CHATSWORTH, Calif. – Longtime educator and retailer Kim Airs has joined Pipedream Products as resident sexpert and sales manager, the manufacturer announced this week. Capitalizing on her expertise gleaned from years in retail, business, and education, Airs will lead seminars, train retailers and distributors, and develop products for emerging markets.
Airs spoke exclusively to AVN Novelty Business magazine about her new role at Pipedream Products. After running her own shop, Grand Opening!, for 12 years and working as an educator, "I know what women want and what they're looking for," she says. Her role will be to figure out how Pipedream can increase its presence with the female-oriented segment of the market. "Women are really driving this business, becoming the consumers, especially in home parties," she says.
As such, Airs will concentrate on home parties and women-friendly retail. "My specialty will be the women-focused distributors and retailers. We have a really good variety of products that can relate more to women," she says. "That's not necessarily a major focus of Pipedream right now, but there are some outstanding products in the mix and I want to pull them out and highlight them."
With a background that includes a five-year stint in administration at Harvard University and seven years as a graphic artist, Airs brings a unique blend of qualifications to her post at Pipedream. "When I look at packaging I'm looking at it as a designer, a consumer, and a retailer-and now a manufacturer," she says, explaining that packaging can go a long way in making a product woman-friendly. With six artists on staff, Pipedream does much of its branding and packaging design in-house, allowing Airs to consult on their creation.
Of course, selling sex toys isn't just about packaging-it's about education. Airs has taught internationally since 1995 and is a Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts-certified educator and a charter member of the International Society for the Study of Women's Sexual Health. Primarily intent on teaching retailers and distributors how to find products that suit their customers, Airs will spend a significant portion of her time talking about sex—"without getting too technical," she says.
Even so, it's important that store owners and sales clerks realize the breadth of the female market—and the female form. "It really all goes down to knowing about anatomy," she says, "and getting away from the attitude that you just stick it in. Not everybody loves clitoral stimulation; not everyone wants to stick something inside. One size does not fit all."
Recognizing that shoppers crave different sensations can result in a sale that would otherwise be lost. Airs cites one model from Pipedream's Luv-touch vibrator collection as an example. An improbably round and rippled head protrudes from the device, potentially repelling particular customers. But instead of losing a sale, that's exactly when sales staff needs to step in. "It's a throbbing vibrator, so it's not like a regular vibrator," she says. "It's really good for a woman who thinks direct clitoral stimulation is too intense."
Knowing the function of the products—and having the ability to recommend items to women based on their pleasure preferences—is crucial. When retailers know these kinds of details about the products, she says, they can suggest appropriate purchases for shoppers and create the kind of friendly, open environment where customers can ask questions.
"We all know that education will sell toys. That's what it comes down to," Airs says passionately. "There's always going to be porno stores out there, but I want to make the retailers more aware that you don't have to say, ‘Oh, my girlfriend likes it.' That's a big reason I got into the business, because I had to shop at stores where they couldn't tell me about the products."
Grand Opening!, Airs' store, operated in Boston from 1993 to 2005, and is now a solely online operation. While she acknowledges that the internet has changed the sex toy business significantly, she believes that nothing can replace the personal touch of a helpful salesperson. "You can't see them or touch them online," she says, noting that there's also no way to test a product's vibration intensity or determine whether it emanates a displeasing aroma. "That's the kind of education I want to bring to the manufacturers and distributors. I consider myself an educator and a retailer."
And Airs has found a way to balance those two imperatives. "The thing that is so amazing about the adult industry-we know it's huge, it's a multi-billion dollar industry," she says. "You know what it all comes down to? You. It comes down to one person as a consumer. There are people who say, ‘how could anyone use that?' There are people who do."
Pipedream's COO, Nick Orlandino, is eager to see Airs lend her expertise to the company. "By adding Kim's years of retail experience to increasing product awareness and her vast sex education knowledge, she is a welcome addition to the Pipedream family," he says.
Airs, too, is pleased about her new role. "I just have so much fun in this business," she says. "I love it. I'm really happy to be here and be on this side of it."
