Page 16 - AVN Intimate Summer 2016

FEATURE
Doc Johnson at 40
To stay at the top of the heap, this family business not only kept up with
the changes but took more than a few risks to be an innovator
small adult novelty company in North
In 1976, when Ron Braverman bought a
Hollywood, California, he had a vision.
He knew what he wanted to create and
what he wanted to do with the company and
its products. But no one, probably not even
Braverman himself, could have imagined the
powerhouse Doc Johnson would become four
decades later.
Braverman, founder and CEO of Doc
Johnson, was in adult before he entered
the world of adult novelties and pleasure
products.
“Early in my career, I got into the adult
bookstore business,” Braverman told AVN.
“I was based in Europe at that time, and
a few years after that, I decided to move
back to the United States to start an adult
toy business there. The idea to found a sex
toy company was largely based on my time
in Europe. It seemed that Europeans had a
different attitude toward the profit potential
of the pleasure product industry, whereas
American buyers were still more skeptical.
Today, Americans have largely accepted the
pleasure product industry as a legitimate
business, and our success continues to grow
both internationally and domestically.”
The small company Braverman eventually
purchased originally sold some adult toys,
as well as gag novelties and rubber fishing
items.
“My plan from the beginning was to focus
exclusively on creating a top-quality pleasure
products company, with all manufacturing to
be kept in America,” he said. “So, while we
had a few novelty items early on, gag gifts
were quickly phased out of the equation.
Since day one, we have always truly been an
American pleasure products manufacturer.”
The company’s growth was exponential,
and Doc Johnson quickly came to be known
as one of the Founders—five of the largest
American sex toy manufacturers in the early
years of the industry; CalExotics, Pipedream
Products, Nasstoys of New York and Topco
Sales rounded out the group. For many years,
it wasn’t unusual for stores that sold sex toys
to only stock items from those five companies.
Yet—as they do—times changed. More and
more pleasure product manufacturers began
entering the industry. Materials used to create
the items changed through the years. And
consumers became better educated and much
more savvy about the products they used.
To stay at the top of the heap, Doc Johnson
not only kept up with the changes, but took
more than a few risks to be an innovator in
16 | INTIMATE | SUMMER 2016
Founding Family Ron Braverman, daughter Erica and son Chad in 2011.the industry. The company was among the first to carry more unisex items that could be packaged to
appeal to the straight and gay markets, as well as among the first to create niche products and lines.
The company was among the first to offer toys molded from popular adult performers; and it was
the first to offer a line of products molded from a TS performer (Wendy Williams).
“Staying ahead of market trends has always been a priority at Doc Johnson, but it’s much more
important for us to follow our own instincts rather than try to blindly cater to all the latest trends,”
said Chad Braverman, Ron’s son and the chief operating officer/chief creative officer for Doc
Johnson. “Integrity is everything. The success we’ve achieved in working with new product concepts
largely comes down to our deep-rooted understanding of the industry: its past and its present, while
keeping a strong pulse on the future.