LAS VEGAS—If one needed any evidence that adult has gone mainstream, one need only look at the number of non-XXX-rated companies exhibiting at the Adult Entertainment Expo for the first time—and perhaps not-too-surprisingly, several of them are offering health services of one sort or another.
But that's not to say that none of the new exhibitors are producers.
"Customs4U is a unique portal where you can order custom videos of your favorite adult film stars," explained company spokesperson Jamie McCann. "So you can go onto the website, pick the star of your choice, read a description and order your very own personalized pornographic videos. We have over 500 models at the moment, a lot of whom have appeared in XXX-rated movies. We've been up and running about six months now, and we've just launched our white label sites, so we're doing white labels for some of the big agencies, now looking to offer the same to some of the studios, and we're just about to launch our affiliate program as well, so it's really exciting."
Some of the more familiar names on Customs4U's available list include Adriana Chechik, Alex Chance, Alexis Texas, Allie Haze, Amber Chase, Angela Sommers—and those are just some of the "A"s!
Also on the floor is DDF Studios, a European-based production company that's been around for more than 30 years.
"Denys Defrancesco, our CEO and lead photographer, started as a glamour photographer and pretty much, when the internet came along, we were one of the first companies to put adult content online," noted DDF Studios spokesperson Paul. "It's now a network of 14 sites, and within the network are branded sites like HandsOnHardcore, which is a hardcore site; OneByDay, which is a glamour site; DDFBusty, specializing in busty women; HouseOfTaboo, which is our taboo site for BDSM; EuroGirlsOnGirls—we also have some porn star sites like CherryJewel.com, and we're seriously building a portfolio."
And why is DDF here at AEE? Content licensing—so if you've got footage to sell, check out their booth in Muse Hall.
Since the fans were not yet in attendance, it was a good day for AVN to hit more of the first-time exhibitors, including the very-brand-new My Private Pillow, whose shape disguises a multitude of uses.
"The idea is, you take a conventional pillow and give it a purpose," said inventor Bob Cutler. "Everybody has a sleeping pillow that they love and that they'll never give up. But they also have four or five other pillows on their bed that they never use. A lot of them have shammy covers or duvets or whatever; they don't use them; they're decorative. So we thought, why not give a purpose to the pillow? Why not use it to hide things that you don't want other people to find? You might have things on your nightstand that you might not want your kids to see if they open the door, or you might not want your maid to find, or maybe you're a little embarrassed that you don't want your lover to know that you pleasure yourself. But whatever your schtick is, this is something you can use to hide products. And it also has the additional use of, besides pleasure products, you can use it to hide cash, jewelry, passport, anything else you like."
Among those offering gadgets that give you an automatic massage simply by attaching a couple of pads to the "affected area" is Vitality, which had two booths on opposite sides of Muse Hall, which also hosts the major video production companies. Vitality offers TENS machines—"Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation" units which have been used by physiologists and chiropractors for decades to relieve muscle pain—but never has the unit been reduced to such a small size, measuring less than two inches by one inch and less than half an inch thick. Vitality offers units specialized for shoulders, backs, even feet—and if you're not into the whole electrical thing (don't worry, they're completely safe), they also stock wire head massagers and other comfort devices. In fact, Vitality, which has been around for 14 years, has nine locations around Las Vegas, some of which offer aqua massage and have oxygen bars.
Also offering tiny TENS units is Smart Massagers, whose spokesperson Shay Asraff described as, "Basically, this is your home chiropractor. This unique device has been available for almost a year, and most of the chiropractors use something like it, but ours is one of the smallest units you can get. It's going to be very portable for the people while they're flying or they're driving; they can use it all the time, 24 hours if they need it." Besides the usual electrodes, Asraff also offers TENS belts and shoes for folks with specialized areas of pain.
Also on the floor are a couple of companies offering medical services of one sort or another. One that's sure to attract the attention of adult stars and wannabes is Dental 90210, run by Dr. Richard T. Sprague—and what he offers seems almost unbelievable.
