Just curious it’s about time we come up with something like that as we are finalising our two-axis interactive sex toy. My idea is to use $10/pc one time disposable sleeves - you used, disposed and ready for the next round with a fresh one.
Our team suggested to use alginate sleeves… its a algea based silicone that is entirely biodegradable and lasts for 2-3 uses. Its a white powder that you just mix with water and that solidifies into any shape with incredible details. Like fingerprints on your thumb. It breaks into pieces after a while but can be used to pour imprints with silicone or gypsum or whatever material afterwards for example.
A disposible toy is often just a good toy using crappy materials. And since good toys can easily last up to 100 uses, the disposible one isnt even cost wise going to compete (unless using condoms… which is an even bigger waste for the experience and removes all the details you would have added). Cost wise its a bad idea.
And then there is also that general waste production is an issue. Even if its entirely biodegradable, on most waste sites its degration simply doesnt happen. It normaly requires either movement (something being stirred), or flowing water. As even biodegradable objects need to get rid of the waste after the bacteria did their job. Otherwise it just ends up with some insulation layer which prevents further degration.
The only advantages vs regular sleeves, that disposible sleeves would have, is that it can use excessive texture, and doesnt suffer from wear (fleshlights do lose a lot of texture over time).
But i dont realy think its needed to begin with. A fleshlight even when worn out, still provides a significant amount of texture, simply because the basic material will always provide some friction. The materials and lube ratios can do quite a lot here. Want more friction: use less lube.
Its realy only going to be viable if you want to truly maximize the experience, but in that case those sleeves wont be $10 either (more like $30), and the software then also needs to know all the details. And it would become a very luxury option.
The biggest advantage would be variety. But this then would also mean that you need hundreds of versions (otherwise fleshlights might still provide enough variety anyway). And if they are realy supposed to be good, it takes a long time to make those versions. Let alone maintain production for all of those. I dont see this being realistic, considering even fleshlight avoids going that way and will often enough brings sleeves out of production (either they make a new batch later on using a diffirent entry appearance, or they remove it because it sold bad).
The cost would be higher, but not by much. Food grade agarose (which is what would be used here) is crazy cheap.
This isn’t a plastic we’re talking about here. It’s a sugar. Unlike the way biodegradable is thrown around typically, this one is truly biodegradable and would be consumed within days of being thrown out if only by environmental bacteria and fungus alone.
This paragraph really undervalues the amount of variety possible due to the ease of making the molds and casts in this process, but I agree that it wouldn’t really matter. Unless people get a monthly subscription or something to receive the “featured sleeve” or whatever to pump out design after design, it’s not really offering much of an advantage over spending the resources on casting setups for silicone molds.
With the Tenga Eggs, I went on a buying spree and bought like 10 of them. I actually wound up disliking them a lot and getting Amazon to refund them for me, and then I wound up trashing them.
Disposable sleeves seem like they would be higher quality with more variety, but really you’re limited with the size of the Tenga eggs. Idk if there are other disposable sleeves with higher quality than a reusable one honestly.
I reckon the disposable toys are more for on the go, or for those who don’t feel comfortable keeping a toy around long term. Both use cases do not apply when the sleeves need to be combined with a larger, more expensive device for use.
The extra cleanup time for a reusable sleeve to me is negligible in light of the overal prep/cleanup time needed regardless of the type of sleeve that is used.
