So I recently realised that I’ve mentioned a couple of the toys I’ve reviewed being ‘white label’ toys in the past, but never sat down and written a post about what white label toys actually are. So that I have it to refer back to in future, I thought it’d be worth writing a quick post explaining what a white label product is, especially in the context of the sex toy industry.
What Are White Label Products?
White-label products aren’t a sex toy industry specific thing. In their broadest definition, white-labelling is when a product is branded by its distributer/marketer rather than manufacturer. This means that a single product can be produced and then sold under multiple brand names.
A good non-sex toy industry example of this practice is supermarket own brand lines. A tin of beans from Tesco or Morrisons may actually be produced in the same factory, but instead of being branded under the name of the company that produced it, each supermarket labels it. This process doesn’t only happen to physical goods, but also to things like software!
Examples Of White-Label Sex Toys
White label sex toys are relatively common. Off the top of my head, the BMS Addiction Tom that I reviewed recently is a white label design. This set of plugs I reviewed a while back are also white label, as are the products in the header image here (that I haven’t posted reviews of).
The ‘Rose Toy’ that people went bananas for on TikTok last year is another example of a white label sex toy, with many brands selling it under their own name. Compare this version of the ‘rose toy’ to this one, for example. This was compounded as the toy became viral, with white-label copies of the original rose came to market under their own brand names.
Off the top of my head, some big names for white-label sex toys are BestVibe, Paloqueth, and Sohimi. But this isn’t limited to companies with less brand recognition— NS Novelties, Lovehoney, MEO, and Bondara are also sellers/rebranders of white-label sex toys.
Are White Label Products Bad?
My general approach to white-label toys is quite neutral. There’s definitely some benefits to white-labelling. It can make cheap body safe toys more accessible, and allows smaller indie retailers to offer their ‘own brand’ product range. A toy being white-label doesn’t mean that it’s necessarily not made of body-safe materials like silicone. While there’s less attention to detail than with a made-to-order toy, I think making body-safe toys accessible to more people through mass production is a good thing.
However, I do also think there are a few specific drawbacks when it comes to white-label toys. The first is that because the origin of a product isn’t as clear as with non-white label toys, establishing quality can be difficult. If we take the earlier example of ‘the Rose Toy’… well, there is no one ‘the Rose Toy’! Very similar looking toys, with little or no information on their factory of origin, can find their way to market. This means otherwise very similar looking toys can have vastly different motor strengths—with some people then being disappointed by the weakness of their vibrator’s motor—or may even end up walking away with an unsafe toy.
Secondly, white-labelling does have a habit of enabling design theft. Designs are often copied across the sex toy industry (Satisfyer is particularly notorious for this— compare the Flower Power to the Fun Factory Volta), but because white-labelling to an extent divorces a product from its origin point, design theft and copying can slip through more easily.
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