Today’s most beloved pleasure products often blend the adult world with the mainstream, marketing their sensual designs in boxes that won’t deter vanilla shoppers – or regular retail buyers. Canadian sister brands BodiSpa and Nobü aim to embody this vision and bring adult fantasies to even the shyest consumers.
Both brands are produced by BodiSpa, which was created by founder Alain Elmaleh in 2013 and is currently headquartered in Saint Laurent, Quebec. Elmaleh has spent 40 years building his company from a video-focused enterprise to a technology-focused maker of pleasure products.
Karalyne Fosty is creative director for both Nobü and BodiSpa. She notes that this evolution started when Elmaleh discovered the need for more inclusive play products.
“Alain wanted to introduce a line of products for adults that catered to a wide range of needs, while at the same time integrating the latest technological developments in this field,” she says.
Pleasure industry veterans will likely be most familiar with the Nobü brand, an affordable luxury collection that includes silicone dildos, vibrators and strokers for all genders and stimulation preferences, glass toys for penetrative play, and light to medium fetish gear with an attractive, trendy aesthetic.
While you would never mistake Nobü products for anything other than sex toys, BodiSpa products serve a different purpose. While BodiSpa’s products are equally wellness-focused with a luxurious feel and affordable price, they are more coy about their sexual purpose, harkening back to Hitachi Magic Wands’ original marketing as “back massagers” for tired housewives.
“BodiSpa was actually founded a year before Nobü in response to the societal attitude towards pleasure products at the time,” Fosty explains. “Bodispa focuses more on holistic health and discreet marketing tactics.
“Where Nobü pushes the boundaries of the game, Alain used BodiSpa as a way to infiltrate the general market, introducing ‘tamer’ toys such as wands and massage oils that were sold as wellness products rather than sex toys,” she explains. “This move allowed the brand to reach a broader audience, making sexual health products available in spaces that better align with mainstream healthcare practices.”
Elmaleh’s company originally started in the 1980s as a purveyor of adult videos. Armed with a background in business and a passion for entrepreneurship, he identified untapped potential in the Canadian pleasure sector.
Elmaleh went on to build his own retail empire, strategically placing Pleasures N’ Treasures stores throughout the East Coast region. Operations expanded rapidly and today the chain includes 15 boutique locations in Ontario, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Quebec, while the wholesale division supplies hundreds of stores across the country.
“With the success of the stores came unique insights into market trends, so it was only natural that the next steps for the company would focus on product development and design,” says Fosty.
The company’s location proved to be an ideal backdrop for success in the field of sexual wellness.
“Quebec has a very unique landscape when it comes to views on sexual health and wellness,” notes Fosty. “Overall, it is considered more progressive and liberal than some other Canadian provinces.”
However, Fosty adds that Quebec is culturally very diverse and attitudes towards sexual health vary from community to community. For example, she notes that urban areas like Montreal are proudly at the forefront of LGBTQ+ rights in Canada, with a rich history that celebrates burlesque, drag and sex education, while rural areas can be more traditional in their views.
Fosty itself is a relatively new addition to the BodiSpa and Nobü family, having joined the company in 2020 to create marketing content and product packaging. With a background in applied psychology and graphics, she admits that it would be an understatement to say she has learned a lot in her relatively short time in the adult world.
“When I first came in, the company was rebuilding after a devastating warehouse fire that essentially wiped out their entire inventory,” Fosty recalls. “After consultation with the R&D team, we came up with the idea to rename both the BodiSpa and Nobü lines to better reflect what we were trying to achieve, and I am so incredibly proud to see how far we have come.”
In her new role as creative director, Fosty says, her work is much more hands-on in terms of product development and design. She credits her team of “amazing individuals” for sharing their knowledge of the industry and helping make her vision for the brand a reality.
“Over the last three years we’ve been picked up by a huge US distributor, gotten more of our products into pharmacies and were recently nominated for an XBIZ award, and I think a lot of the success we’ve had is due to is on thanks to the cohesion and passion of our team,” she says warmly.
Fosty feels that working for a company with one foot in retail and the other in manufacturing has given her team a great advantage in knowing what to present to consumers.
“By using sales data from our boutiques, we have positioned ourselves to always have our finger on the pulse of the marketplace, and can therefore almost predict how well any of our products will do in the global marketplace based on store performance” , says Fosty. “Having access to this daily insight is super valuable when it comes to product development and has allowed us to quickly convert products and adjust prototypes based on real-time feedback, so we always maintain a competitive advantage.”
For Fosty and her dual-brand dream team, another key lies in staying one step ahead within the digital domain.
“One of our goals for 2024 is to provide our partners and customers with more online support through online training programs and accessible marketing materials,” says Fosty. “I think one of the biggest challenges we face as a smaller business is optimizing our reach when it comes to supporting retailers. By bringing more of our resources online, our customers can look forward to easier access to the latest information about our products and 24/7 support at their fingertips.”
Fosty emphasizes that, above all, BodiSpa and Nobü will continue to pursue founder Elmaleh’s original vision by offering diverse, high-quality pleasure products that suit any sensual wellness boutique, both physical and online.
“Our commitment to inclusivity remains woven into the fabric of our various product lines,” concludes Fosty. “Each creation is carefully designed to resonate with a broad spectrum of users, while meeting the highest industry standards.”