Lifestyle & Novelty?

Hi Wordplay
First of all, thanks for taking the time to contact me with your questions. I think the best way to answer you is first to say no, and no, and then give you the long answer, by way of explanation.

I think we are pretty typical of small local manufacturers whose primary business is selling to stores and websites. We do some direct sales through our own website, but that's not where we make our rent from month to month. As a result, the range of items we make is limited by what our resellers think they can sell. Back in the early days, we actually did make a rose tip flogger in a nice little presentation box, but we couldn't find stores that wanted to stock it. Our official website is similarly littered with beautiful braided whips that we can no longer offer as wholesale items.

Part of the reason for this is that, as North American crafters trying to make a living, anything that takes us a long time to make will end up costing more than something that can be imported from India or China. Competing with these items is hard. Our gear may be higher quality; but a surprising number of retailers do not trouble their heads about quality. The questions they ask of a product are how much does it cost me, and how quickly will it turn over? We do try to push them as much as we can to take on products they see as riskier, because we know there are devoted kinksters who will be prepared to pay more for a better product. Still, it's hard to argue with a retailer who can fill his/her wall with high volume/high margin products instead of 'wasting' that valuable sales space on higher priced, lower margin products that are aimed at a smaller section of the consuming public! In a nutshell, that is why we are unlikely to be (re)introducing more specialty floggers into our wholesale lineup.

Furniture is even less likely; one, because it's not really our area of expertise, and two, because it doesn't lend itself to our wholesale business - it's way too bulky and heavy to ever be something we could persuade our resellers to pick up.

On the other hand, in pretty much every BDSM community in North America you will find local crafters who put together quite acceptable floggers and articles of dungeon furniture. Their gear may not always be as smooth as a professional's, but since many of these people also have day jobs, they typically undervalue their time. As a result, they will often charge prices that a full time leatherworker like myself can't touch. I would definitely suggest checking out your local community to see what treasures it may yield.

I hope that answered your questions. If you have any follow ups, I'll be happy to share my opinions, of which I have several!

Thanks!

Billy