As an 18-year veteran of the sex toy business, Meghan Dunkel has witnessed plenty of the industry’s ups and downs. One of her big takeaways: Only the most committed end up staying.
\n \n \nIf your customer’s sex toy collection doesn’t include a pulsating purple unicorn or a rose equipped with a tongue, it may be time to introduce them to Viben Toys.
\n \n \nStill, the inclement weather can’t stop Edwards from doing something he’s done for most of his adult life: talking shop. About six and a half years ago, as soon he turned 18, he joined Condom Sense. His father, Mike Edwards, started the company in the 1990s.
\n \n \nMeet Rose MacDowell and Sarah Riccio, co-founders of the online pleasure product hot spot Delicto.com. Since 2021, these business owner besties have been slinging vibes and dildos while openly sharing their love for self-induced orgasms on social media — a strategy that has earned Delicto half a million followers on TikTok.
\n \n \n“We work in an industry where trust, follow-through and service matter just as much as product quality,” declares Viben sales exec Kara Liburd. “Retailers today want analytics, marketing assets and deeper product knowledge, and brands are stepping up to provide that support.”
\n \n \nWhat does it take to stand out in the industry these days? How about a “Live, Laugh, Cum” keychain?
\n \n \nFifteen years ago, Efren Méndez and a friend walked into a sex shop. They were looking for nothing more than a few items for a party. Instead, the moment altered the direction of his career, and ultimately his life.
\n \n \nKyrie Hara is making significant moves. After racking up sales and general management experience during her 14-year run with Hawaiian retailer Sensually Yours, Hara has quickly embraced her role as the newest U.S. sales lead with Japanese manufacturer Tenga.
\n \n \nOver the past 13 years, Svakom has built its brand on sensuality and emotional intimacy, focusing on elegant design, wellness-oriented messaging and accessible pricing for vibrators and couples’ products — what the company often describes as “affordable luxury.” Recently, however, the company has had to adjust its traditional marketing tactics to fit one particular category steadily gaining prominence: male masturbators.
\n \n \nFor transgender folks shopping for pleasure products, it can be a daunting challenge to find items that accommodate their changing bodies, address their specific needs and support gender affirmation during intimacy.
\n \n \nManaging adult retail stores in Florida and Texas has never been for the faint of heart, but lately it’s become a veritable high-wire act. Between new legislation and shifting local attitudes, it seems like every day brings a new obstacle.
\n \n \nWhen POS systems malfunction or fail, Zondre Watson is Ero-Tech's go-to tech guy. A self-described “data geek and eternal retail rebel,” Watson knows adult retail inside and out. He’s experienced the sex toy industry as a store manager, sales data enthusiast and web developer.
\n \n \nRecognizing high demand and interest as profitable pleasure products spread across influencer platforms, in 2021, Jamael Williams and Heather Gruber decided to launch a company with a clear mission: to help men feel more comfortable using pleasure products and talking about them with their partners.
\n \n \nFor years, the mainstream lingerie market has been shaped by narrow beauty standards and cisnormativity, with little room for gender diversity. Most lingerie is designed to fit cisgender female bodies, while trans people are often forced to go DIY with uncomfortable solutions like pantyhose, duct tape and ill-fitting shapewear.
\n \n \nIf your kink wear can’t readily make the leap from a dark BDSM dungeon to a sunny, mimosa-fueled brunch, you haven’t yet been initiated into the cult of the Neon Coyotes — fresh, leather kink wear brand transforming restraints into runway-ready art.
\n \n \nSpicerack Market is an ecommerce platform with the heart of an artisan crafter and the soul of a kinkster. On the website, independent sex toy makers, lingerie seamstresses and kink gear craftspeople can set up a personalized shop to sell their handmade wares, unhindered by censorship or bans on adult products.
\n \n \nMelinda Myers, the founder and owner of Good Relations in Eureka, California, was still in college when she got invited to attend her first pleasure products home party.
\n \n \nFew personal health products have inspired descriptions quite so bold as “If Neosporin and Aquaphor had a baby, and that baby became a crime-fighting superhero for your skin.” Then again, even fewer can live up to their own hype.
\n \n \nThe adult industry and the mainstream Hollywood scene often intersect, and few executives are more familiar with that crossover than Dennis DeSantis.
\n \n \nWhere can you find the pleasure industry’s most tantalizing, trending and relevant conversational banter? For once, we’re not talking about a trade show after-party!
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