Page 40 - AVN Intimate Winter 2017

SHOW
By Sherri L. Shaulis
Building Synergy Bob Wolf earns ‘O’ Awards lifetime achievement
Synergy Erotic has been named the 2018
Bob Wolf of pleasure product manufacturer
recipient of the Lifetime Achievement honor for
the upcoming “O” Awards.
The “O” Awards will take place during the AVN
Novelty Expo, held January 24-26 at Hard Rock Hotel &
Casino Las Vegas.
In his four decades in the industry, Wolf has worked
for distributors and manufacturers, and seen major
changes in the industry. He entered adult at a time many
consider the industry’s heyday, but when it also relied
on sometimes shady characters and even shadier tactics.
Wolf admits he stumbled a bit through the years, but he
and his companies have weathered good times and bad.
These days, he is known for his warmth and compassion,
knowledge of the industry, his love of baseball and the
lasting friendships he’s developed through the years.
Wolf got his start in the industry in 1977, in what was
initially just a summer job. His father, Jack Wolf, worked
for Centar Distributors, handling operations of the
A Life in Pleasure Products Bob Wolf
company for Paul Wisner. Wisner owned several printing
and publishing firms in Southern California, as well
as adult retail stores in Northern California and a few
newspaper, magazine and movie distribution outlets.
“Back then, it was an entirely different world,” Wolf
said. You literally had to ‘know someone’ to get a job in
the industry—a hand-shake agreement was your bond—
and my father had been there since 1957-58, giving me
carte blanche to get a foot in the door.”
decade, holding down various positions in various companies, including Profit-Pak. It
was a time, he said, when he conducted business and himself in a less than professional
manner. In the mid-2000s, he was approached by longtime associate David Miller about
purchasing his small toy company, Direct Advantage.
“Over the [previous years] I had been doing a great deal of soul-searching and
knew the path I was following would lead to irreparable harm, both personally and
professionally, so after consulting with my wife we made the decision to purchase the
company in 2006,” he said.
“Direct Advantage was a thriving little company, importing low-cost, generically
We would package Synergy Erotic in a way that would
packaged products (under the DAVE brand) and re-selling them to home party and
mail-order companies throughout the U.S. and Canada,” Wolf said. “This is before the
increase the intrinsic value
days of Amazon grew into the goliath it is today, so you can imagine the customer base
Direct Advantage was serving. My only issue was the fact none of the distributors would
and appearance, allowing distributors and retailers alike
carry Direct Advantage products because a) they didn’t have the packaging or appeal
necessary to serve the brick-and-mortar customers, and b) Direct Advantage sold directly
to the brick-and-mortar retailers, breaking one of the cardinal rules I was raised with,
increase their ROI.
and bypassing the distributors, so I decided to start a new product line, Synergy Erotic.
Synergy Erotic would be developed as a staple line of products, exactly how milk, bread,
and eggs are seen in grocery stores, except we would package Synergy Erotic in a way
that would increase the intrinsic value and appearance, allowing distributors and retailers
alike increase their ROI. To that point, basic/staple items had been sold by companies
like Golden Triangle and Love Toys, but their packaging never gave them the ability to
move upmarket (a growing trend I’d noticed), so that was the niche Synergy Erotic was
developed to fill.”
In 2011, Wolf and his wife moved their operations to Las Vegas, eventually closing out
the DAVE line and focusing on Synergy Erotic ever since.
In addition to his business, Wolf also keeps himself busy as an avid car enthusiast—
“My current project, which will see me through until I die, is a 1964 Plymouth Fury,
which I am literally building from scratch,” he said—and baseball fan.
“I LOVE baseball! I was weaned on baseball from very early childhood and was lucky
enough to see some of the greatest players in history: Juan Marichal, Bobby Bonds, Willie
Mays, Willie McCovey, amongst hundreds of others. I also witnessed some milestones,
like the 1 millionth run scored in baseball history, a no-hitter thrown by Ed Halicki, as
well as some others I’m sure I’ve forgotten,” he said. “One of my fondest memories was
visiting the Baseball Hall of Fame with Ed Braunstein from Deluxe Distributors. You enter
a hall full of relics and antiques, but you soon realize you’re in the company of greatness,
the likes of which you’ll never see anywhere else; it was breathtaking. Eddie is also a die-
hard fan and we cemented what has become an amazing friendship through that visit; it’s
something I will never forget. Did I mention I LOVE baseball?”
—Bob Wolf
Wolf worked for his father and Centar, only taking a
break to attend San Jose State University, until 1995-96. At
that time, he left the employ of his father and Wisner and
became the first employee of Erotech. Owned by David
Sturman (son of Reuben Sturman) and Joel Kaminsky,
Erotech was a wholesale novelty distributor in the San
Francisco Bay area.
“Opening Erotech for David was thrilling, to say the
least,” Wolf said.
However, he added the decision to leave Centar took a
personal toll.
“Going to work for David was a professional blessing
but came with some personal damage; my mother, who
passed away a couple of years later, never forgave me for
‘turning on my father’ and we seldom spoke,” he said.
“My father, for his part, never looked at my decision in
that way, and on his deathbed in 2012 made sure I knew
he never held any animosity towards me, and in fact, told
me he respected my decision.”
Wolf continued to work for Sturman for close to a
40 | INTIMATE | WINTER 2018