About Us

In 2017 our founder, Xander Shephard, was asked to make a binder for an FTM friend who couldn’t afford to buy a new one. Immediately, it was the most comfortable binder he had ever worn, and Xander realized how underserved the trans market was, especially for plus-sized individuals and people with chronic pain or sensory issues.

Struggling through gender identity questions of their own, Xander (FTX) finally decided they were “trans enough” as a nonbinary individual to produce a line of basic binders in 2018 and trademarked the name GenderBender in 2019. After many positive reviews extolling the comfort and quality, and a deep need to provide for the trans and nonbinary people in their life, Xander decided to expand the brand and serve others on the gender spectrum to help more people feel euphoric, represented, and valid in a world that is so binary. Soon they started making feminine swimwear for their partner Willow (MTX) and decided this was another incredibly important category to offer the community, both for safety and comfort. Willow later quit their dreaded day job to join the team, manage most of our order fulfillment, and make more time for performing in community theater.

Since then, we have served the trans community by producing gender affirming swim and shapewear solutions sustainably and locally. Since it is not always possible to carry pre-made items that will be perfect for everyone in our diverse community, we now offer a variety of different cuts, and can make alterations or fully customized items if needed. If it becomes financially feasible in the future, we would love to open our store to the community and add alterations services to our public menu. Everyday we think of new ways do do things better, and hope to get them to you as fast as we can within our limitations. 

Though it has been difficult to cover the costs, we are now working on getting some of our styles dyed to darker skin tones and make them more inclusive, since unfortunately ordering the minimum yardage required for our mill to make custom colors has never been affordable for us as a micro-business.

Your support and feedback means so much to us! Please reach out if you have something to say or would like to donate your work or lightly used gender gear, and we will see what can be done. Financial donations also help us move forward on projects and provide gender gear to those who need them! We send other organizations dozens of binders and gaffs each year, to avoid wasting things like slightly imperfect items that we know could still make a huge impact in someone's life.