Off all the news to come out of the International AIDS Conference in DC, this might be the oddest: A UK company is addressing an age-old dilemma with a new condom that comes in 95 different custom-fit sizes.
TheyFit first launched in Europe in December and is looking to penetrate (sorry) the U.S. market soon.
According to the company’s sales data, only one in eight customers bought TruFit condoms in the sizes currently approved by the American Society for Testing Methods (ASTM). Translation: More than 88% of American guys are out there buying rubbers that don’t fit them right.
This is an epidemic, people!
How about we take this to the next level?
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“Imagine trying to encourage people to wear shoes, or women to wear bras, if all you had available were one or two sizes,” says Joe Nelson, head of TheyFit Europe. “It would be an impossible task and it’s perfectly comparable with condoms today—there simply aren’t the sizes necessary to fit men correctly and that is at the heart of the problem.” Nelson got involved with the prophylactics business after he left Goldman Sachs nine years.
Complaints about condoms being too tight and killing sensation—or being too lose and sliding off—are commonplace (at least in our, ahem, limited experience). And the reality is even so-called extra-large rubbers are only about a millimeter bigger than the average-Joe ones. TheyFit ups the selection to 95 sizes, varying in width from 1.6 to 2.8 inches and length from 3.2 to 9.6 inches.
Customers measure themselves with the company’s printable FitKit and order the size that suits them best. (The size codes are arbitrary so you don’t have to feel embarrassed about revealing your endowment to anyone.)
Currently TheyFit is just available in the European Union. But Nelson’s team is working to get their product approved in the U.S. and beyond. Hey, anything that gets more guys wearing condoms is a good thing, right?
QJ201
Nice that Queerty is doing AIDS conference updates….but TheyFit have been around a while. They were available in the US and then disappeared. I heard something about the FDA demanding each individual size be tested and that was too expensive for the company.
The last of my size U22’s expired in 2010 🙁
Salvador
U22? that baby’s width 64mm (vs Magnum XL which is just 54mm).
Mr. Enemabag Jones
The majority of men who say they need a bigger condom, rarely do. A lot of men actually need smaller sizes, but won’t admit it.
KARUADAM
I wonder if tey got my size colour?.
Bob
Let’s admit it. All condoms suck! They are cumbersome and take away all sensitivity, no matter how well they fit. By the time you get the package open and try to get the damn thing on, you can loose your erection.
Salvador
you’re missing out Bob. http://www.theyfit.co.uk/pages/reviews
Enkidu
Research by Buchbinder, Page-Shafer and others has shown that condom use DOES NOT provide adequate protection against HIV during anal penetration. Even unprotected oral sex is far less risky than protected anal.
The only way to stop the epidemic in our community is for men who love men to reject anal culture entirely. At the very least, this means embracing oral sex, which carries a very low (but not nonexistent) risk for HIV infection. The healthiest form of gay sexual expression is frot, or cock-to-cock sex. This is a no-risk act that brings both partners together in unmatched pleasure, closeness, and equality, affirming masculinity rather than degrading it. No shit, no stink, no pain, no fear. Primal and true—and fundamentally male.
Scribe37
I would so buy these. Some brands don’t fit my thickness and I get a pinching effect. Not a fan of a choking feeling on my guy. There was a lifestyle brand I loved but can’t find anymore, the tip was wider than the base and the extra space rubbed under the hood.
Marie Cohn
Nevertheless, only ONE size will actually sell.
mrlbumiller
@QJ201: The company launched their product 07December2011
ref wikipedia
XTIAAN
@Enkidu: ^nutter alert!^
truquanzathon
they still don’t have my size, ‘innie’