Let's face it: Most of the companies responsible for providing society with its most recognizable and marketable sex toys are basking in the sun out in the Wild West. The toys are flashy, flimsy, fake, hollow, and disposable, just like most of the Valley's inhabitants. These sex toys serve their purpose and they often serve it well, but new companies have emerged that are taking new, innovative marketing strategies and making higher quality product.
Jessica Ressler and her company Vergenza represent exactly that. The Vergenza product line was produced to create a high quality erotic tool for the modern lover. New York City-inspired and artistically driven, Vergenza has used several inventive campaigns to grow the company and introduce their product to the consumer in their first year in the game. Vergenza represents the young company throwing its dukes up to distribute on its own terms: A process that has made start up slower, but in the end, the company feels stores will rep them for the right reasons.
Approached about creating an erotic tool made of aluminum while obtaining her master's degree in business administration from New York University, Ressler was catapulted down a path that differed extensively from her fellow Stern College alums. Through research within the industry and the connections to make a high quality product, it became reality for her to create Vergenza.
The company remains All-American; each domestically produced, design-oriented, gender-neutral stimulator is fancy enough to leave on a coffee table. There are other high-end toys on the market, but Vergenza boasts East Coast like a Bad Boy Records rapper in the mid-90s. Infusing the NYC characteristic into a state-of-the-art item gives Vergenza an appeal that is relatively absent in the industry.
Basically, Ressler's New York City social life became an inventive outlet and target mission for the product and that remains very clear in her manifesto (Not sacrificing the day job for the dream job, Coming to the party in your own costume and leaving in someone else's) and the company's marketing (sponsoring and appearing at art shows, festivals, etc.).
"I'm a big nightlife person and I go out quite a bit," Ressler admits. "I had some party friends who are graphic designers and writers and this and that and they wanted to work on the brand. Nightlife is so important to New Yorkers especially. We wanted that to be another distinction of Vergenza as a representative of East Coast luxury. 'Cause people on the East Coast go out until 9 a.m., where on the West Coast you're done at 2a.m."
The MK-1, the company's launch product, is solid, aircraft-quality spun aluminum and embodies shameless sexual artistry. Available in five colors, including Chambord and Chrysler, the MK-1 measures 8.5 inches long by 1.25 inches wide, and is solid aluminum. Vergenza has also recently released larger sized products called the Presidential (9.5 inches by 1.5 inches), the Imperial (11 inches by 1.75 inches), and a smaller instrument, The Zephyr (5 inches by 1.25 inches). Vergenza's design is geared to be used in solo and couples entertainment. The double-ended handle allows for an adventurous experience unique among high-end products on the market. The MK-1, Presidential and Imperial feature six pleasure orbs for internal or external play.
"Our products are all solid. If you produce with steel, sometimes the product will be hollow. In terms of luxury, it is way chic to have a solid product," Ressler explains. "The weight is better, and aluminum is awesome because it holds temperature but doesn't overheat and cleans easily. It's great within the safety standpoint, and we wanted something that was indestructible. A product that could last a lifetime."
Not only does Vergenza have a strong mission and high quality substance, but the company was about artistry since jump street: not just sexual artistry, but also (and maybe even more importantly) about the artistry put into the shape of the product.
"We wanted our product to be about design and style because there's a need for that in the industry right now," Ressler explains. "It was to be centered around the East Coast, because a lot of the other companies are either West Coast or European. There wasn't a company holding down East Coast luxury. When we got the design, we knew it was perfect. It's very metropolis looking."
Ressler also takes great pride in her product aside from the design standpoint. "It's great within the safety standpoint and we wanted something that was indestructible," she said. "Vergenza can last a lifetime."
Sex and self-pleasure is no longer just distinguished to those within the industry, or simply hidden behind closed shutters. Yuppie America and the hipsters of the boroughs want to get off too and not blush about it. They want to do it in style. This is what Vergenza boasts. "Use this toy, but don't hide it in the sock drawer or throw it in the garbage after it's done its job." Ressler had made a product for the modern lover; her friends.
"We gave the prototype to 15 people of all different sexual orientations to try: gay, transgender, straight couples, etc., in order to form an eclectic review. Shamelessness was totally important," she says. "‘Verguenza' means ‘shameful' in Spanish. We wanted you to be able to leave your Vergenza erotic tools on your mantle."
And what makes Vergenza's heart pump is the company's evolving and inventive way of self marketing. The company will have a strong presence at the 2009 NYC Fashion Week, and will be sponsoring parties and a show with another designer. Employees will be a part of an ongoing art show under the umbrella of Michael Souter's "Narcissist Nation." And Ressler would like Vergenza products to be marketed in retail stores like a wine store in Brooklyn, or in hair salons. In fact, Vergenza is already being sold at a '20s-style lingerie store called Bijuels. And Vergenza products were featured exclusively in a gay Brazilian porn produced by Athletic Guild Models.
"We talked about having distributors. But for us, we decided that we wanted more control as to which stores carry our product. When using a distributor, they can put the product wherever they want. If it takes us longer to form and market our brand, that's fine, as long as we can maintain our integrity," Ressler states proudly. "We don't want to saturate the market with Vergenza products. It's more about being focused and offering our products at the right spots. If we went with a distributor we would definitely have more money, but we would risk the possibility of it being a one-shot deal. With a distributor, you don't form relationships with this store, and maybe create the opportunity of doing co-marketing with them; we want to be supporting the store through forming real partnerships."
In all of this economic despair that we are facing right now, nothing has kept Ressler and her brand from continuing to fight the good fight. She is determined to bring high quality craftsmanship to her product and distribute it in her own grassroots way.
"We're helping the economy," she explains about Vergenza's production. "The mill makes parts for antique cars and other things, and we offer another form of revenue for them. And it feels really good that we can help out this town in Oregon. Products are cut in one place, polished in another, colored in another, so it's this network and these people all working together on a regular basis, so we're supporting like three different factories."
Vergenza products are crafted in Oregon, which means Vergenza creates jobs for the area, as well as an uplifting and creative sexual tool.
"The failing economy isn't too intimidating for us, because we studied economics and we know the upswing is going to happen," Ressler says. "It's not emotional for us to see that people are hesitant to place a big order on an expensive product during difficult economic times, because we know it's going to turn around. It's all a matter of when. I feel people will figure out how exactly it is affecting them; then they'll be able to decide whether they do need to scale back their inventory or if they can add new products in. There will be a little bit less risk."
It hasn't taken very long for Vergenza to make an impact and inject everything it represents into the industry. And, most importantly, they have done it their way. Great material, sex-positive, eco-friendly, gender-neutral piece of art: both sexual artistry and conceptual artistry. With original and artistic marketing schemes, Vergenza has fused the sex toy industry with New York City's art world. What else does this young company have up its sleeves?
Ressler has an idea.
"In our dream world, we would be featured and sold at Colette in Paris and the MoMA store."
For more information, visit InspiredByVergenza.com .
