Things had started to wind down by 11 a.m. when I arrived at the Adult Novelty Manufacturers Expo at the Sheraton Universal Hotel. On its third day, the show was slated to close at two o’clock, and some exhibitors were already beginning to pack up their wares.
Before venturing into the main ballroom where the major manufacturers held sway, I decided to investigate the show’s adjunct venues.
A strip of Terrace Suites next to the pool area housed about 25 smaller offbeat companies, including Simply Thongs (lingerie), Rub My Duckie, Pussy Shaver, Doctor Love’s Adult Products, Glass Erotica for Sensual Living, and System JO (oils and lotions).
Flesh Cards is always a standout, with its MaXiMotion lenticular photo cards with porn stars like Carmen Luvana who expose their breasts when tilted the right way. Fred Schechter, the hyper-enthusiastic owner, proudly showed off the “rocking swinger” frames he supplies to retailers, as well as his theft-proof display cases.
Even more fascinating exhibitors — 26 of them — awaited at the top of the hotel in the Roof Garden area.
The first to catch my eye was an old friend, Hall of Fame director Candida Royalle. Her novelty line, Natural Contours, like her Femme Productions, is distributed by Adam & Eve. That company’s Bob Christian and Dutch designer Kitty Speelman joined her at the booth.
Royalle’s elegantly designed massagers, marketed as “sexual care products,” are utterly unique — so much so, she said, “that women need to know how they’re used.”
She showed off a new item called the Energie, a “kegel exerciser” for stimulation of the vaginal muscles. It also hits the G-spot, she said, adding, “I find it very sexy.” Her top seller is the Ultime, which fits around the pubic bone to stimulate both the g-spot and the clitoris.
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Royalle said the line has been very successful in the mainstream market, thanks to widespread coverage in women’s magazines. Her purpose in coming to ANME was to “re-introduce it to the adult market. We want to get the adult market to catch up.” The reaction from distributors, she said, had been extremely positive.
She also revealed she has a new sex advice book, How to Tell a Naked Man What to Do, coming from Fireside-Simon & Schuster in October. And her latest Femme movie, Caribbean Heat, shot in Panama, is being readied for a winter release.
Back downstairs, in the main ballroom, the six-person staff of California Exotic Novelties was still taking care of customers in its extensive network of showrooms.
“We’ve been getting very good traffic,” enthused Cal Exotics marketing director Al Bloom. “Not just distributors and the big store chains this year, but more of the people with three or four stores, and single-store people too.”
No one was being ignored. Even people who said they’re only thinking of opening a store were attended to. “We love to see retailers here. It helps our branding,” Bloom said. After all, he explained, the guy who has one store this year may have two or three next year and a chain of them somewhere down the road.
Customers were pouring in not just from all over the country but from around the world. It was quite a change, Bloom said, from the first ANME nine years ago when just one room contained the five founding companies: Cal Exotics, Doc Johnson, Nasstoys, Pipedream and Topco.
(Coincidentally, as we spoke, a retirement luncheon was about to get under way on the fourth floor for Doc Johnson’s Mary Fried, a much loved adult industry veteran.)
Bloom pointed out that none of the hundreds of items on display were for available for purchase — yet. On view was a showcase of their new releases for the next six months. Every item was in its finished package — no mockups — but available only by pre-order. It was the adult novelty equivalent of a fashion designer kicking off a new collection.
“Nobody does it like this,” Bloom said. “[Cal Exotics owner] Susan Colvin has a different vision of this industry.”
A quick look around revealed three new decks of playing cards (Bloom said he designed the first adult playing cards in 1978) from Cal Exotics’ Video Team/Afro-Centric collection: My Baby Got Back, Mamacitas and Asian Invasion, for lovers of black, Latin and Asian women, respectively. They’re named after Video Team series.
The line includes new vibrators and female-friendly toys from the Daisy Collection, the Lacey Collection and the India Collection — modeled on Video Team starlets.
It was especially pleasing for Video Team owner Christian Mann, who told AVN.com, “I’m excited that Cal Exotics recognizes the value of ethnic marketing for adult toys. Nobody does it with as much class, and it’s a pleasure to be associated with them.”
Back up on the roof I did a bit more exploring and found a truly novel novelty: the Make Your Own Dildo kits from Empire Labs of Portland, Oregon. Owner Joseph Hanson said the DIY penis-molding kit, eight years old, has become an international sensation — it’s now available in six different languages. They also cast vaginas, buttocks, hands — “If you’ve got it, we can make a copy of it.”
Another crowd-pleaser was The Bonkum — a system of leather slings on steel stands anchored by a bed’s box springs. Bonk Designs owner Jordan energetically demonstrated the wide variety of positions available to both females and males. “It’s good for pregnant sex, elevated sex, elevated conception, light restraint, oral sex,” he said. The uses are many, not only for pleasure seekers but for those with disabilities, bad backs, broken limbs. Jordan was previewing his new Body Slings, an adjustable harness of straps and chains.
CPI, a division of Minnesota-based Copperplate Publishing, creates sexually themed greeting cards and stationery in female-friendly packaging. Spokeswoman Jennifer said they started selling to lingerie stores, still a big market for them, but that they also do well in high-end novelty stores like Hustler Hollywood.
Coming from Montreal for their fourth ANME show was Shunga, a line of lotions, gels, creams and lubricants packaged in exquisitely painted Japanese erotica-style artwork, all original. Shunga was introducing a silicone lubricant called Toko, meaning Forever.
Another standout was JT’s Stockroom, a BDSM-oriented manufacturer whose fetish items are made in Los Angeles and have been marketed only on the Internet since 1987 (at stockroom.com). They recently purchased Daedalus Publishing with its catalog of “kink-related” titles. Spokesperson Heather said they sell to stores and wholesale accounts and came to ANME to pick up new stores and distributors.
There was lots more. You Want It We Got It specializes in “Lil’ Willies,” four-inch penis figurines for toys, pens and keychains. Dr. Joel Kaplan, well known for his Vacuum Pumps for Male Enlargement, debuted a new tool for Clitoral Enhancement.
Also: Greggo Magnets: small photo magnets in four sets: Pussy, Cock, Tits and Ass; Head Candy, from L&M Distributing; and Gasworks, a Florida-based company featuring a G-string made of tiny candy mints.
Cards, candies, creams and keychains — adult novelties are no longer just your basic battery-powered dildo. This year’s ANME show covered the whole spectrum of this rapidly growing and increasingly innovative industry, and both sellers and buyers seemed to having a pleasurable and profitable time.
