Page 21 - AVN Intimate Spring 2018

By CollEEn Godin
FEATURE
Can-Do Dildo
A duo of unlikely sex toy pioneers transform the concept of plastic pleasure
mainstream industries, much less sex toy start-
ups, who often fumble through PR nightmares
and potentially offensive copy writing. Although
for anyone with a working knowledge of
Sweden—a country whose military marches in the
annual LGBTQ Pride parade—the Dodil’s success
doesn’t come as such a surprise.
“Richard and I are very Swedish, meaning
we strongly believe in equality and diversity,”
Gustavsson says. “Even though we are newbies,
we are confident in a strong and intriguing
product. Nevertheless, we aim at staying true to
our humble selves and approach the future with a
teachable attitude.”
Following the company’s major launches at
the respective Copenhagen and Stockholm Pride
festivals last year, prospective users and potential
retailers alike all shared a common sentiment of
Almgren and Gustavsson. Simply put, they’re a
pair of genuinely good humans.
“We build relations by just treating everybody
with respect as individuals and plausible friends,”
remarks Gustavsson.
The team already holds a claim to fame as
some of the most inclusive, sex-positive people
to pop up in the pleasure sector. The Dodil brand
presents a completely gender-neutral marketing
scheme. In fact, you won’t find a single photo
of a human being anywhere on TheDodil.com.
After making the blog rounds with the industry’s
notorious sex toy reviewers, Team Dodil was one
of the few companies to emerged both unscathed
and with consecutive thumbs-up across the board.
For Almgren and Gustavsson, a consumer
revolution—especially where masturbation is
concerned—isn’t built on gimmicky technology,
flashy social media campaigns, or exaggerated
advertising claims. At its core, Scandinavian
design is all about clean shapes and simple
mechanisms that actually make a better life—or
elusive internal orgasms—within easy grasp.
As Gustavsson concludes, “We are thrilled,
proud and yet humbled to, as men, present a
product and a brand that adapts to the user and
not the other way around.”
Pleasure Engineers Richard Almgren and Peter Gustavsson, creators of the Dodil
show, Richard Almgren is creating a
I n the middle of a bustling European trade
wonder of modern engineering. He scours
his company’s booth for a solution to fix
the display upon which his entire product
demonstration hinges: a minimalistic yet
extremely leaky sink, which is threatening
to dump gallons of water all over his first
pleasure industry venture. Like most native
Swedes, there isn’t much Almgren can’t fix,
especially when it’s an IKEA portable kitchen
set.
It doesn’t take long before he realizes the
solution is quite literally dangling in front
of his face: strung-up Dodil dildos that
Almgren’s business partner, Peter Gustavsson,
has artistically hung around their little slice
of boxed-in floor space. He heads back to
the kitchenette and pulls a warm, squishy-
soft Dodil from the thermos of warm water
where it soaks and strategically stuffs it into
the open end of the leaking pipe. The Dodil’s
stress ball–esque composition of thermoplastic
and silicone begins filling all the gaps until
Almgren’s temporary kitchen is no longer
waterlogged.
Leave it to a Scandinavian to create a sex
toy that not only doubles as a pipe fitting, but
also improves the structural integrity of IKEA
furniture. Although when you consider the
rather unsexy origins of this mint-green plastic
marvel, it’s almost surprising that the Dodil
wound up as a sex toy in the first place.
“I love inventing stuff,” says Richard
Almgren, COO and co-founder of The Dodil.
“I have piles of drawings and have been
dreaming of solving problems all my life.”
And that’s just what Almgren, an engineer by
trade, was doing when he discovered what
would become his biggest brainchild. After
developing a science nerd crush on a meltable,
moldable form of thermoplastic—the same
stuff that currently resides in the Dodil’s core—
Richard whipped up a prototype for a shape-
shifting fishing lure. However, minds were
already in the gutter when Almgren debuted
his latest creation to a fellow designer.
“One day, I brought my prototype—an
oblong piece of this thermoplastic—to a good
friend and maker of fishing lures to see if
we could brain-storm up something like a
‘DIY-wobbler,’” recalls Almgren. “Somewhat
puzzled when presented with this apparition,
my friend says, ‘Hey, this looks like a dildo to
me.’ This kindled the flame and the journey
began.”
The Dodil is innocent enough nestled in its
color-coordinated thermos. Add hot water, and
this formerly rock-hard, silicone skin dildo
turns as soft and pliable as Stretch Armstrong.
Bedroom play time turns into arts and crafts
as users become impromptu dildo artists,
molding and bending the toy with their hands
or using the included orange vinyl string to
create ripples and texture. Its guts are made of
a thermoplastic that can handle a seemingly
endless cycle of boiling and cooling, becoming
completely stiff again with a splash of cold
water.
Almgren enlisted longtime family friend
and fellow native Swede Peter Gustavsson
to accompany him in this alternative sex
toy adventure. Gustavsson, who resides
in Germany and fills the role of Dodil’s
director of communications, arrived at his
new vocation with years of experience doing
just about everything except slinging dildos.
After heading up marketing efforts for
Systembolaget, Sweden’s government-run
alcohol dispensary, Peter jetted off for the
exotic landscape of the East. “After some sales
and marketing jobs, I eventually got to build an
accommodation for backpackers in Indonesia,”
recalls Gustavsson. “I had just about relocated
to city life in Cologne, Germany, when Richard
asked me to join the company.”
Gustavsson and Almgren are a truly unique
duo in the pleasure industry for reasons only
veterans can really understand. They’ve
approached this sensitive and often fickle
market with an amount of common sense
that’s rarely found among new businesses in
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