One Year of Comfort Grip: How Did That Happen?
Just over a year ago, I launched the Comfort Grip.
I hoped that a few men might find it useful. I certainly did not expect that, a year later, I would be sending Comfort Grips around the world, appearing in interviews and spending quite so much of my working life talking publicly about penises.
It has not been a conventional business journey.
Then again, Comfort Grip is not a conventional product.
As this is the first of what will become a monthly Comfort Grip blog, I thought it would be a good place to begin: how Comfort Grip came about, what has happened during its first year and where we go from here.
In future blogs, I will share product news, practical tips, answers to common questions and some of the ideas currently being developed. I will also share useful suggestions received from customers, because many of the best improvements begin with someone getting in touch and saying, “Have you thought about…?”
Sometimes I have. Sometimes I have not. Every idea is worth considering!
It began with a problem
Comfort Grip was not originally intended to become a business. It began because I was trying to solve a problem of my own.
After being diagnosed with Peyronie’s disease, I was advised to use a RestoreX traction device. RestoreX is an excellent piece of medical engineering, but I found preparing and using the original clamp uncomfortable and rather fiddly.
Before each session, there could be bandages, pads, plasters and tape to organise. Things could slip, move or become uncomfortable. By the time I had prepared everything, it sometimes felt as though I had completed a small craft project before the treatment had even started.
I am a mechanical engineer and product designer, so my response to this was probably inevitable.
Rather than accepting that this was simply how it had to be, I began taking things apart, measuring them and wondering whether I could design a different way of holding the penis securely.
Not a sentence I ever expected to feature in my engineering career, but there we are.
Eighteen months and a great many prototypes
The basic idea was straightforward: replace the medieval clamp with something softer, adjustable and easier to prepare.
Making that idea work properly was not quite as straightforward.
What followed was approximately 18 months of designing, testing, altering and starting again. There were countless 3D-printed prototypes and more personal product testing than most inventors would care to discuss. My wife was beginning to wonder who or what in the hell had she married!
Some prototypes worked reasonably well. Some worked briefly. Others went straight into the growing collection of objects that can politely be described as “offerings to the God of PD experiments”.
Eventually, the Comfort Grip began to take shape.
That was the point when I began to wonder whether it might help other men too.
Launching it into the world
Putting a new product on sale is an odd experience.
You spend months—or, in this case, considerably longer—thinking about every tiny detail. Then you put it on a website and wait to see whether anybody else thinks it is a good idea.
Thankfully, people did.
Orders began arriving from customers who had experienced many of the same problems I had discomfort, slipping, awkward preparation and difficulty getting the original clamp positioned correctly.
Comfort Grips have since travelled far beyond our little corner of Yorkshire to customers around the world.
That is still slightly astonishing.
There is something very satisfying about seeing an idea move from a rough sketch and a plastic prototype to a finished product being used thousands of miles away. There is also something slightly surreal about wondering where your products are today and realising that some are better travelled than you are.
What customers have taught me
One of the most important parts of the first year has been hearing from customers.
People have told me that Comfort Grip has made their routine quicker to prepare, reduced the need for wrapping materials and made traction sessions more manageable.
I am always pleased to receive positive feedback. I am human, after all, and nobody opens an email hoping it will begin, “I have several complaints.”
However, constructive comments are just as valuable.
A designer can test a product repeatedly, but that is not the same as hundreds of different people using it in their own homes. Customers have different anatomy, different routines and different ways of approaching treatment. They notice things I may not have encountered during development.
A question from one customer may reveal that several others are wondering the same thing. A suggestion may lead to a change in the instructions, a practical tip, an additional size or even a completely new product.
Not every suggestion can become a product. It still has to be safe, practical and possible to manufacture without costing a small fortune.
But every genuine suggestion is considered.
Comfort Grip was only the beginning
The experience of developing Comfort Grip has already led to further products and ideas.
One of these is Comfort Bend, designed to make counter-bending more comfortable by providing a softer and more flexible contact area and providing the correct arc to bend around.
As with Comfort Grip, it began by looking at a part of the treatment process that could be difficult and asking a simple question: “Can this be done better?”
That question continues to guide the development of new Comfort Grip products and accessories.
Some ideas are already available. Others are being tested. A few are still at the stage where they look perfectly sensible on a computer screen but need to prove that they can behave themselves in the real world.
I will share more about these developments in future blogs.
What you can expect each month
This is the first in a monthly series intended to be useful, informative and, where possible, a smattering of humour!
Future blogs will include:
- tips for positioning and adjusting Comfort Grip;
- cleaning and care advice;
- answers to common customer questions;
- guidance on choosing silicone bands;
- information about Comfort Bend and other accessories;
- new product announcements;
- behind-the-scenes development stories;
- customer tips that may help other users.
Please keep sending those questions in. There is no need to feel embarrassed. At this point, it is very difficult to surprise me. My email in box could make a porn star blush at times!
Thank you
The first year of Comfort Grip has gone far beyond anything I expected when I began experimenting with those early prototypes.
Thank you to everyone who has bought a product, recommended Comfort Grip, watched a video, left a review, asked a question or sent feedback.
You have helped turn something I initially designed for myself into a growing range of products intended to help other men.
Please continue to tell me what works, what does not and what you would like to see next. I cannot promise to invent everything suggested, but I can promise to listen and give the good ideas serious consideration.
After all, Comfort Grip began with one man looking at an uncomfortable clamp and thinking: “There must be a better way.”
It turns out there was!