Page 30 - AVN Intimate Summer 2018

FEATURE
By Kim Airs
Family Ties
Sportsheets marks a quarter-century of sex and mischief
“Since we released the Under the Bed Restraint system, we’ve sold
over one million of them!” Julie exclaimed. “This is far more than we
could have ever dreamed about and continues to be our best seller.”
When the company started in the early ’90s, everything was made
in that garage, then in a small warehouse, using materials that were
sourced domestically in Southern California. With the emergence
of foreign manufacturing in the early 2000s, Tom and Julie decided
that the only way to stay competitive, price-wise, was to begin
manufacturing overseas.
“What posed a big problem was that the U.S. manufacturers of our
raw materials, such as webbing, saw their mills drying up because
they moved their own production companies offshore,” Julie shared.
“We had no other choice but to manufacture many of our products
overseas, although I am proud to say that we still manufacture 30 to
40 percent of our products right here in our warehouse.”
“Many of our employees have been
here since we bought the building
12 years ago. We have a handful of
employees that have been with us
over 15 years and one who has been
with us for 20 of our 25 years.”
—Julie Stewart
In fact, a majority of the overseas-manufactured Sportsheets
products are imported in bulk so the packaging can be sourced
here in the U.S. The products are then packaged in the domestic
warehouse, keeping the jobs of long-term employees. Julie added,
“Many of our employees have been here since we bought the
building 12 years ago. We have a handful of employees that have
been with us over 15 years and one who has been with us for 20 of
our 25 years. I think retaining our employees for such a long period
of time is a key to our continued success.”
The domestic manufacturing includes all the processes needed to
keep up with the demand: leather is cut using large presses, miles
of webbing are trimmed to exact lengths, fabric is machine cut and
then stitched by hand with powerful sewing machines. Several of
the products made at the warehouse include feathers, which are
carefully sourced domestically for quality and consistency. “In fact,”
Julie emphasized, “if the quality is not up to our standards for both
our domestic and imported products, we reject it. It’s that simple.”
Work and Play Above, Julie and Tom Stewart (standing). Below, the company’s most recent catalog, and its first.
Opposite page, Tom Stewart and some Sportsheets products, including the new Silicone Lips Mouth Gag (far right).
How long can a business survive? How long can a family-owned
business survive? How long can a brother and sister work closely
with each other?
In the case of Huntington Beach-based Sportsheets, the correct
answer is at least a quarter-century.
The company’s first product—the original Sportsheet—was created
by Tom Stewart, inspired by a Late Night with David Letterman episode in
the mid-80s in which the host jumped onto a Velcro wall. Thinking this
simple technology might be fun to adapt for use with his girlfriend, Tom
designed Velcro wrist and ankle restraints and clipped them onto anchor
pads that would stick onto a Velcro bedsheet. Like many a tech startup, the
Sportsheets brand was born in a garage, with Tom staying up nights to sew
his prototypes until he came up with something that would, so to say, stick.
From his base in Costa Mesa, California, Tom began peddling his first
Sportsheets out of his beat-up Mazda, which, in true entrepreneurial fashion,
frequently ran out of gas. He borrowed money to pursue his dream; soon
after, the namesake product became the brand name.
Determined to grow the company, Tom incorporated it in 1993, offering
the original Sportsheets and adding separate blindfolds, tethers and sports
cuffs, all components of the Sportsheets kit. Made of comfortable nylon
fabric with easy-to-use nylon webbing for tethers, these accessories were the
perfect follow-up to the Velcro restraints and anchor pads used with their
namesake Sportsheets.
In celebration of the 25th anniversary of the company, AVN sat down with
Julie Stewart, Tom’s beloved sister, who joined the company in 1995 and was
named president in 2012.
According to Julie, “Tom is the creative spark of the company, always
has been and always will be. He loves training stores and distributors and
inventing new products. In fact, he was the one that came up with our
signature brands: the Sportsheets line, Sex in the Shower, Man Bound,
Edge, Sincerely and—most importantly—our world-famous brand, Sex and
Mischief, a playful reference to S&M, which fuels many of our products.”
Product development has always been a key factor in Sportsheets’ success.
Fifteen years ago, the trademarked Under the Bed Restraint system was
released. Incorporating a four-point, spread-eagle design, the system used
nylon webbing and was the first commercially available restraint system that
didn’t need bolts screwed into the corners of the bedframe.
30 | INTIMATE | SUMMER 2018