Wow-Wi: Adult’s next big thing?
Looking for something a little different in the sex toy sector? We may have just the thing for you...
There’s a BBC 2 reality series which has recently reached the end of its run called ‘Britain’s Next Big Thing’. It followed a number of designers in their quest to get their products stocked by influential retailers such as Boots, Liberty and Habitat. The programme was quite watchable, with Theo Paphitis as presenter and designer haranguer, and the big retailers were remarkably candid regarding their volume and price expectations.
The buying teams were also encouraging, approachable and patient - admittedly this may have been because the cameras were rolling, but they really did want to find the ‘next big thing’. Adult retailers are no different in this respect.
Being first to market with a new product can be obviously quite lucrative but for every new We-Vibe that is launched there are countless other also-rans that turn into dust collectors...
Someone who believes he has created Adult’s Next Big Thing is Rob Stephenson. Yes, he does (almost) share a name with a famous author and it was another Stephenson who designed the legendary Rocket steam locomotive, but we’re not here to talk about coincidental trivia, we’re here to discuss the Wow-Wi. Wow-Wi is not his first invention. In 1998 he applied for a patent for a CD gift box. He failed to get the prototype into production and when the patent
lapsed, and the design went into the public domain, someone else picked up on the idea and it is apparently still being manufactured and sold in the USA today. Although this would have made most of us extremely bitter, Stephenson now thinks of this episode in his life as a valuable lesson in how expensive, time-consuming and difficult it is to get a prototype into a commercial product.
THE JOY OF SIX
Wow-Wi began life as a completely different device and it evolved into a sex toy when Stephenson noticed that the motion it created resembled the action of
Rob Stepehnson: “The Wow-Wi is unique in many ways and could well be a huge worldwide seller.” 42
Erotic Trade Only June 2011
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