The Swedish company Lelo — it makes sex toys and “back massagers” that are also sex toys — thought it would be a hilarious April Fools’ joke to pretend it had made a sustainable vibrator called the GÄSM. What made it “sustainable”? Well. It was forest green. It was made out of recycled material, like recycled wood pulp and tires. It was also powered by a twirling Allen wrench, and you had to put together the thing yourself, features that went well with its IKEA-like font, name, and packaging.
The sad thing about the GÄSM was, of course, that it didn’t really exist. But the press got excited about it anyway, and even the internal sales team at Lelo thought it really existed. Which meant the design folks at Lelo were kind of under some pressure to make it actually happen.
So now they’re actually trying to create one. And it seems to be working. OK, the recycled wood pulp thing is a no-go, and so are the tires, but there are other materials that they can use such that everything is still recycled. And OK, the twirling Allen wrench isn’t really doable, but a “hand-cranked” power system is. (I’m scared.)
Anyway, Lelo hopes to roll this real, actually existing sustainable vibrator in about six months. So if you want to have a sexual experience with a sex toy between now and then, it’s going to have to be unsustainable. Sorry.
