NEW YORK — With a calm, reassuring voice Brandon Bartling, the Pleasure Chest’s New York district manager, warned Amy E. D’agostina, founder of B Bella (WeAreBella.com),“this might be painful.”
D’agostina slowly pulled back her coat sleeve, exposing her bare wrist while Bartling turned on JimmyJane’s Hello Touch X. Brandon’s index and middle fingers, with Pleasure Pods attached to the tips of each digit, reached out and made contact — Amy’s pursed lips charged into a smile.
“[Brandon] prepared me for it be painful, so I was a little nervous. But when I felt it, I thought that this was amazing — just on my wrist — it was an amazing and relaxing feeling,” said D’agostina of the experience. “And honestly you could feel it from your wrist down to your toes.”
It was an amazing interaction to watch at The Pleasure Chest Thursday night (Feb. 5) at the erotic retailer’s Pioneering Pleasure VIP Event hosted with Jimmyjane. And summed up what the two companies do best.
The invite-only VIP event showcased the Pioneering Pleasure Installation at The Pleasure Chest’s Upper East Side location. The installations gave guests a visual guide at how, over the years, both companies have worked to educate the public about pleasure products, change their perspectives on toys and sex and how they’ve both revolutionized the industry with products and education.
“For us, we have approached the collaboration from a perspective of celebrating each other’s sex positive journeys along the way,” said Bartling of the event. “The Pleasure Chest has been around for a long time and Jimmyjane has been revolutionizing the industry for years. And together we set the industry standard for what we like to put out into the universe as far as the image of the sex industry.”
The Pleasure Chest’s sales team was on hand throughout the night to guide guests through the installation and to show off Jimmyjane’s two new products, the Form 5 and the Hello Touch X. The event featured several sensation stations where guests were encouraged to explore and experiment with the Hello Touch X’s features, which were new to many.
“I refer to [the Hello Touch X] as a ‘Gateway Toy’ because it has the vibrator attachment which is great and it also has the electro-stim attachment which is what I consider the ‘Gateway Toy’ part of the product,” noted Bartling. “A lot of people don’t approach electro-play because they are intimated by it. They are afraid of just the name itself: electro play sounds like you stick a fork in the light socket and you die.
“Whereas this introduces it to them in a way where you can use if you want to, try it if you want, but if you end up to nervous you have the vibrator that’s high quality that you can still use. So you can experiment with it. It’s completely safe. It’s a really great product. I use it myself and I think it’s one of the better products I’ve seen in a while.”
The Hello Touch X is also selling, “like crazy” at The Pleasure Chest and Bartling recently incorporated the product in an Advanced Blow Job class at the store.
“[The Hello Touch X] just inspires people to get creative. And I think with this energy from ‘Fifty Shades of Grey,’ and people trying to approach their sexuality in new and interesting ways, it’s the perfect toy to incorporate into your bedroom life in so many possible ways.” said Bartling.
