UNM Alumna Susan Colvin fell into the adult novelty business by chance, and her sex-toy shop is now the biggest in the world.
She helped revolutionize toys, coming up with new colors and designs.
"(Fourteen years ago), the toys were in boring packaging," said Colvin, owner and founder of California Exotic Novelties. "They were not very interesting - there were no colorful colors. It seemed that there was a lot that could be done, and that they should be female-oriented. At that time, all the companies that existed were owned and operated by men."
She said her company was the first to come out with pink and purple toys.
"At first, people were like, 'Nobody's going to buy pink and purple,'" she said. "Even a dong, they were like, 'We don't want pink and purple. You've got to be kidding.' I said, 'It's pretty. I think a lot of women will like this. I know the men don't care, but the women will.' And you know what? They sold."
In 1975, Colvin received a bachelor's degree from UNM in speech communications. In 1976, she received a master's degree in public administration with a specialty in energy administration.
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"It was a brand-new program because the government was going to set up energy czars in every state in the country so we could reduce our dependence on oil and natural resources," she said. "And look what happened - it's now 2008, and we still haven't done it because they cancelled that program."
After college, Colvin became a teacher, owned a business-management company and was an operations manager for a one-hour photo company. She said she had no background in the adult industry but she had a strong business background.
"My business partner, when I had a business-management company, her family had an adult distribution company, and their partner had died suddenly," she said. "They needed somebody to come in and computerize the company and to solve some of its problems and become the operations manager for that company."
California Exotic Novelties has a staff of 80 workers who come up with ideas and designs for products.
"We actually get together and brainstorm," she said. "Many ideas are mine, but many ideas are from other people on our staff, and we get a lot of consumer comments. So, people e-mail us. They call us."
She said those comments are important to the development process.
"We have the original Jack Rabbit, and they say, 'I love it. It's my favorite product. I buy it over and over. You know, I was thinking - I wish the beads wouldn't jam'" she said. "So, we have many other Jack Rabbits now in which the beads are stationary. They're metal, different configurations."
Colvin said certain products are more popular in some countries than others.
"We came out with a cute little item with a koala bear on it," she said. "It was very popular in the United States and Europe, but in Australia it did not sell, because they said, 'Koalas are not cute and cuddly. Koalas are vicious.'"
The company's newest release is the Vibro Pod. She said customers in their 20s were requesting the product.
"It's really popular," she said. "It comes with two bullets, and you plug it into your iPod or mp3 player. And you can use it with or without your mp3 player, and it has eight functions. You can play with it if you don't have that available and just hit the little function button. It vibrates. It pulsates. It escalates. Or, you plug it into your mp3 player or iPod, and it vibrates to the beat of the music."
Colvin said the company releases 200 new products each year. She doesn't plan on stopping any time soon.
"It's a lot of fun," she said. "I'm in the business of manufacturing products that actually put a smile on people's faces. What more would you want to do in life?"
