Award-winning underwear brand AussieBum has announced that it will sponsor the Bingham Cup, a tournament accepted as the ‘World Cup’ of gay rugby.

Bingham Cup president Andrew Purchas said of the sponsorship, “We are very excited that AussieBum is joining us in welcoming the overseas rugby players and supporters to Sydney. The company is a very well-known and respected Australian brand in the gay community”.

The Sydney-based brand experienced a growth in popularity after it released it’s ‘Wonderjock’ line of size-enhancing underwear for men in 2006, the name being a play on popular push-up bra brand, Wonderbra. It sold 50 thousand pairs from the new line within seven days. Previously, it had come to the attention of gay men when it received prominent product placement in Kylie Minogue’s ‘Slow’ music video.

Aussiebum CEO Sean Ashby also commented, “We have been supporting the Bingham Cup from the beginning but we’ve been very impressed by the work being done by the organisers in the lead up to the event. We felt it was important to increase our support and help them host an even more spectacular week of events, parties and intense rugby games. Supporting the LGBT sports community is so important to me and AussieBum are proud to be supporting this great platform for sporting achievements in the gay community”.

As well as helping to host events on Bondi, Aussiebum will supply the players of the winning team with some of their innovative products, including sportswear, an area the brand is developing in. The brand is currently working with a variety of teams set to attend including the Brisbane Hustlers, London’s King’s Cross Steelers and the Chicago Dragons.

The tournament organisers also recently initiated the first ever international study into homophobia in sport to coincide with the event. The ‘Out on the Fields’ survey aims to shed light on the prevalence of homophobia among athletes and fans around the world, and is backed by former Welsh rugby star Gareth Thomas, as well as the Burgess brothers, who are Yorkshire-born but play for South Sydney Rabbitohs. It revealed in its study that four out of five athletes experience homophobia in sport.

The Bingham Cup is named after Mark Bingham, a member of the San Francisco gay rugby union team who died on the United Airlines Flight 93 on September 11. It’s believes he was one of the passengers who tackled the terrorists on-board, causing the plane to crash in a field. The Bingham Cup challenges stereotypes and perceptions of gay men.