Next week I’m heading off to ANME. This convention is one of my favorite events of the year partially because I get to see all the cool new products but mostly because I get to see my favorite people who make those products. Without fail the OhMiBod booth is a highlight. They are always showing something super-exciting  my first time at ANME they were debuting the Lovelife line! Last time they were showing a bunch of toys that will work with the remote app that debuted with the BlueMotion. Seriously, it always cool stuff. Also, they are just great people! No joke, my very first ANME I came down with a raging days-long migraine and Brian went out of his way to help me. To me, that’s OhMiBod – awesome people with really cool ideas. How fun is that?

Earlier this year I got the chance to check out the blueMotion NEX|1, OhMiBod’s wearable vibrator that can be controlled by an app making it so your partner can control your vibrator from the next room or the next state – as someone in a long distance relationship I find this idea very, very cool! You know what else is cool?  OhMiBod’s Suki Dunham answered a couple of questions about innovation, toys and the industry for me!

OhMiBod’s toys are consistently innovative, do you go into creating your toys looking to make things that are completely new and unique?

Yes, we’ve created a brand which is known its innovative products and technology. Whether it was Club Vibe 2.OH and its ambient/club capabilities or blueMotion with the remote connection and communication technology, we’re always trying to push the envelope. We also approach design the same way – take “Adventure” from our Lovelife line – there is no unique technology embedded, but the triple sim design is quite unique.

 A lot of reviewers (myself included, sorry!) complained about the Lovelife line not being waterproof. I’ve heard you speak about why it wasn’t and the reasoning behind it was actually brilliant. Would you mind speaking a bit about that?

Absolutely, with our Lovelife line of products we focused on creating designer products in collaboration with our European Designer Mathieu Pung to give the “regular” consumer a quality designed product at super affordable pricing (not everyone can afford $120+ vibrators). We recognize that and wanted to give more consumers the experience of having a really great product without breaking their piggy bank.

In order to achieve that, we had to make certain tradeoffs. We could have used batteries for example instead of rechargeable but our market research indicated having a rechargeable product was more important. You’ll notice that our price point is considerably lower than other products with similar attributes…high quality silicone, award-winning design, gorgeous packaging that doubles as storage, warranty etc. So yes, tradeoff decisions are difficult to make, but it seems like we made the right ones with the Lovelife line because we have a hard time keeping some of them in stock! 🙂

Note: I heard Suki speak about this at a conference a while back and it changed my perspective. I realized I had become a spoiled toy reviewer who expected everything to have everything and that a small trade off, like not having the toy be waterproof (which for me just meant I had to pay attention when I cleaned it rather than mindlessly tossing it in my sink),could make quality toys accessible to so many more people. 

Now that you’ve been in the industry for a while what are the biggest changes you’ve observed in the toy market?

We have seen a tremendous move towards innovation, quality of design and manufacturing. It’s really great to see, because we strongly believe in “the incoming tide raises all boats”. When there are more brands focusing on that, it increases the market awareness and audience…and also keeps us pushing harder and smarter to design outstanding products.

I know, we’re not supposed to play favorites, but do you have a favorite one of your own toys?

That is really hard and I’ll give you two answers. First…Club Vibe 2.OH and blueMotion are really fantastic because of their technologies…one for the music and the other for the remote wifi control. From a pure design, we are in love with our “Cuddle” from the Lovelife collection. It just came together perfectly and we’ll be launching the blueMotion version of that design shortly as blueMotion NEX|2.

Any hints as to what’s up next for OhMiBod?

Keep an eye out for some really great enhancements to our OhMiBod Remote App

Thank you to Suki and OhMiBod for taking the time to answer my questions!