Vibrators used to look like penises, but now brands are having more success with minimal sex toys shaped like eggs and flying saucers.
New York's Unbound is one of many sextech startups shifting away from phallic shapes, towards products that consumers can be proud to own.
"To try to replicate genitals is to dumb down the design," explained Unbound founder Polly Rodriguez. "We see our sex vibrators as complementary to genitalia, as opposed to being a substitute."
Increasingly designers are asking if women want penis-like vibrators at all. Many are developing genderless devices for users across the board.
Bonny Hall, product director for online sex toy store Lovehoney, told Dezeen that vibrators now make up 42 per cent of all its sex toy sales, up from 35 per cent in 2015. But she said the surge has been boosted by purchases of clitoral vibrators, while sales of "realistic dildos" have dropped off. Sex toys to "not feel ashamed of"
Unbound's Rodriguez, founder of the entrepreneurial Women of Sex Tech community, launched her startup in 2014 and uses minimalist design to reimagine sex toys for female pleasure.
"Female pleasure falls into this black abyss where it's considered a vice, this hedonistic thing that people are afraid of," said Rodriguez. You only have to look to the shameful denouncement of sextech pioneer Lora Di Carlo at this year's CES to get her point.
Unbound's debut device Squish is a soft waterproof egg
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