American condom makers have quit trying to sell them like ordinary products and awakened to the fact that they are about sex and sex is supposed to feel good, says BusinessWire.com.
And the news service says the industry is experiencing a renaissance at last, following "decades of stagnation and centuries of experimentation."
New materials, designs, and shapes are stirring worldwide interest, largely because several new ones mean safer sex can also be more pleasurable sex, Business Wire.com says. Which sounds like major progress from the latex condom born in 1843, after Goodyear vulcanised rubber.
The news service says the stagnation in the industry started changing a decade ago, thanks to serious competition from Japan, where several ultra-thin, purportedly more sensuous condoms such as Kimono MicroThin and Crown came to the United States "and turned the condom market on its head."
By 1997, though, the American market answered the Japanese with condoms promising safety and performance, such as the LifeStyles XtraPleasure, which featured a dome-like top for heightened sensation. Longtime condom stalwart Trojan took the hint, BusinessWire.com says, and introduced its own version, Ultra Pleasure last year.
There's also the return of the Pleasure Plus condom, introduced first in 1993 by an Indian physician. Its looser-at-the-tip, form-fit style became an instant sensation and it has returned to the market now, after financial troubles forced the product off the market four years ago.
You can learn more about the new wave of condoms by visiting www.condomania.com
