Ethan started out as an engineer, re-routed as an industrial designer, and worked for top consultancies such as Ecco and Frog Design. Then he started designing vibrators. Which leads us to the story of Jimmyjane, his lifestyle company which makes life sexier and sex-products safer and more approachable. AMAZING. Enough of us – here it is in his words.
What led you to start Jimmyjane?
The real turning point for me was going to dinner parties and talking about what I do. I would go on about my other design projects, but when I mentioned that I might be working on designing vibrators, that was all anyone wanted to talk about. Everyone would lean forward, start asking questions and begin this dialogue. It was like an informal focus group. People had many more thoughts on the matter than I would have imagined, had far more experience then I had anticipated, and were willing to talk about it.
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I sat back and thought, “These people I’m talking to have nothing to do with the products that are the market right now. What if I create a product that makes sense for us?” Jimmyjane stemmed from that “for us, by us” concept. Nobody was making products like this.
LITTLE SOMETHING vibrator – in gold and platinum
So what were the first products like?
We really started from scratch, and solved the problems that were inherent in every vibrator. Toxic materials, noisy, scary-looking, hard to use, and not waterproof. Plus every vibrator has the same problem, that the vibration will eventually destroy the motor. So we designed and patented the only vibrator with a replaceable motor. You can change it out just like a battery.
Replacement motor for the LITTLE SOMETHING vibrator
Wow. Let’s back up. When did you first know you were interested in design?
I studied electrical engineering at Johns Hopkins, and worked for a while as an engineer at the Lawrence Berkley Laboratory on the human genome project. It was an extremely cool place to work, and I thought, “If I’m going to love engineering, I’m going to love it here.” But I still wasn’t totally enamored.
So I left, knowing I wanted to do something different, and ended up traveling for the better part of a year. While in Europe I met a professor at the Domus Academy. We were hanging out in his apartment, where he had all these weird objects and things half-made and half-unmade. I asked him what he did, and he described industrial design to me. It sounded like what I wanted to do – what I’d thought engineering would be like. When I returned to the states I looked into graduate schools, and ended up going to Pratt for my masters in ID.
Where did you head when you graduated?
I worked for a number of years at Ecco Design; it was really just a continuation of my education. The team that I was with were just amazing designers. It was such a transition from the academic view of design to the reality. I designed a lot of staplers, and did a lot of work on Motorola and Herman Miller projects. It was a great environment to dive into.
Then I moved to Alchemy in San Francisco, who ended up getting acquired by Frog, and we became the design team for the Frog Design office there. It was a phenomenal experience that introduced me to “big design”. I was there for two years, and at the end of it I was running a massive project to design 50 flat panel monitors. That project really tapped me out. I felt like what I was creating wasn’t meaningful. I loved the process, I loved drawing, but at the end of the day I had this sneaking suspicion that I was driving consumer demand without delivering anything more then incremental benefit.
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What did you want to be doing?
I wanted to work on more meaningful projects, and have a wider role in the process, rather than just handing off my designs to clients. I wanted to eliminate some of the middlemen between myself and the market. So when I left Frog, I started Plink, an independent design and consulting firm.
Then, in the first couple months, I was approached by a couple of clients that asked me to look into products related to sex. Simultaneously. Nobody had ever come to me with this problem before. I went to a trade show of sex products to do some research. My first though was, “Whoa!” I had very limited experience with this stuff personally. But everyone else was just treating it like their industry, so I started picking stuff up and looking at it like a product.
My first reaction was, “I can make something much cooler then this.” A product that is better made, isn’t made of toxic materials, isn’t noisy, isn’t scary to look at, doesn’t have porn stars on the packaging, and actually functions when you open up the box. That was the first level.
What next?
When I got back to San Francisco, I thought, “That is a totally untapped market. Here is a place I can make a difference. This is important to people.” Instead of making an incremental difference, I could have a positive impact making people feel comfortable in their sexuality and not exposing them to harmful materials.
It seemed to me the industry had been resting on it’s laurels. It was able to sell crap, at unheard of mark-ups, to a public that was unwilling to step forward and say they wanted something better – simply because of the category. People were still buying these things, in spite of the fact they were toxic, noisy, and they had to give their credit card to someone they didn’t trust.
CONTOUR M – Ceramic Massage Stone
So where did you want to take the industry?
It was the most complex design project and problem I’ve ever under taken by leaps and bounds. It was so specific because everybody’s needs are incredibly unique. It’s not about ergonomics. It’s maybe 20% physiological, and 80% intellectual, emotional, and psychological. You create something specific enough that it functions well, but abstract enough that it meets everybody’s needs.
Adding to that challenge, it’s very difficult to have a dialogue with the consumer, since people are so evasive about their sexuality. They may not even be having honest conversations with themselves about what they want and need.
Which poses a huge problem, that you’ve clearly solved successfully, as far as how to approach consumers. You created a lifestyle.
That was always the goal. What we’ve created is neither a product nor a brand. A brand is a side-effect of the relationship with your consumer. A brand grows from products that deliver on their promise, honest design that is what it appears to be. That relationship with the consumer is what’s most valuable. You can’t make a logo and say you’re done. You’ve gotten nowhere near having a brand. I think that is a common misperception.
SPIN ME (With Benefits) – W Hotel & Jimmyjane partnership
Can you describe what Jimmyjane is doing right now?
We have two different lines – The Premier, which has limited distribution, and the Well Being Collection, which has very broad distribution. We sell to Selfridges and W Hotels, but we also sell to Whole Foods and Urban Outfitters.
This is about inclusiveness not exclusiveness. At times our price-points are exclusive, but actually that is our way of including another group of people. For some, to make the concept approachable, it needs to be seen and understood as a luxury product. Luxury is not something we aspire too, but a means to an end. That end being forming a connection with the consumer, and having them understand this in a different light.
We design products and experiences to provide pleasure, strengthen connections, and create possibilities. We’re not saying, “This is sexy, and that’s not.” We’re saying, “Here are a bunch of opportunities.” We’re providing the palette, but the key component is the individuals who paint with it.
Sexuality is a very vulnerable aspect of our lives. We are vulnerable physically and emotionally. We know who we sleep with, and why. The question stands, “Who are you sleeping with?” and with Jimmyjane, you know.