Ron Braverman founded Doc Johnson, the largest name in the adult novelty industry, back in 1976, when talking about sex toys was still taboo. He is currently the CEO of the company and his son, Chad Braverman, is the COO. The company has put out over 2,500 different products, reports Fortune. That’s about 100 new adult novelties per year.
About 500 people work at Doc Johnson, creating, molding, packing and shipping some 75,000 products per week, reports Fortune. The company is the largest producer in the adult novelty market. The New York Times reports that the sex toy industry makes about $15 billion globally.
According to Fortune, Doc Johnson focuses on the mainstream market and keeps a majority of its manufacturing in the U.S. The company recently launched a “Kink” line of products in order to jump on the bandwagon of 50 Shades of Grey and take advantage of the growing interest in fetishes.
For a long time though, Chad and his sister Erica had no idea what their father did. When it became known, the kids suffered through some teasing. But Chad said that when he reached college, the fact that his dad made “rubber penises” made him “the coolest person around.” The company is still a family business, but they have some employees who are not blood-related who have worked there for 20, 30 or even 40 years, reports Fortune.
Sex toys have just gone from being a hidden object to top of the shelves at convenience stores. Private equity firms are beginning to notice, Fortune writes. But to date, no company have come close to knocking the Braverman family out of the top spot.
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