CYBERSPACE—If one thing can be said for the executives at pleasure products manufacturer Crave, it's that they are adept at crowdfunding for their products.
When AVN last had contact with the company, it was to post a press release that was ostensibly to fund their then-new vibe Duet Pro, but in fact, the campaign was to fund a "pleasure tour" for Crave's "Design Factory," an Airstream trailer that contained not only a showroom and design studio, but also a workshop where people could build their own vibrator under Crave personnel instruction. The trailer was supposed to tour up and down the west coast, with multiple stops in Portland and Coachella, in April of 2018, and its Indiegogo campaign raised over $34,000 to make that possible.
However, we couldn't help but notice that one of the main perks available for a $99 donation to The Cause was Crave's Duet Pro vibrator, described as a "limited edition [that] combines the award-winning form factor of our popular Duet vibe with a web app that lets you develop custom vibration patterns and reload them on the vibrator as often as you like."
Sounds pretty good, right? And Crave ran out of them pretty quickly before the Indiegogo campaign closed.
But now there's good news for those who missed out on that offer: Crave has begun a new crowdfunder, this time on Kickstarter, which is all about the Duet Pro, which the company is calling its "newest vibe," and this time, the offering spends much of its page extolling the benefits of Duet Pro purchasers being able to program the vibe in the comfort of their own homes. The Duet Pro separates into two parts: The two-pronged vibrator head, and the USB-rechargeable base that also accepts programming from a proprietary app.
"What makes the Duet Pro really special is that it offers truly personalized pleasure with easy-to-configure vibration patterns that you can change as often as you like," the Kickstarter promises. "Because pleasure is never one size fits all!"
The programming is done through Crave's MyVibe app, whose private use is assured because a Duet Pro serial number matching the plugged-in base unit is needed to log on. Once online, the app allows the user to customize the intensity and duration of the vibrations the unit delivers.
But that's not all. Crave offers a "Build-A-Vibe" program that allows customers to build their own vibrator from a Duet Pro base via Crave's Virtual Build-A-Vibe Workshop.
"With the Duet Pro Build-A-Vibe experience, we will ship you the Duet Pro kit and join you via Zoom," the Kickstarter promises. "In this virtual group workshop, we’ll guide you through building and programming your Duet Pro and answer any questions along the way. We are offering group Zoom sessions (max 6 attendees) and a few special one-on-one Zoom sessions. The build takes about 45 mins to 1 hour and you can even choose the color of your Duet Pro"—as long as it's either purple or crimson. The virtual workshops will be offered on different weekdays during September and October.
Slightly troubling, however, is this claim in the Kickstarter: "We have completed our in-house design and development for the Duet Pro, and are making a small initial number of units available as an early release through this campaign, as well as through the Build-A-Vibe workshop. We will ramp-up to full production shortly thereafter, and distribute the campaign pre-orders before we launch the Duet Pro on our retail site." Wait; didn't Crave offer Duet Pros as a perk for helping to fund its "Design Factory" tour? Hadn't the vibe's design and development been completed at that time? Perhaps, though, the earlier perks were essentially prototypes, with the "finished product" only now having been completed.
In any case, those who'd like to fund the Duet Pro Kickstarter to the tune of $109 will receive a Duet Pro as a reward, and for a donation of $129, they get not only a Duet Pro but also an online Build-A-Vibe session.
The Duet Pro Kickstarter campaign may be found here.
