Steve Shubin

How a SWAT cop invented the Fleshlight from a failed sex doll

Steve Shubin, a retired LA SWAT officer told to avoid sex during his wife's at-risk pregnancy, patented a sexual mannequin in 1998 and burned a quarter-million dollars on it. He pivoted to a single component only after a friend refused to take the whole doll into his house, and named it 'Fleshlight' brainstorming with his sons.

“And so he's like, dude, if my friend who wants this won't, like, can't buy this doll. This doll is dead. So that's why he pivoted from the doll to just the, just the, like, you know, just the organ part of it, just a single piece, one component. And so he's like, okay, how do we brand this? So him and his sons are brainstorming, and they're like, what do guys like? Guys like tools. Okay, this thing's kind of like a flashlight. Okay, we'll call this the Fleshlight.”