PARTNER CONTENT – MAS Holdings is recognised globally for its scale and innovation in apparel manufacturing, but when it began over 35 years ago, its journey started with a single product category – intimate wear.
With decades of experience in intimate wear, MAS Intimates, largest division of MAS Holdings, has grown from a single-product focus into one of the most significant divisions in the MAS ecosystem. Today, it manages a bra portfolio of 42 million pieces, a panty portfolio of nearly 170 million pieces, a 100-million-unit men’s essential business and a fast-growing apparel/ athleisure portfolio of over 20 million.
This division stands out as a “pinnacle lighthouse” within MAS, a term coined by Arosh Fernando, product lead for MAS Intimates, to describe how MAS has built an entire apparel ecosystem in Sri Lanka and become a market leader in intimate apparel.
From the early days as a business working with brands executing their product ideas to perfection, MAS Intimates has evolved into a product leader. “We now have a stake in the product we create for our brand partners from conceptualization through to delivery,” explains Arosh. “This approach has opened opportunities beyond just manufacturing and supply chain partnerships but transcending to create a new wave of engineers, R&D leads, innovators and designers to contribute creatively, positioning MAS as a comprehensive and competitive design-to-delivery solutions provider.”
At the core of this product leadership are MAS’ Centres of Excellence (CoEs). These specialised hubs bring together expertise in product innovation and cross-functional collaboration to drive category leadership across intimates, athleisure, swimwear, and beyond. The Intimates CoE blurs the line between brand and vendor, enabling MAS to not just manufacture but to ideate and refine products, ensuring performance, comfort, and design meet evolving consumer needs.
Consumer-Driven Product Innovation
A defining strength of the Intimates CoE is its ability to anticipate and respond to consumer needs, solving for real wearer problems while helping brands capture new market opportunities.
During the pandemic period, for example, demand shifted away from structured, wired bras towards wire-free designs prioritising comfort. Post-pandemic, consumers wanted some support back, but not at the expense of the comfort they had grown used to. MAS answered with new solutions – exploring alternatives to metal wires using thermoplastic elastomers, lighter-gauge metals, adhesive solutions, gel solutions and an array of substrates to deliver structure without rigidity keeping the wearer comfort as a true deliverable.
In men’s underwear, often seen as a pure commodity, the CoE often has to identify and solve problems that men didn’t even know existed. The scalable solution for eliminating the irritation of the centre back seam is a prime example. Infinity Bond waistband removes the centre-back seam that can cause irritation. Teams continue to offer other wearer solutions such as moulded pouch designs to improve support and eliminate seam pressure as well as stay in place solutions for leg ride up. These changes may be subtle, but they transform everyday comfort and, in turn, wearer satisfaction.
In panties, advanced raw cut bonding ensures a secure, invisible fit under clothing, and durable gusset technology enhances longevity and freshness without sacrificing softness. Solutions are provided for visible panty lines, moisture and sweat absorbing materials, shaping with comfort solutions – to name a few. These help the wearer feel confident, polished, and comfortable from morning to night.
This insight-led approach is powered by a combination of internal consumer research, trend monitoring, AI-driven analysis, and deep collaboration with brand partners, ensuring every innovation is relevant, scalable, and commercially viable.
Scaling Technology Without Losing the Human Touch
Scaling innovation while keeping products affordable is another MAS strength. For Arosh, “commoditising” does not mean making something cheap – it means creating elevated products that are scalable, accessible, and cost-effective without losing their essence.
MAS’ expertise and commitment to operational excellence allows for rapid scale-up when demand surges, as in a recent launch where production doubled within months, and MAS had to deliver the committed launch without compromising on the timelines. MAS is fast to adopt to new and ever-changing manufacturing methods such as “cut and bond,” “Fluid assembly,” and “Extrusion,” which are made viable at scale by investing in the right machinery, partners, and processes, so they can be produced at comparable cost to traditional “cut and sew.” Innovations are safeguarded through intellectual property protections or strategic brand partnerships, ensuring that quality and differentiation are preserved.
From Concept to Market
Product creation at MAS is a collaborative process involving commercial, design, R&D, and innovation teams from the outset. This ensures ideas are functional, scalable, and priced appropriately.
Equally important is how these products are presented to brands. MAS moves beyond “design presentations” to what it calls product engagements – sessions where the story of the product is told alongside its technical and commercial benefits. This storytelling is strengthened by data-backed insights, including objective validation from MAS’ biomechanical testing capabilities, which quantify performance factors such as pressure distribution and movement dynamics.
As Arosh puts it: “We create objectivity out of subjectivity. Instead of saying ‘this feels too tight,’ we can say ‘it is 3 newtons too tight.’” This unique capability enhances MAS’ ability to create evidence and data-backed narratives around product comfort and support.
The MAS Intimates Edge
MAS Holdings is redefining what it means to lead in the intimate wear category, combining consumer insight with apparel expertise, material science, and design innovation to help brands unlock new opportunities for growth and differentiation. By addressing wearer needs in bras, panties, and men’s underwear, MAS creates products that solve real problems while enhancing how the wearer feels.
This leadership is also shaped by the way MAS works with its brand partners. Arosh describes it as a “beautiful tango” – a relationship built on trust, shared intuition, and years of collaboration. Together, MAS and its partners co-create solutions that are not only commercially viable but also emotionally resonant, ensuring the final product truly meets the consumer’s needs.
It’s a philosophy that can best be described as engineering intimacy – blending performance, function, and emotional connection so that every product offers not just comfort and support, but confidence, ease, and a lasting sense of well-being.
