Tyler McCombs | Top 40 Under 40 2025

Age: 36

Occupation: Founder and CEO, Devon + Lang

Tyler McCombs had the most unlikely inspiration for his future business. It happened when he was on a romantic Hawaii getaway with his wife and they were on a sunset stroll on the beach. Suddenly, his boxers started ripping and chafing.

Instead of panicking, McCombs used that wardrobe malfunction as inspiration to launch Devon + Lang, a company that makes “life-changing underwear.”

“We say ‘life-changing’ in a few different ways,” explains McCombs. “We want to not just change the lives of people wearing our underwear, but change the lives of people in our community, as well.”

Since launching in 2019, the company has grown from one employee to 10, and is projected to earn $3 million in revenue this year.

Devon + Lang’s men’s and women’s modal underwear fits a wide range of body types and comes in fun, colourful prints (including some designed by Canadian artists) ranging from bacon and eggs to dinosaurs. McCombs’s patented men’s design emphasizes comfort and is anti-chafing, of course.

But, creating supportive underwear isn’t the only way Devon + Lang is leaving its mark on the world. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the company made cloth face masks and donated more than $30,000 from the profits to local charities.

McCombs also donates new underwear to those in need. To date, Devon + Lang has donated 63,000 pairs of underwear to organizations like The Alex, The Mustard Seed and the Calgary Drop-In Centre. The company aims to donate 500,000 pairs to those in need by 2032.

“The more we can grow, the bigger impact we can have, the more we can give back,” McCombs says. “I want to be a brand that people look at and go, ‘Look what this company is and look at where it started: right here in Calgary.’”

Thank yous
“My amazing wife, Dayna McCombs; my wonderful parents, Cam and Jan McCombs; my daughters, Cambria Lang and Devonnae Mae; my mentors, Rick Jacobsen and Cayley Muir; my fellow warehouse buddies, Connor Curran and Dustin Paisley of Local Laundry; and the entire Devon + Lang team. With you, all of my wildest dreams have become a reality.”