Steve Grand Shows Off Surprise in Skimpy Posing Suit

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You might not remember Steve Grand. He went viral all the way back in 2013 as a gay country singer who self-released a hit titled "All-American Boy," and found himself with a swell of support. We named him to our Out100 list that year, and in 2014, he started a Kickstarter to self-release his debut album that raised $118,000 in 17 hours. Though his music career has cooled since then, he's grown and kept quite a legion of fans, funneling it into his swim and underwear company Grand Axis which eagle-eyed fans have been ogling over images of recently.

In a recent post from his Grand Axis account on X (the platform previously known as Twitter), Grand stands in the waters of Chicago's Hollywood Beach wearing his Grand Axis Posing Suit. The $46 piece is a favorite of Grand's as he is often seen wearing it. The post included Grand's now customary note that he is not wearing a smoothing cup insert. But followers have spied what they believe to be a surprise: a chastity cage.

For those unaware, chastity cages can be and are worn in and outside of sexual contexts and can be worn fairly discreetly under clothes. But underneath the already skimpy suit, the ridges of the cage and the locking mechanism seem to be visible. And to that we say: live your life.

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Grand's launch of Grand Axis was interesting. As he enjoyed some of the heights of his initial viral stardom — U.S. Marine Tanner White invited him to the 2015 Marine Corps Ball via a video online — he found himself at the center of a sort of "controversy." In the summer of 2015, he posted a photo to Instagram in a speedo on a boat while hanging out in Chicago. Fans and followers began to lob criticisms in the comment section.

"I've seen a small number of gay men criticize my choice of swimwear for being immodest and 'stereotypically gay,'" he said in an interview about it all. "People are entitled to feel however they feel, but again, I wear what I wear for me and not for them; because it makes me feel good. I'm not looking for everyone's approval all of the time."

"And frankly I don't care what some may consider to be a gay stereotype or not, and anyone using that as some kind of jab is probably grappling with their own internalized homophobia," he continued. "I wear what makes me happy."

Grand told Out in 2020 that in ways, the discourse helped him grow.

"I would say that any criticism I faced on this front, while painful at the time, gave me the opportunity to address this conflict within me," he told Out over email, referring to a conflict between just being seen as a music artist and a desire to be seen in swimwear that made him feel sexy. "Once I had worked through that, it freed me to be able to embrace all these different dimensions of my personality, including my love for men’s underwear and swimwear. And I figured that since I was already going through the trouble of having custom swimwear made to my precise tastes, that I should probably go ahead and have them produced so other guys out there could enjoy them as well."

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Grand Axis is a men's premium underwear, swimwear, and gym wear company created and designed by Steve Grand. Launched in 2019, sizes range from small to 3XL. For Grand, the design principle was simple.

"My primary focus was designing the swimwear to give guys the appearance of a nice, full-package without pushing everything too far out and forwards," he told Out over email in 2020. "You want enough fabric to cover everything and have it be comfortable enough, but you want it to also be tight enough to give that full, bursting-out look that I'm personally a fan of."

Bestsellers have included gym shorts, mini-briefs (which is the brand's signature style,) thongs, and bikinis. After launching as just underwear and gym wear, the brand expanded to swim in the fall of 2020.

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Mikelle Street

Mikelle is the former editorial director of digital for PrideMedia, guiding digital editorial and social across Out, The Advocate, Pride.com, Out Traveler, and Plus. After starting as a freelancer for Out in 2013, he joined the staff as Senior Editor working across print and digital in 2018. In early 2021 he became Out's digital director, marking a pivot to content that centered queer and trans stories and figures, exclusively. In September 2021, he was promoted to editorial director of PrideMedia. He has written cover stories on Ricky Martin, Miss Fame, Nyle DiMarco, Jeremy O. Harris, Law Roach, and Symone.

Steve Grand Shows Off Surprise in Skimpy Posi​ng Suit