"We do whole mouth reconstruction in one day," stated Sprague's assistant Allie Everett. "We'll put you up at a hotel, cover your food; the only thing you have to pay for is your flight. We'll do everything in one day, make you the perfect smile that matches your body. We're located in Beverly Hills and we have another office in Orange County. Wherever you want to be, we'll put you up. We do dental reconstruction, we do bleaching, we do root canals, we do implants—anything you need, we've got you."
And speaking of looking good, there's Feels Good, Inc., a company offering hair extensions and other hair products—and the nice thing about their booth is, if you buy a product there, it can be fitted right there at the booth, which is equipped with salon-style mirrors and makeup—and to keep you looking good, they also sell hair strainers, curling irons and "anything you need for hair care," said spokesperson Joseph.
Of course, what would a convention be without companies offering male performance enhancers, and among year's new arrivals is Mo-Chi Products.
"Basically, it's a male performance enhancement strip that took me four years to design," said company owner Roland Sarria. "It's an all-natural product. You seldom get a headache like you get from a lot of the pills. It doesn't give you a stomach ache, doesn't give you a bad taste in your mouth like when you swallow a pill, so it's a trifecta, I think. I think it's a wonderful product and will help a lot of people.
"It dissolves on your tongue, and within a few minutes, it goes into your reproductive system at an unbelievable speed, where it creates the erection a lot quicker than a pill," Sarria claimed.
But there are plenty of other ways to get off, and new exhibitor Sinsations offers a full line of organic body products, starting with sex butter, massage oil, all 100 percent organic, most of them homemade at the company's headquarters right here in Las Vegas. But that's not all.
"We also make custom line of marble dildos, which are very popular," said spokesperson Jamie Reiter. "I know I've seen today the glass and wood ones, but the reason you haven't seen marble dildos a lot until now is, it takes a long time to make them, and it's pretty hard to do it. We re also coming up with a line of vibrators that will be made in Las Vegas." (Those, however, won't be made of marble.)
Another "pleasure products" vendor is XXXVapor, whose founder Joshua Berkowitz chose the name because he markets his line of vaporizers, electronic cigarettes and "e-sticks" to the adult community.
"We offer a complete line of e-juices, e-liquids which are basically nicotine replacement therapies, something to use in place of a cigarette indoors," Berkowitz said. "A lot of our customers use them for dried herbs and wax concentrates as well, and conceivably even medical marijuana. We also have a whole line of clothing, gear, calendars and all the collateral that go to support all of our adult marketing efforts. We're working with some major studios to give away promotional access to their websites when you buy a vaporizer from us. We offer six flavors of e-liquids currently, and we have four more coming out, and we offer three different strains of nicotine in them. Right now, we have Poppin' Cherry, Rock Hard Banana, Sexalicious Strawberry, Busty Blueberry and TouchMe Tobacco."
Speaking of pleasure products, Dreams And Sins is a Brazilian-based company offering a product we haven't seen in a long time: edible clothing.
"We sell edible panties, edible patches, edible underwear for men, and they're different from the ones currently on the market because they're FDA-approved, they're made of polymers, the same thing they use for capsules for medicine, so it won't harm you at all," explained company spokesperson Fernando. "The other panties that are edible, you have to tie them on the sides so they stay on. This one, the women can wear like regular panties. We have two sizes, one regular and one plus size. The regular one fits all, but if the figure is a little chubby, they can use the plus size, and they all stay up without elastic. We have strawberry flavor, chocolate, lemon, mint, orange—a lot of fruits. In Brazil and South America, they've been on the market for about 10 years, and now is our first time here. We have an office in Miami, and we're now working to build a market in the United States."
Interested in something a little more kinky? Why not try Latex Catfish, a custom latex company that specializes in latexwear.
"We do catfish, dresses, anything you can imagine," said a spokesperson. "We've got the blow-ups, the inflatables, we've got our sleepsacks, which suction the air out for a more restrictive kind of bondage; and then obviously cat suits, club dresses, and for the men, we have bondage gear, chastity, all that sort of stuff."
