
Kel: If we’re feeling comfortable physically it’s going to help us to feel comfortable in all other aspects. What I appreciate most with the clothes (in the shoot) - especially the trackpants that I'm wearing - is the comfortability. There were so many different people here of shapes, sizes, walks of life… and DailyJocks caters to all those people.
DJs: Do you push yourself out of your comfort zone through what you wear?
Kel: I think in my personal style - my clothing, fashion, jewellery - allows me to be more daring than I would be in other ways. It breaks that shell open a little bit.
DJs: What have you enjoyed most about shooting with DailyJocks?
Kel: I think the shoot today was really special. It's not very common that we see a large range of representation in LGBT spaces in Australia. I think for me that was the most meaningful thing about today. Letting people know that they're seen and heard and ‘a part of’ is really important.
Chaye: I have been just so… ‘impressed’ isn’t the right word, but, just, there’s just this sense of deep love and gratitude on (the DJs team’s) part for everyone that’s been involved in today's shoot. It’s just been a day of them wanting to give to us, and understand us. And, you know, the owner having conversations with us and understanding our stories, and what is it that they can do to be better.
DJs: Chaye, would you say that you have a superpower?
Chaye: On the physical side, I seem to have just evolved what my body can actually do. And having that resilience, I guess, I just keep moving forwards, trying new things. It’s about not thinking that anything’s impossible… some things might be improbable, but, you know, mountains are there to be climbed.
As queer people looking to define ourselves in the world, we’re often reminded that ‘it gets better’- but it’s important to remember that it’s those times when we are facing our greatest adversity - externally, or from within - we have an opportunity to understand, look at, work on and come to accept and love ourselves.
While comfort is important in some areas of life (like what you wear), being out of your comfort zone is an essential part of our journey as an individual.
We are adding to our style and size offerings weekly… check out the DailyJocks Sportswear collection here.
DailyJocks acknowledges the Gadigal people of the Eora nation and the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation on whose lands we operate. We pay our respects to their Elders past and present.
