SFisting: Every Inch Counts
There's an uprising starting in San Francisco, and it's exactly the kind we like: it's in our pants. And our panties. Proving that a dildo is never just a dildo, local silicone sex toy manufacturers Vixen Creations might just be poised to turn the dildo world on its proverbial head with their super-secret, two-years-in-the-making formula for a shockingly realistic skin-like material—a material that unlike all other "realistic" toy materials, is nonporous and can be easily sterilized for absolute cleanliness.
SFist Violet, contributing.
Vixen began in 1992 when a local sex shop employee saw a hole that needed to be filled, namely in the form of sex toys that surpassed the notoriously cheap quality of a "novelty" market saturated with unhygenic crap made of serisouly sketchy mystery materials, typically on assembly lines in China (with no thought to the safety or pleasure of the consumers). Out of fire in the loins, and passion for the satisfying strap-on, Vixen was founded. Today, operating out of their Potrero warehouse, factory and laboratory, they've decided that the revolution will start here at home, in the form of VixSkin.
Or actually, that would be in the form of Tex, five inches of realism, ready to overthrow the powers that be (in your bedroom, at least). Vixen's Denise tells me, "We wouldn't have Tex, or VixSkin, if it wasn't for JR. He spent two years in the laboratory mixing formulas, experimenting with textures and density, trying and failing—but he really stuck it out and wouldn't give up until it was perfect. But now that we've got VixSkin Tex is just the beginning. We'll be adding a range of colors and have plans to expand our product line considerably, even adding a range of toys for men." Girl in a Cup, anyone?
While the presence of a major sex toy manufacturer in San Francisco might be a surprise for most residents, operating out of their hometown suits Vixen just fine. Denise says, "We've been here since the beginning and have no plans to leave. Most of the mainstream toy manufacturers don't know about us, and that's because it's not only an old boys network, but they don't understand the product. We end up having to educate retailers about hygene." So while Vixen is explaining to toy sellers why a consumer would prefer a sanitary toy over the latest chemical creation from Shanghai, we can relax knowing the dildo revolution has begun. And while it may not be televised, someday we can probably watch it on DVD.