Hardware

Sex toy startup LELO gives the condom a design-savvy makeover

Comment

Image Credits:

Stylish sex toy maker LELO is introducing something to go along with its pleasure-centered machinery today – condoms.

There’s already a mind-blowing amount of prophylactics readily available at your local corner store, but what’s the difference between any of them? “Zero!” says LELO founder Filip Sedic.

His sex toys launched to much enthusiasm over a decade ago and Sedic has been introducing pleasure producing products ever since. The company’s newest brand, LELO HEX, is a condom utilizing innovative technology to make them stronger, longer-lasting and thinner (for his pleasure).

“You want something with a good feel or you want something super strong. That’s the choice and sorry, but I don’t think you have a good feel if you put condoms on top of one another,” Sedic said of the current state of the condom industry.

And those limited choices leads to a continued fall in usage worldwide, Sedic contends. In other words, men don’t like using something that dulls their enjoyment.

Some might see it as a lame excuse – and safe sex is sexy btw – but if some men aren’t using condoms because there’s a problem with the structure then there’s a problem with getting them to use them.

So Sedic decided to do something about it by restructuring the way condoms are made. His hexagonal design is laid over the sheerest of latex material to create a razor-thin thin membrane, thus allowing the wearer to feel more friction and reduce both slippage and breakage during intercourse.

[graphiq id=”aa9THbSg89n” title=”Percent of Contraceptive Users That Use Each Method” width=”600″ height=”528″ url=”https://w.graphiq.com/w/aa9THbSg89n” link=”http://birth-control.healthgrove.com” link_text=”Percent of Contraceptive Users That Use Each Method | HealthGrove”]

A brief history of the condom

A better condom is a lofty promise – prophylactics haven’t had much in the way of innovation for 70+ years.

For those of you wondering how condoms came to be and why a change is so significant – the first mention of condoms dates back to Egyptian hieroglyphs, but the first person ever recorded using one of these trusty rubbers was a 15th Century physician in Italy named Gabriele who was looking for a better way to prevent the most common sexually transmitted disease at the time, syphilis.

Then lots of folks started using homemade condoms from sheep guts and other animal innards to prevent pregnancy and disease. Sometime around the mid-19th to early 20th centuries major players like Durex and Trojan started mass producing these sheaths in rubber, but faster and cheaper and condoms became the best form of birth control in the Western world before the introduction of the pill.

And that brings us to today. “You are likely using the same, exact condom your grandfather used,” Sedic said.

Please, please me

fe235b01-fe56-4b49-af53-4a51e7760801

The problem with the lack of change is a continued drop in use. Condoms still slip off, break during sex and lots of guys still complain they can’t feel much while wearing them. It’s why Bill Gates is offering $100,000 to anyone who can come up with a better condom and says we have a condom predicament throughout the world.

Sedic hopes to change all that with the new design. He demonstrated the toughness of his condoms by putting one on over his fist and poking it with a pen.

“You see? Only one part here is open,” he said, pointing to a hexagon-shaped break in the condom.

I was left a little confused on how any break is okay but was told the new structure helps contain breakage to just one place, rather than the entire condom, which better protects you and your partner.

And, to Sedic’s point, it was hard to break the condom without a sharp object (I’ll assume none of you are going to be taking pens to your prophylactics right before sex).

Rubber Soul

Sedic is releasing his new condoms to the world today at $12 for a 12 pack (or a buck a pop). They’re still an all-Latex deal, so sorry those of you with a Latex allergy, it’s still polyurethane, polyisoprene, or lamb intestine for you.

But the condom redesign is only part of Sedic’s company plan to bring better health products to market. He currently has several projects in the works involving everything from DNA to a toothbrush designed to better remove biofilm from your teeth. He also has a patent on a “personal massager with undulating arm” capable of simultaneously bending and vibrating.

Condoms are a good industry to focus on right now if you’re looking to change the world for the better. It’s not just one of the best ways we have to prevent pregnancy, but also STD’s and with the very serious and real danger posed by the Zika virus, a condom that doesn’t break or slip and feels more like second skin could better encourage use among men and their partners in affected areas.

More TechCrunch

Consumer protection groups around the European Union have filed coordinated complaints against Temu, accusing the Chinese-owned ultra low-cost e-commerce platform of a raft of breaches related to the bloc’s Digital…

Temu accused of breaching EU’s DSA in bundle of consumer complaints

Here are quick hits of the biggest news from the keynote as they are announced.

Google I/O 2024: Here’s everything Google just announced

The AI industry moves faster than the rest of the technology sector, which means it outpaces the federal government by several orders of magnitude.

Senate study proposes ‘at least’ $32B yearly for AI programs

The FBI along with a coalition of international law enforcement agencies seized the notorious cybercrime forum BreachForums on Wednesday.  For years, BreachForums has been a popular English-language forum for hackers…

FBI seizes hacking forum BreachForums — again

The announcement signifies a significant shake-up in the streaming giant’s advertising approach.

