Sometimes, being a gay man in a world of straight sex toys isn’t the easiest thing in the world. Just ask Jon Duede [pronounced due-DAY], a product developer and art director, who has worn a variety of hats at Topco Sales since he began working there nearly five years ago.
"When I started, we had a few gay products. Basically, I think they were products that straight people thought gay men might like," notes Duede with a laugh. "I'm certainly not the first gay person to ever work there, but I was one of the first artists who actually was gay and was very vocal about how we should repackage things, what we should do. And that kind of put a bug in their heads." About two years later, Duede got the opportunity to launch a gay brand at the 30-year-old company.
"They did it sort of cautiously: 'Let's see how it works, our gay products don't sell that well.' And I said, 'I'll make it easy: I'll use the products that we have and I'll just repackage the appropriate ones for men.' So I did a little research and I found out that we had to change the products themselves, because gay men have different needs. Like dongs... for gay men they needed to be firmer material to go in easier in the back; for women it's softer."
With a co-worker, Duede conducted more research and found some other key differences. "A lot of women like colors, but men don’t like to buy colors. They like Caucasian skin, natural colors, and African-American skin tones, and the color black really sold well. We also found out that penises molded from porn stars did really well."
So Topco changed the material, repackaged it, and branded it as Totally Gay Toyz. Then, starting with the basics, they changed the products to give gay men what they wanted: butt-plugs, dongs, and cock rings.
"We're slowly expanding the lines. We're developing products specifically for gay men. I developed one called The Docker... we also developed SensaFirm, which a lot of the products are made from. It's a little firmer, while CyberSkin is really soft. We have a 'Handy Andy', a male masturbator in the form of a little butt… and it has testicles. They're so cool. You squeeze the balls on the Handy Andy and they actually feel firm like testicles, but then there's CyberSkin around it which is soft. It's amazing material."
Totally Gay Toyz launched in January 2004, and it wasn't long afterward that famed director Chi Chi LaRue and Duede started talking about a relationship between La Rue's Rascal Video and Topco. The Bolt — a large silver bolt-shaped dildo — was the first movie product tie-in that Topco did with Rascal, followed by The NightStick toy from Hole Patrol. Chi Chi LaRue's ColleXXXion fully launched in January 2005.
"With the Chi Chi line, he is really pushing the edge of sex toys. Everything is approved by Chi Chi, and he comes up with the ideas on some of them. We present a lot, but he's also like, 'Hey, I'm doing this movie called Bolt… what can we do?'"
The Chi Chi line also features a collection of toys under the Live and Raw brand. "That's more mass-market, so we introduced color and we made them out of SensaFirm. And what Chi Chi does is use the toys and lubes online during the sex shows. So people can watch their favorite porn star use the same toy that they just bought."
Duede notes that the best-selling product from either gay line is the Johnny Hazzard dildo. The company will continue to release cocks molded from Rascal stars. Eddie Stone is available now and Brandon Lee is on the way.
Other partnerships have also proved fruitful. "We have a good working relationship with Jet Set, so the models on the initial gay line are all Jet Set models. And when we did our playing cards, we were like, 'We need a zillion pictures!' So it was just a natural to go to Specialty Publications." The cards branded with hit magazines Men and Freshman have also been strong sellers.
"One thing we did notice was that gay men are willing to pay a little more for nicer product. That's why our gay stuff on the Chi Chi line is a bit more expensive," Duede says. "That's been nice because we're able to put in more detail and spend more time on making the product better."
As for the future, Topco will do more movie tie-ins with Rascal, as well as expand of the Grrltoyz line: "We've tripled that line, and we're actually doing them more toward girl-girl than we were before," says Duede.
Duede would like to see the growth of branded toy sections in stores continue to grow, and he expects Topco to lead the way. "I'd like to see our gay line continue to grow," he says. "We have the basics there, but we want some more new innovative products that are for men. It will expand, but I can't actually say much at the moment. I don't want to sound cryptic, but we are developing a few products that were designed with what gay men actually do... products specially developed for what gay men need sexually."
Ordering info: 800-867-2601; [email protected]; TotallyGayToyz.com.
