Page 31 - AVN Intimate Fall 2018

clerk asked her what she wanted to use it for, it thrust Williams into a state
of embarrassment and humiliation. Determined, she decided to challenge
the status quo and create a place where women could purchase sex toys
in a comfortable, women-friendly space. Thus, the first major woman-
owned, sex-positive sex store was born: Eve’s Garden, opened by Dell
Williams, in the upper west side of New York City in a small office space
on the 12th floor, where it remains today, 44 years after its founding.
On the West Coast, Joani Blank, a public health educator in San
Francisco, began teaching anorgasmic women how to be more relaxed
around sex. In 1976, she published a small book titled Good Vibrations
about vibrators and women’s pleasure. The book featured the Hitachi
Magic Wand on its cover—and Blank knew that by having an appliance-
shaped massager on the cover, it would not be relegated to the back of the
store, nor be thought of as a sex book.
Much like Dell Williams, Blank’s goal was to create a “safe, well lighted
place” for women to shop for vibrators and she opened Good Vibrations
in the Mission District in 1977. The Hitachi Magic Wand was one of the
best sellers when she opened (and as it continues to be to this day at the
namesake store).
do this, assuming that it would be a one-shot deal. The other competing
distributor made it clear that they, too, only wanted to sell the Magic
Wands and not the rest of Hitachi’s general consumer line of products.
With the determination and investment that Vibratex made with the
cargo container of Wands, Hitachi then felt Vibratex was the company
to work with to distribute the beloved Magic Wand and the women of
the world were saved from its extinction.
Or so we thought.
In 2012, twelve years after Vibratex was established with distributing
the Magic Wand, the executives at Japanese based Hitachi learned why
the Magic Wand was so incredibly popular in the US: it was used for
sexual pleasure. Hitachi wanted to distance themselves from being
associated with “that kind of product” and notified Dan and Shay
that they were going to discontinue the manufacturing of the wand.
Knowing that this would be an insurmountable loss on many levels,
Dan quickly responded to Hitachi with the suggestion of simply
removing the Hitachi name from the Magic Wand and releasing it with
only the Magic Wand name, distancing the manufacturer with any
association of a sex toy.
At the same time, Hitachi suggested that it was time for an update
For those of you in the retail or sex education segments of the adult industry, the Magic Wand is the consistent go-to vibrator to recommend for women who want the best buzz for
to the internal workings of the wand. Previously relying on technology
from the 1970s, the components were upgraded, the circuitry
modernized, and the vibrating head replaced with consumer-friendly
and hygienic silicone. The Magic Wand was also rigorously tested
at their factory, which had Shay mentioned “was like a Magic Wand
BDSM room with every painful test happening to ensure its durability.
The Wand was being swung around by its cord thousands of times to
the buck.
make sure it was up to their quality standards. I was impressed.”
The package was also changed to reflect the new name of “Magic
Wand Original” when it was released in 2013. The rebranding and
In keeping with Blank’s belief that more sex-positive, women-owned
sex stores should be opened, two entrepreneurial women (one being
yours truly), were able to learn the trade and apprentice at the flagship
Good Vibrations store in 1993. Later that same year, Toys in Babeland
opened in Seattle and my store, Grand Opening!, opened in Brookline,
Massachusetts, just outside of Boston. Both stores famously carried the
Hitachi Magic Wand.
But then it happened.
The way Hitachi does business (as it still does today) is to have
an exclusive distributor of their products within a division, such as
construction or, in the case of the Magic Wand, consumer products.
In 1999 that distributor, Appliance Corporation of America, was not
paying the bills to Hitachi for their products and Hitachi ceased shipping
product, therefore creating widespread panic for the lack of Magic Wands
on the market.
American retailers were left scrambling, trying to find Hitachi Magic
Wands available anywhere, but since Hitachi only used one distributor,
there was only one channel where we could buy them. Personally, I
contacted every individual at Appliance Corporation of America to get
an answer as to why I could not get the Magic Wands, and kept calling
up the ladder only to eventually speak to the director of Hitachi North
America, who told me why I could not get my best-selling vibrator into
my store. I was stunned.
A few months went by and Vibratex, the well-known manufacturer and
distributor of prized Japanese vibrators, including the infamous Rabbit
Pearl, proposed to Hitachi that they could easily represent the Magic
Wand here in the United States. At the same time, Hitachi was already
in negotiations with another adult distributor but Dan and Shay Martin,
the owners of Vibratex, proposed to pay for a cargo container upfront to
prove that they were able to move thousands of wands. Hitachi agreed to
improvement of the Magic Wand resulted in a huge sales boost for
Vibratex and adult retailers who continued to sell the Magic Wand,
including more mainstream types of adult stores, not just the women-
owned ones.
In keeping with the increasing consumer interest with green
technology in everything from cars to sex toys, 2015 ushered in the first
Rechargeable Magic Wand, complete with many more settings than the
plug-in model’s fast and not-as-fast speeds. The dependability of the
rechargeable was still there, as was the versatility and quality of the
Magic Wand Original.
The Magic Wand Original itself also has created a robust accessories
market, offering additional upselling opportunities for retailers. Before
Vibratex distributed the Magic Wand, they sold two hollow vinyl
attachments that fit snugly on the head of the Wand: one was straight
and the other curved for G-spot stimulation. Years later, due to the
popularity of the Magic Wand, other companies followed suit with
attachments ranging from a three-way stimulator (clitoral, vaginal
and anal), flutter attachments to help dissipate the intense clitoral
vibrations, nubby textured caps, cylinders that a man can insert his
penis into to enjoy the Magic Wand’s intense vibrations, to silicone
attachments that provide solid internal vibrations for those who enjoy
relying on strong, non-stop pleasure.
When asked about the number of Magic Wands that have sold in
the U.S. since its inception, Dan mused, “It’s easily in the upper tens of
millions, if not more. And think of how many orgasms the Magic Wand
has provided during that time. Billions, easily billions. And think about
if everyone who owns a Magic Wand would orgasm at the same time.
I’m sure it would shake the earth.”
I couldn’t agree more. Magic Wand, we’re glad you’ve been around
50 years. Here’s to another half-century more of orgasms…
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