LELO

The company office in Stockholm.

LELO (LELOi AB) is a Swedish intimate lifestyle company that designs, develops and manufactures upmarket sex toys, BDSM accessories, and massage products. Sold in over 50 international markets, LELO is headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden with their manufacturing arm located in the People’s Republic of China. LELO is the recipient of more than 20 industry awards within the adult industry, and is the first-ever sex toy design brand to be awarded a Cannes Lions for Product Design as well the Red Dot Design Award for 2 consecutive years.

LELO currently sells one of the most expensive vibrators in the world, a 24-karat gold plated vibrator that costs $15,000 USD.^[1]

History

In 2002 industrial designers Eric Kalén and Carl Magnuson and engineer Filip Sedic founded LELO. The three registered a limited liability company in September 2003 as LELO LLC. Employing just 10 people in its Stockholm headquarters in their founding year, LELO presently has over 600 employees with offices in the US, Australia, Asia and Europe. It is currently a leading producer of high-quality sex toys and intimate lifestyle products, selling in over 40 international markets.^[2]

The company has experienced rapid growth, more than doubling its sales volume yearly since its foundation,^[3] and the company's products retail on average above $100 USD for a vibrator.^[4] On June 9, 2010 LELO expanded its products to include bedroom accessories such as cuffs, ties, and blindfolds.^[5] The expansion continued later that year when LELO came out with massage oils, candles and their own water-based personal moisturizer.^[6]

Continuing their expansion, on February 4, 2011 LELO launched Sussurra, their own limited edition line of silk lingerie and loungewear.^[7] On November 22, 2011, the LELO group launched PicoBong, a brand that caters to younger demographics with colorful designs and a lower price point.^[8]

Operations

Design and innovation

LELO has taken a non-traditional approach to the design and manufacture of sex toys, utilizing high design concepts that are non-representational of the sexual anatomy of the human body, a style that is now widely adopted across the sex toy industry. The company has been recognized for pioneering creations in the adult industry, including the first couples’ toys with motion controller functions from their SenseMotion™ line,^[9] as well as the first sex toys to employ tactile sensing, the Smart Wands.

After an armed robbery of a sex toy store in Brasilia, Brazil aimed at stealing a YVA, a 24-Karat gold vibrator of LELO LUXE collection of ultra-luxury massagers, LELO installed display versions of LUXE items with GPS tracking chips to prevent possible future incidents.^[10]

Product lines

Since the development and sale of the first LELO product in 2003, LELO has gone on to segment their sex toy selection into four distinct catalogs. The FEMME and HOMME collections are made up of sex toys catering to women and men, respectively, while the Insignia range is composed of higher-end and more design-oriented sex toys, including the SenseMotion Insignia couples’ massagers with wireless remote controls as well as the Smart Wands all-over body massagers with tactile-sensing SenseTouch™ technology.

The LUXE collection includes LELO personal massager designs cast in 24-Karat gold or stainless steel, and are among the world’s most expensive sex toys offered at retail, ranging in price from $2,590.00USD to $15,000.00USD.^[11]

In summer 2016 LELO launched the HEX™ condom, its innovative redesign that incorporates hexagonal structuring to create a safe sex option that does not sacrifice sensation for strength. Initially launched on crowdfunding website Indiegogo, the project exceeded its goal of 10,000 pledges within the first 12 hours of launch.

Patents

The company holds patents on its designs and associated technology.^[12]

Marketing and distribution

Beyond the Wave Movie

As part of an exercise to challenge couples’ perceptions and to encourage debate and discussion on the subject of communication within relationships, 2015 saw LELO release a video project and a supporting interactive experience entitled ‘Beyond the Wave’.^[13] The trailer received close to half a million views within 24 hours of its release.

Starring Casper Van Dien, the story revolves around a singular man’s journey through a post-apocalyptic landscape in search of a connection he once lost. Directed by Goran Gajic and produced by the LELO creative team, the trailer drew praise for its unexpected premise.^[14] It was launched with a supplementary interactive experience called PlayTogether which revealed more of the world on a dedicated website.^[15]

Walgreens

On February 25, 2009 LELO partnered with Walgreens to make the LELO products available in all of their drugstore locations in the United States.^[16] On April 29, 2009, the Wynn Las Vegas hotel’s lingerie boutique Black Satin announced that it picked up the LELO Luxe line of 24 karat gold-plated sex toys.^[17] On May 22, 2010, the Swedish state-owned pharmacy chain Apoteket also announced that it would be carrying a limited range of LELO products.^[18] A month later, LELO announced its collaboration with the trend-setting Ron Robinson boutique at the world-famous Fred Segal shopping center in Hollywood.^[19] LELO is sold internationally in exclusive boutiques such as Kiki de Montparnasse in New York, Coco De Mer in London, Zou Zou in Rome, Le Printemps in Paris, Galeries Lafayette in Berlin, and POM POM parlor in PUB - a well known department store in central Stockholm.^[20]

Brookstone partnership

On May 13, 2011 Brookstone announced they would begin to feature the Lily, Siri, Gigi and Alia personal massagers and the Flickering Touch line of massage oils and candles in select retail locations, and in their online store. LELO and Brookstone launched the partnership at The Venetian, Las Vegas, where they also showcased the LELO Sussurra collection of intimate apparel.^[21]

Media presence

LELO “Pleasure Objects” have been featured in many popular media publications, such as Cosmopolitan (magazine), Elle (magazine), Women's Health (magazine), Glamour (magazine), Men’s Health (magazine), Playboy (magazine), GQ (magazine), Forbes (magazine), Esquire (magazine), Maxim (magazine), Wired (magazine), T3 (magazine) and the New York Times.^[22]

Awards and recognition

References

External links

• LELO Homepage