Page 31 - AVN Intimate Summer 2018

Product development is what keeps Sportsheets
ahead of the competition. “Of course, everyone wants
to know ‘What’s new?’ both at the wholesale level
and the customer in the retail store,” added Joanne
Queenin, Sportsheets’ longtime marketing director.
“We keep products on the market for one and a half
to two years to give them time to gain traction and if
they don’t prove to be strong sellers within that time,
then we pull them. We have to stay nimble, not only
for us as a company but also for our buyers to keep
the lines fresh.”
“If the quality is not up to our
standards for both our
domestic and imported
products, we reject it.
It’s that simple.”
—Julie Stewart
Of course, with 25 years of manufacturing under
their belt, Sportsheets has been pleasantly surprised
by the success of several products they’ve released
over the years. “When the Fifty Shades of Grey books
came out, we thought it would be fun to release a gray
tie, which was featured on the cover of the first book.
Turns out we ended up selling over 120 thousand
units of them!” Joanne exclaimed.
Another best-selling surprise has been a recently
released mouth gag that sports a set of giant silicone
open lips in black, red or pink with a black leather
head strap. Brand Ambassador and Director of Sales
Emily Silva, who’s been with Sportsheets for ten
years, added, “Everyone always has a good laugh
when they see these, so it’s no wonder they’ve been so
popular. People don’t realize that BDSM can actually
be fun, too!”
Being on the road selling and demonstrating kinky
products and accessories for distributors and retailers
has kept Emily and the three other sales staffers
quite busy. Of course, there are always entertaining
experiences when showing store staff and their
customers what to do with products. Emily recalled, “One time, I was demo-ing our best-
selling Doggie Style Strap, which fits around the hips of the person receiving the action. I
kind of felt something in between us, looked down, and realized I still had on a harness and
dildo that I had just demonstrated a moment earlier. Whoops! THAT was embarrassing!”
Still, many customers really get into volunteering as models for testing out the various
Sportsheets items. Emily added, “Once I had to keep from laughing when a woman bent
over for a Doggie Style Strap demo and exposed a few inches of butt crack. I didn’t want to
point it out to her—bet she didn’t expect to be a demo model that night!”
Sportsheets was also the first company to use in-house video screens and company-
supplied instructional videos to promote products at retail stores around the country. “We
started doing this over 10 years ago,” Julie shared. “It worked for a time but we also heard
that many store staffers turned the screens off because they didn’t want to hear them again
and again. With the changing times and way customers get user information, now we’re
more focused to provide instructional videos online both on our website and on other video
platforms. We will be updating a lot of our content in the very near future, too.”
Most packaging will be upgraded in the following months as well. “The images are
going to be more gender-fluid and diverse to reflect the wide range of consumers who love
the Sportsheets brand,” Joanne commented. “Many of the packages will have windows
to allow the customer to touch the product yet keep it clean in stores. The magnetic
closing boxes are also sturdy enough to ship without crushing, which is important for our
distributors, retailers and, most importantly, our brand. We list every “ingredient” on our
packaging, including type of material and the fact that all of our metal is nickel free. This
is in response to those customers who do their research and are concerned about what
products are made of.”
Julie also mentioned that some of the lines may change and fall under the original
Sportsheets brand. “We have many lines out there and while some of them are pretty
distinctive, we want to bring some back to our core products. In fact, part of the new
Sportsheets branding includes our new logo, which all of us here are very proud to be
releasing this summer. Look for it on all of our packaging, catalogs and everything else
created by our company. We’re now focusing on the next 25 years for the brand!”
Sportsheets is also the epitome of “family business,” not only with Tom and Julie in the
COO and president positions respectively, but the company also includes their spouses.
Tom’s wife, Kimberly, first worked with Tom when they were merely friends and then
officially joined the company in 1998, shortly after they were married. Julie’s husband,
Eddie, moved west to join Sportsheets and marry Julie after working for an East Coast adult
products distributor for many years. “It’s funny,” Julie chuckled, “people always think
that Tom and I are husband and wife and get confused when we tell them that Kimberly is
married to Tom and Eddie is married to me. It truly IS a family business!”
Tom Stewart’s entrepreneurial drive extends way beyond the Sportsheets brand. He also
devotes many hours of training and expertise to the Coalition to Salute America’s Heroes,
a cause that’s close to him given his many years in the Marines. He assists the veterans in
staying in their homes after deployment—and most importantly, helping them on their
road to recovery after experiencing disabilities associated with war service. Tom finds
that he can relate to these soldiers more effectively given his Marines background and
can encourage them to create their new normal. He uses his product development skills
to innovate products, enabling them to easily adapt to newly required sexual positions
to enhance their relationships. “Keeping Couples Connected” has long been the motto of
Sportsheets and his work with the soldier’s program truly follows that mission.
So here’s to the next successful 25 years of “Keeping Couples Connected” … and never
having Tom Stewart run out of gas again!
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