Depend (undergarment)

Depend is a brand of absorbent, disposable underwear and undergarments for people with urinary or fecal incontinence. The product line was first introduced in 1984. It is a Kimberly-Clark brand, and positions its products as an alternative to typical adult diapers. Depend is the dominant brand of disposable incontinence garments in the United States with a 49.4 share of the market.

Kimberly-Clark has been making Huggies disposable diapers for infants since 1978. In 1984, the Depend products for adults were introduced, pioneering the retail incontinence category in the United States.

Depend was originally test marketed as the Conform brand in Green Bay, WI. The original products begun being made in 1983 and were liners, available in regular and extra absorbencies. They could be worn inside underwear or alone, and were held on by small elastic belts. There were two absorbencies, regular to extra. In 1984, Depend Shields were added for slight incontinence in regular and extra absorbencies. These were intended for moderate to heavy bladder incontinence. Beginning in 1985, fitted briefs for heavy to complete bladder incontinence as well as bowel incontinence were added. The briefs were made in youth, small, medium, and large. There were various sizes in terms of packaging as well for all three lines of products. The briefs had a green plastic cover while in the undergarments and shields the green plastic was covered with a thin cloth like cover. In 1987, the undergarments were made in both cloth like non-woven covers and plastic covers. The products were sold in large, cardboard boxes initially.

The padding was originally similar to what had been used for disposable baby diapers like Huggies. In 1988, all Depend products began to use an Absorb-Lock core which turns to a gel when wet (as baby diapers began using this as well. In 1992, Depend Briefs were made in two different absorbencies, regular and overnight. The sizes were revamped to youth/small, Medium, and Large. In 1998, Depend added Pull Up Adult Disposable Underwear to their offerings. Initially, this was clothlike and had absorbency down in the middle and was not recommended for night-time use. They had two sizes, medium and lerge. In 2000, Depend Briefs went through a huge change. They began to be made in white with a very slight green tint. They were still made in regular and night-time absorbencies. Sizes remained the same.

In 1998, 3 dimensional pull-on underwear were introduced and these completely replace adult diaper style 'briefs' that had tape tab closures. They offered consumer a product which fit and looked much more like regular underwear. In 2001, refastenable disposable underwear that was pull up style with a tearable area on each side of the brief and tapes to convert to a tape on disposable brief. These were cloth like but had absorbency all the way up the front and all the way in the back with similar protection and absorbency to the fitted brief that was plastic backed. The other Depend Underwear products became more absorbent in 2005. In 2002, the Depend Booster pad was added as a product to add absorbency to any depend product.

...
Wikipedia