Then, of course, there's one of the ultimate pleasure products, The Grey Sex Machine, offered by Grey Pleasure Enterprises.
"The Grey Sex Machine, like the color grey, is a machine that spans the spectrum from white to black," said company owner Lester Rodriguez. "It's a machine for anybody, any kind of couples, any sexual preference: Straight, gay, lesbian, bisexual, vanilla, kinky—everybody gets benefit from this, because it's designed to be converted to a lot of different sex devices. By simple adjustments, you can get a lot of sex positions. You can move these pieces around and make all different kinds of shapes, and using this piece as the bottom, you can connect it to a motor and it will move for you. It's not a vibrator, but it moves the seat, and you can control how fast it moves depending on how fast you want to have sex. I designed it myself, I invented it, and now I'm having it made in a factory in China, and the quality is really good."
Rodriguez is offering a show special on the Grey Sex Machine" $100 off the list price of $999, though the motor that moves the chair's seat will set you back an additional $599.
"There will be more pieces to come in the near future," Rodriguez assured, "that will allow you to convert it to a sex swing, to use for different kind of bondage and other things."
One exhibitor who made the smart decision to show his wares at AEE is Sean Ting of new mobile phone company TING. Though based in Canada, TING serves the U.S. market by making the vast majority of its sales over the internet. But why choose AEE to market his service?
"We've actually been asked that a lot," Ting grinned, "and the way I look at it is, what does everyone here carry in their pocket? What is the most relevant thing to every person in this room? It's their cell phone. There probably isn't one person in this room that doesn't have a cell phone or two on their person. And the way we looked at it is, the major carriers are probably too scared to come to a convention like this, and we aren't. We just want to help people save money; that's it."
And how does TING save subscribers money? "We do things a bit differently," Ting answered. "We charge people based on the minutes, megabytes and messages they use, so you only pay for what you use instead of locking yourself into a contract or plan, where you end up overpaying and underusing, so we can save people typically about 40 to 60 percent a month just by coming over to our service."
And what adult industry member doesn't want to save money?!?
Perhaps the most interesting gadget on display is the "Squirt Watch" from O Research, whose both is aptly named "Time to Squirt."
"The Squirt Watch was actually designed by Marcus London, who says he can make every girl in the world squirt," said company spokesperson Aaron Headley. "So what we did was, I measured exactly what he was doing, the right force at the right speed, and I put it in a watch. So what you do is, you actually wear the watch, and you use the technique 'I Love You G-Spot,' and if you can get to two green lights—it goes red, yellow green, and if you can get to two greens, you're matching his force and frequency. And when that happens, you basically make the girl have a swinging orgasm."
Since London was also at the booth, we asked him how the idea for a Squirt Watch first came about.
"Honestly, he [Headley] tracked me down and he said, 'You're reputed to be the best, pretty much, certainly in the country, at making women squirt. I want you to see this product, I want you to try it, I want to measure your force, your speed, and I want to use you, input all your data into this to make it the first squirt watch of all time'," London explained. "I said, 'Fine, I'll try it; if it works, I'll put my name on it if it does what it says.' He measured me, hooked me up with electrodes, hooked me into this machine he has. I made Devon [Lee] and a few of the other women squirt; my measurements were way off the chart, and they decided, 'Okay, we're going to import the amount of force and speed to put into the device, and we'll market it, and it's your watch.' It's been pretty much three years in the making. This is the third version; I have all versions at home; they're all the same, all just as good; it was really just the design, how it was going to look. Obviously, originally, we wanted it to tell the time as well, but there was so much R&R gone into it, it would have been a rebuild. The next one after this will be one that tells the time, and it'll have a stopwatch you can use at the gym, but it'll also be a Squirt Watch that you can use at the same time—and then they’re doing me a James Bond one, which is a special one just made for me!"
(We can't wait to see the movie that employs that one!)
