ElectraStim is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year and will be celebrating it by releasing a brand-new stimulator, a special anniversary edition of two of its bestselling products, and a collaboration ‘with one of the industry’s biggest names’ later this year.
Cyrex, and its flagship ElectraStim brand, began life in 2001 when Andy Smith [pictured], who was at that time an electronics design engineer for medical e-stim companies, noticed that clinical trials of e-stim devices resulted in some subjects getting turned on by the sensations. Andy was inspired to start a ‘for pleasure’ electro-stimulation brand and ElectraStim was born.
Over the last two decades ElectraStim has grown to be one of the world’s leading brands in its sector, numerous product design and ‘Best Of’ awards in the process, yet the small, specialist team based in Hertfordshire still handles almost all functions of the business, from design to production to shipping.
“Personally I attribute this to a lot of ElectraStim’s success,” said Claire Blakeborough, marketing manager for Cyrex “You could say we’re all control freaks but the truth is that no one knows our products and processes better than we do, so the holistic approach just works for us. It also gives us the flexibility to develop new products to our own timeline which is an enormous bonus. We all chip in with whatever needs doing and it’s worked out well so far.”
She added that the firm takes huge pride in its ability to introduce something completely new to the industry, most recently with its Axis Stimulator, which boasts multiple input sensors and accessibility options.
ElectraStim owner and chief designer Andy Smith said: “It doesn’t seem that long ago that I gave a up a good career working for the same medical electronics company I’d been with for some 17 years. Looking back, it was a bold and almost naïve decision which could so easily have blown up in my face but as it happens it was the most life changing decision I have ever made, in a very positive way. Harmony was my very first wholesale account and as such we owe a lot to Jamie for taking a punt on a new start-up, which gave us the confidence boost and belief to keep on going. Some of our longest standing customers will remember the ElectraStim EM32 stimulator which took the market by storm and allowed us to grow and develop the business. The brand has developed ten-fold over the past 20 years but the values are still the same – high quality products backed by high quality service.”
Although Andy has much to celebrate, he is acutely aware of the difficulties many of his customers have faced over the last year. “I am devastated for the likes of Jamie at Harmony who own, manage, or work in bricks-and-mortar adult stores all over the world,” he says. “These past 12 months have affected the lives of all of us in some way or other, in differing degrees, and our industry is far from the only one affected. Being a resilient and resourceful industry however, I am confident that those most affected will have diverted their attention to online selling or kerbside pick-up and will ride out the pandemic to once again provide that personal touch to traditional shoppers.”
Watch this space for more details of ElectraStim’s brand-new stimulator, special anniversary pack, and collaboration or visit www.electrastim.com
