Fleshlight History - Interview from S.E.X zine

Fleshlight History – Interview from S.E.X zine

Interview:

Steve Shubin: Inventor of the Fleshlight Artificial Vagina

A few years ago, when the first Fleshlight arrived at Xandria, everyone was immediately captivated. Here was something that looked for all the world like a big flashlight, but when you unscrewed the “lens cap,” what greeted you was a very realistic-looking artificial vulva and vagina, a very nifty male masturbation toy. Immediately, catchy slogans came to mind: “The perfect tool for your tool.” Xandria markets several other male masturbation toys, from vaginal sleeves to inflatable dolls, but the Fleshlight is one of our favorites. It’s beautifully realistic. And housed in its flashlight-like canister, it resonates for men with a unique sense of humor. How did it come about? And what kind of person created it? To find out, GET S.E.X. tracked down Fleshlight’s inventor, Steve Shubin, 47, a former Los Angeles country police officer.

S.E.X.: How did you develop Fleshlight? What inspired you?

Shubin: About seven years ago, my wife and I got some good news and some bad news. The good news was that she was pregnant–with twins. The bad news was that she was over 40 at the time. She’d already had several miscarriages. And the twins were identical, meaning that they were developing in the same sac. These factors added up to a very fragile, high-risk pregnancy, with a big risk of miscarriage. Our obstetrician told us: No intercourse until the twins are born.

On the one hand, the ban on intercourse made perfect sense to me. But on the other, hey, I’m a man, and the thought of no intercourse with my wife for her entire pregnancy didn’t sit too well. Sure, there was oral sex, and yeah, I had my hand and hers, but for me they’re just not a complete substitute for vaginal intercourse.

My wife and I have always been real open with each other about sex, and we began talking–joking really–about substitutes I could use temporarily until the twins were born. Not that I have such an enormous sexual appetite, but nine months seemed like a long time to go without. We weren’t into a mistress or hookers. And inflatable dolls with plastic vaginas were too tacky. So I began fantasizing–thinking out loud, really, about creating a realistic body sculpture with orifices that could be used for solo sex, then removed for cleaning. She said to me: You know, you really might be on to something. I was up for the challenge, and my grandfather had been an inventor, so maybe it was in my blood. We figured the project would take a couple of months and cost about $50,000 to get a marketable prototype and go into business.

S.E.X.: What did it actually take?

Shubin: Eighteen months and $750,000.

S.E.X.: Yikes!

Shubin: Yeah, it was a lot of money, but my wife was a former professional athlete who had done well financially. And we’d done well with some investments, so we decided to invest in body sculptures that had solo sex applications. In 1995, we got a patent on the idea — injection-molded full body sculptures, not blow-up dolls. They were very realistic and beautiful. But they were also very expensive. After retiring from police work, I’d run a few small businesses, and had a good feel for what it takes to make a business work. It soon became clear that we could never make the business fly financially by just selling full-body sculptures. So we decided to focus on the removable orifices, hence the artificial vulva/vagina.

S.E.X.: Where did the flashlight housing idea come from?

Shubin: I asked myself: What appeals to men? I figured: Tools. And I wanted the product to project a sense of humor, a recognition that all men masturbate, that it shouldn’t have to be this furtive thing. I figured that packaging with a sense of humor would make the product seem like more fun. I played around with a few tool ideas, but when I stumbled on a flashlight, the name Fleshlight immediately popped into my head, and that was it. We patented it in 1997. The title of our patent is: A Device for Discreet Semen Collection. Of course, the extra design work, and patent, and manufacturing ran into a lot more money. I’m no chemist or engineer or product-development guy, so there was a learning curve. I figure we’ve spent six years and $2 million to get Fleshlight well launched. Fortunately it’s done well. We’ve sold 80,000 so far.

S.E.X.: How did you come up with such a realistic-looking vulva and vagina?

Shubin: By taking molds from real women’s bodies. We went to the strip clubs in the San Fernando Valley near Los Angeles and pitched the dancers on modeling for us. We offered them $100 an hour to sit for a casting of their genitals. We used the same stuff dentists use to make dental impressions. You apply it like putty. It hardens. You pull it off, then redo it in clay, and use an injection mold to cast it using plastic-rubbery flesh-like material. Several strippers were very open to participating. We always had a woman present so there were no issues of soliciting or sexual harassment. Of course, our models had to shave off their pubic hair and use Vaseline so that the mold would pop off them once it had set. But all the women enjoyed working with us. It was easy money for them–just sitting with their legs spread, no dancing, no sex, no working a crowd for tips.

Once we pulled the molds off the models, we sculpted them a little to enlarge the vaginal lips and clitoris a bit. No woman I’ve ever seen has a vulva the size of the Fleshlight’s, but our enhancements make the product more appealing to look at and more satisfying to use.

S.E.X.: What about your family? What did they think of you going into the sex toy business with a male masturbation product?

Shubin: I’d never been in a sex-related business. At the time my wife and I came up with the idea, I had teenage sons from a previous marriage. We’d always been pretty open about sex in the family, and very open about the need to masturbate. In fact, I used to encourage my sons to masturbate before dates to calm the beast within, if you will, so they would be less likely to do anything they’d later regret with the young women they were seeing. So my wife and I simply told them what we were planning to do. At first, of course, our family conversations were all about the sex of it–men and masturbation. But after a few weeks, things changed and suddenly in the family we were discussing product development. My eldest son, who was just 20 at the time, got really into the technology of making the molds. He had quite a flair for it. Today, in addition to doing our molds, he now makes molds for Hollywood. He started out doing full-body molds of actors’ bodies for scenes where they get shot up. He’s branched out from there. Did you see the movie, Magnolia? At one point, it rains 10,000 frogs. He made frogs. Or how about the film, Centennial, where Robin Williams starts out as a robot? My son did his machine face.

S.E.X.: How have you marketed Fleshlight?

Shubin: At first, we thought our main market would be medical. We took it to Jocelyn Elders, the former Surgeon General who got dismissed for advocating masturbation. We took it to the Centers for Disease Control and AIDS researchers. Our idea was that county health departments could distribute them as a way to help prevent sexually transmitted diseases. The medical people we took it to all loved Fleshlight, but they were unanimous in the opinion that we should sell to the general public. So we did–through sex stores and catalogs like Xandria. The humor of the flashlight design has really helped. Guys often get a Fleshlight as a gag gift. Their first reaction often is: I’d never use this, but, hey, it’s cool. Then, of course, they start using it, and like it.

There are really two kinds of sex–solo sex and partner sex. To my way of thinking, they’re independent of one another. They satisfy in different ways. Partner sex involves love and intimacy and physical closeness. Masturbation is more of a straightforward physical release, or a personal time-out, a way to relax and dissipate tension. Every man does it. We’re just trying to make it a little more fun.

S.E.X.: Do you need lubrication to use Fleshlight?

Shubin: Absolutely. In fact, we provide some with it. You can’t use Flashlight comfortably — or for that matter, any male masturbation toy — without good lubrication.

S.E.X.: What kind of customer feedback have you gotten?

Shubin: That’s been the most rewarding part of this whole business. We’ve gotten a surprisingly large number of letters and emails thanking us. A few weeks ago someone wrote saying that we deserved the Nobel Prize.

S.E.X.: Do you have any new products in the pipeline that Fleshlight fans might be interested in?

Shubin: Yes, Sex in a Can. It’s an artificial vulva-vagina housed in a 24-ounce beer can. We think it’s even cooler and funnier than Fleshlight.