Hoping to appeal to newbies and couples, this sex store takes a sporting goods approach

So rife are sports metaphors for sex that you probably can’t recall when you first encountered one.

Was it a hushed schoolyard discussion of what getting to each of the bases represented? Or Yankees broadcaster Phil Rizzuto calling a date in a car like a baseball game—“Here he comes, he’s out! No, wait, safe, safe at second base.”—in Meat Loaf’s hit song “Paradise by the Dashboard Light”?

Now a new NYC store, Contact Sports, is taking the metaphor into extra innings, with a retail concept that has a sporting goods-store vibe, but where vibes themselves—and a variety of sex toys and other sexual wellness products—are what’s on offer.

The store, co-founded by married couple Chelsea and Justin Kerzner, is located in Manhattan’s upscale shopping district of SoHo.

Buzz is a given when talking about a store full of vibrators, and we made our way there to see what it was all about.

Field of screams: We visited on a recent afternoon that was, fittingly enough, steamy. There we met Justin, still looking every bit the Division I athlete he once was, having rowed for the University of San Diego.

“We thought if we ever wanted to get in the category, we’d have to do it in a way that was exciting for the average consumer and wasn’t scary and uncomfortable and gross and humiliating,” Justin told us. “We thought the adjacency to sports was really funny…there’s just endless dumb innuendo that can be used across literally any sport.”

To wit, a May Instagram post by the store that read, “Don’t forget to check out our glove collection” featured a pair of vintage boxing gloves next to condoms and lube from the Champ brand, as well as condoms from Lelo.

For the uninitiated, it’s easy to enter Contact Sports, spend a minute or two inside, and be none the wiser that it’s a sex shop.

“Most have no idea what this place is,” Justin said.

The entranceway features a wall of roses sold singly and in bouquets. They harken—but in a way that may not be obvious—to sports events like the Pasadena Rose Bowl or victorious Olympians and other athletes being presented with roses.

Proceed into the store and the rose, which also serves as the store’s logo, is featured on apparel including hoodies and baseball caps.

The clothing is displayed in what looks like a pro locker room, with the names on the lockers belonging to famous sex symbols and athletes.

Stepping up to the rear section of the store, you encounter a vintage baseball-glove chair by Jonathan de Pas, Donato d’Urbino, and Paolo Lomazzi, which was designed in 1968 and is part of MoMA’s permanent collection.

And it’s in this section of the store that, finally, shoppers encounter the serious gear, like the Soraya Wave rabbit vibrator by Lelo, the Ion Stroker by Arcwave, and the Jive G-spot stimulator that a remote partner can operate through an app by We-Vibe.

Madelynn Ringo, founder and creative director of Ringo Studio, which designed Contact Sports’ brick-and-mortar store, said its design reflects its subject matter. 

“Something that we really wanted to define in this space was a sequence of experiences,” Ringo told us at the store that day. “That plays into a lot of the ways that you would think about a sexual experience—you sort of need to have this build-up.”

Plugging in: Abby Muir, an independent consultant who serves as Contact Sport’s freelance design director, told us the store’s design and approach are meant to make shopping comfortable for couples and consumers who may have some reluctance to ask a sales clerk about, say, the Bunny Plug by Kiki de Montparnasse.

While “there is definitely a category of sex store that’s meant for people who are really advanced consumers,” Contact Sports in contrast aims to be a “helpful entry point for people who maybe are dipping their toes into it or are curious about the category,” Muir told us.

If passersby are drawn in because they think it’s a sporting goods store or florist, that’s a feature, not a bug for Contact Sports, Muir said.

“Making the store from when you first walk in, you can’t exactly tell what it is—we think that helps bring people in who might not otherwise come inside if there was a big, pink dildo in the window.”