SEX TOYS AND PRODUCTS
Counterfeit Sex Toys: Don't Be Cheap - They Aren't the Same
Published: NOVEMBER 17, 2014
| Updated: JUNE 2, 2016
Sex toy knockoffs are plentiful and cheap, but while they may look like the real deal, they fall short in a number of important ways.
Back in July, Daily Dot did a piece on sex toy piracy. It barely skimmed the surface of what is actually happening. It mentioned Amazon and eBay, but didn't delve very far into things. The issue is this:
Chinese companies manufacture knockoff sex toys.
It's not a conspiracy, or me (as a reviewer and someone who stands to make an occasional buck) just trying to push you to buy through companies I work with. It's real. And for sex toy consumers, it can be a real problem.
So, here is how sex toy counterfeiting works:
Company X comes up with a great design. Maybe even something revolutionary. As they are pulling all of the means of production together, they realize "Oh, we can get this manufactured in China for substantially less than we can elsewhere." Then, they do just that. Profit is king, after all. They set up stringent standards for what they want out of certain toys, order thousands of units and a production run happens.
All good here. It's the way the world works. It's when these factories aren't making the real McCoy, or when a design is updated that counterfeiting comes into play. So, Company X got its run of 3,000 units. All were up to specification minus a few bad motors, shoddy circuits, or flawed shells/cases. Then, Factory Y? Factory Y already has the molds, the plans ... everything. Sub in the cheapest materials that fit the design, and produce 10,000 of any particular item. Then, it's just a matter of selling HUGE quantities of knockoff toys to shady distribution companies and letting them move individual units.
Or
Factory Y sells the outdated plans and molds to Factory Z, and tells Company X that all the required stuff for the old model was destroyed as requested. Then, Factory Z does its own production runs with sub-par materials.