Netflix to take on Google and Amazon by building its own ad server

It’s tough to say that a $100 billion business finds itself at a critical juncture, but that’s the case with Amazon Web Services, the cloud arm of Amazon, and the…

Matt Garman taking over as CEO with AWS at crossroads

Back in February, Google paused its AI-powered chatbot Gemini’s ability to generate images of people after users complained of historical inaccuracies. Told to depict “a Roman legion,” for example, Gemini would show…

Google still hasn’t fixed Gemini’s biased image generator

A feature Google demoed at its I/O confab yesterday, using its generative AI technology to scan voice calls in real time for conversational patterns associated with financial scams, has sent…

Google’s call-scanning AI could dial up censorship by default, privacy experts warn

Google’s going all in on AI — and it wants you to know it. During the company’s keynote at its I/O developer conference on Tuesday, Google mentioned “AI” more than…

The top AI announcements from Google I/O

Uber is taking a shuttle product it developed for commuters in India and Egypt and converting it for an American audience. The ride-hail and delivery giant announced Wednesday at its…

Uber has a new way to solve the concert traffic problem

Google is preparing to launch a new system to help address the problem of malware on Android. Its new live threat detection service leverages Google Play Protect’s on-device AI to…

Google takes aim at Android malware with an AI-powered live threat detection service

Users will be able to access the AR content by first searching for a location in Google Maps.

Google Maps is getting geospatial AR content later this year

The heat pump startup unveiled its first products and revealed details about performance, pricing and availability.

Quilt heat pump sports sleek design from veterans of Apple, Tesla and Nest

The space is available from the launcher and can be locked as a second layer of authentication.

Google’s new Private Space feature is like Incognito Mode for Android

Gemini, the company’s family of generative AI models, will enhance the smart TV operating system so it can generate descriptions for movies and TV shows.

Google TV to launch AI-generated movie descriptions

When triggered, the AI-powered feature will automatically lock the device down.

Android’s new Theft Detection Lock helps deter smartphone snatch and grabs

The company said it is increasing the on-device capability of its Google Play Protect system to detect fraudulent apps trying to breach sensitive permissions.

Google adds live threat detection and screen-sharing protection to Android

This latest release, one of many announcements from the Google I/O 2024 developer conference, focuses on improved battery life and other performance improvements, like more efficient workout tracking.

Wear OS 5 hits developer preview, offering better battery life

For years, Sammy Faycurry has been hearing from his registered dietitian (RD) mom and sister about how poorly many Americans eat and their struggles with delivering nutritional counseling. Although nearly…

Dietitian startup Fay has been booming from Ozempic patients and emerges from stealth with $25M from General Catalyst, Forerunner

Apple is bringing new accessibility features to iPads and iPhones, designed to cater to a diverse range of user needs.

Apple announces new accessibility features for iPhone and iPad users

TechCrunch Disrupt, our flagship startup event held annually in San Francisco, is back on October 28-30 — and you can expect a bustling crowd of thousands of startup enthusiasts. Exciting…

Startup Blueprint: TC Disrupt 2024 Builders Stage agenda sneak peek!

Mike Krieger, one of the co-founders of Instagram and, more recently, the co-founder of personalized news app Artifact (which TechCrunch corporate parent Yahoo recently acquired), is joining Anthropic as the…

Anthropic hires Instagram co-founder as head of product

Seven orgs so far have signed on to standardize the way data is collected and shared.

Venture orgs form alliance to standardize data collection

Alkira has raised $100M for its “network infrastructure as a service,” which lets users virtualize and orchestrate hybrid cloud assets, and manage them. 

Alkira connects with $100M for a solution that connects your clouds

Charging has long been the Achilles’ heel of electric vehicles. One startup thinks it has a better way for apartment dwelling EV drivers to charge overnight.

Orange Charger thinks a $750 outlet will solve EV charging for apartment dwellers

So did investors laugh them out of the room when they explained how they wanted to replace Quickbooks? Kind of.

Embedded accounting startup Layer secures $2.3M toward goal of replacing QuickBooks

While an increasing number of companies are investing in AI, many are struggling to get AI-powered projects into production — much less delivering meaningful ROI. The challenges are many. But…

Weka raises $140M as the AI boom bolsters data platforms

PayHOA, a previously bootstrapped Kentucky-based startup that offers software for self-managed homeowner associations (HOAs), is an example of how real-world problems can translate into opportunity. It just raised a $27.5…

Meet PayHOA, a profitable and once-bootstrapped SaaS startup that just landed a $27.5M Series A

Restaurant365, which offers a restaurant management suite, has raised a hot $175M from ICONIQ Growth, KKR and L Catterton.

Restaurant365 orders in $175M at $1B+ valuation to supersize its food service software stack 

Venture firm Shilling has launched a €50M fund to support growth-stage startups in its own portfolio and to invest in startups everywhere else. 

Portuguese VC firm Shilling launches €50M opportunity fund to back growth-stage startups