Fleshlight

How a SWAT cop invented the Fleshlight from a failed sex doll

Steve Shubin, a retired LA SWAT officer told to avoid sex during his wife's at-risk pregnancy, patented a sexual mannequin in 1998 and burned a quarter-million dollars on it. He pivoted to a single component only after a friend refused to take the whole doll into his house, and named it 'Fleshlight' brainstorming with his sons.

“And so he's like, dude, if my friend who wants this won't, like, can't buy this doll. This doll is dead. So that's why he pivoted from the doll to just the, just the, like, you know, just the organ part of it, just a single piece, one component. And so he's like, okay, how do we brand this? So him and his sons are brainstorming, and they're like, what do guys like? Guys like tools. Okay, this thing's kind of like a flashlight. Okay, we'll call this the Fleshlight.”

Fleshlight: a ~$100M/year company hidden in plain sight

Shaan estimates Interactive Life Forms, maker of the Fleshlight, does roughly $100M in annual revenue with over 100 employees, dominating the male sex toy market though it never reports figures.

“So the flashlight now These guys do, I believe, about $100 million in revenue. It's definitely above $50. They don't report it, but to me, I did some sleuthing, and I think it's a $100 million a year company, over 100 employees. They basically dominate the market for male sex toys now.”

Fleshlight's factory side business: elephant prosthetics

With excess manufacturing capacity across its Austin, Spain, and Asia facilities, the Fleshlight maker produces prosthetic legs for elephants maimed by landmines in Southeast Asia, becoming the top maker of elephant prosthetics in the region.

“Guess what they make? They make prosthetics for elephants who have had their legs blown off in the, you know, from where there's mines in Southeast Asia. So they are the top maker of elephant prosthetics in Southeast Asia. That's their backup. That's their side business.”

Make custom sex toy molds for OnlyFans creators

Fleshlight boosted distribution by casting molds of famous models and porn stars so they could sell branded products to fans. Shaan says today he'd run the same playbook with OnlyFans creators as the strongest distribution tactic.

“And so I was thinking, if you were going to do this now, you have OnlyFans, where, you know, I think a billion, billion-plus dollars is being paid out to their creators. I would go to OnlyFans creators, and I would do this— I would do that model for them. I think that would be probably the strongest distribution tactic you could get.”

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