What’s the situation in the fetish market?

Male chastity products are becoming more and more popular among consumers, as Nikki Yates, the Corporate Director of A.L. Enterprises – the manufacturers of the CB-X brand – explains in our interview. While this development is certainly reflected in the US company’s sales figures, the brand’s success can also be attributed to the great quality and craftsmanship that define the CB-X products.

Is CB-X satisfied with the results of 2015? How would you sum up the year?
Nikki Yates: We are finishing up 2015 very strong. We have seen an increase in sales.

Are products from the fetish segment still in high demand, or is that trend limited to “Soft SM” products?
At CB-X, we have seen an increase in demand for our line. This is due to both the increase in demand for fetish products and the fact that our brand is being recognised by retailers as the leader in male chastity.

The market for conventional adult products such as vibrators seems to have reached saturation. What’s the situation in the fetish market?
Our market for CB-X is growing as our type of product is new to the majority of customers. Our company has been established for over 15 years, but we are a fresh, new product to most people.

Which new products did you launch these past months?
We have recently launched the CB-6000 Gold Finish.

You emphasise the top-notch quality, the design, the craftsmanship, etc. of your products, and of course, the consumers who know your brand also know of these things. But how do you communicate these qualities to potential buyers?
We communicate our quality to buyers by making sure our marketing materials and packaging reflect the CB-X luxury brand and by educating the consumer in both the use of our product line and our unparalleled warranty replacement.

How important is it to have one’s products perceived as a brand in the fetish segment?
Having our CB-X brand be recognised as THE brand in the male chastity fetish segment is of utmost importance. This is what drives the retail store to us to purchase our line exclusively. We are the only male chastity device most stores will ever purchase because they have customers coming in asking for us by name.

How much work goes into making sure that every new product lives up to the CB-X brand promise?
Nikki: This is our primary goal as we research and design all of our products as we have a reputation for quality and craftsmanship. We make sure all of our products can be confidently backed up by our warranty. We couldn’t do this if we were not offering quality products.

How can the trade benefit from the quality and popularity of your products, and how do you support the retailers so they can generate the best-possible turnover with CB-X products?
Because of our popularity customers come in the stores and ask for us by name. Often this is the first time a retailer has even heard of male chastity devices. We now have produced instructional videos and brochures to educate both the customer and retailer in the how and why of CB-X products. The stores that utilise these instructional materials sell significantly more than the stores that do not.

Many consumers are curious about fetish products, but how can the retailers use this curiosity. How can they make sure that the customer will leave their store with a chastity device?
For the retailers with curious customers we find that letting the consumer know that our devices are functional as long term devices, but often used short term (a couple hours for date night) for tease play. The customers new to our devices love hearing that it is not a device of torture, but of teasing.

One of the bigger problems in the adult market is that there are lots of copies, imitations, fakes, etc. Are there ways for the trade – and naturally also the consumers – to make sure that they hold an authentic CB-X product in their hands?
As with all of the big names in adult products, our CB-X line has been counterfeited. While the counterfeiters often use our model numbers, none of them have our brand CB-X on the packaging. Also, we have produced a video to educate the consumer the difference between a fake and an authentic CB-X device. This is available to retailers to use point of sale or on their website.

If some of the retailers reading this interview got curious about your brand and want to add it to their range, who should they turn to? Which European distributors carry the CB-X collection?
Our European distributors include: Mr. B, S&T Rubber, Dusedo, and EDC.

There are producers who try to work with as many distributors and wholesalers as possible to get their products onto as many shelves as possible. Others strike exclusive distribution deals with only a handful of partners so competition won’t lead to a price war. What is your strategy?
Because our product is not as well-known as more main stream products, I believe that our product needs to be in as many catalogues as possible. If it is only in one and a retailer doesn’t use that distributor they will not even know our product exists. Our product benefits from wide and varied distribution channels.

Are there plans to add new products and product categories to the CB-X brand, or will you continue to focus on chastity devices?
We are currently developing a new product that will be in the same category as our current line, but will be different than anything we have previously developed. We plan on keeping our concentration on male chastity, but exploring this category even further than we already have.