Adam and Eve sells sex toys and makes the world a better place

If you want to spice up your Valentine’s Day, you can’t go wrong with Adam and Eve. We’re running this column again because we love this company… and you!

In these divided times, there’s one thing we can all agree on:

Sex toys are fun.

I grew up in the 60s and 70s and despite being a wild child complete with toe socks and elephant jeans, I didn’t see a vibrator until I graduated from college. In 1983, I moved up the road from Durham to Chapel Hill to go to grad school and there I discovered a store called Adam and Eve. I’ve been a fan ever since.

But here’s the thing, as cool as sex toys are, making the world a better place is even cooler. And that’s what Adam and Eve started out for and that’s what they still do to this day. Here’s their story.

In the late 60s, a UNC grad student in Public Health named Phil Harvey traveled to India and, after traveling with a humanitarian NGO, decided that a lack of family planning created many of the third world’s problems. He and a doctor named Tim Black decided that they’d sell condoms (they initially thought their main market was college students) via mail and use the profits to fund a non-profit focused on global family-planning in developing nations. So, in 1970, they founded Adam and Eve.

Adam and Eve made enough money that, in 1970, the two established Population Services International (PSI), a nonprofit global health organization that focuses on improving the general and reproductive health of the world’s poorest populations. According to their website, their 2015 revenues were $652,776,127 million and the organization:

Just last year PSI saved the lives of 9,246 mothers, prevented 3,896,671 unintended pregnancies, stopped 234,367 new HIV infections, and avoided 379,286 deaths due to diseases like malaria, diarrhea and pneumonia that most threaten young children.

In 1989, Mr. Harvey founded another charitable organization with funds from Adam and Eve–DKT International which promotes family planning and HIV prevention in Africa, Latin America and Asia. DTK sells low cost contraceptives. According to Wikipedia, in 2016, DKT sold over 604 million condoms, 88 million cycles of oral contraceptives, 25 million injectable contraceptives, and 5 million IUDs for an average cost of less than 2.00 for two years’ worth of protection.

Both charities continue to receive millions of dollars from Adam and Eve, thanks in part to Mr. Harvey. More than 20% of the company’s profits go to charity.

And, if that’s not enough for you, Mr. Harvey, in the 80s, successfully sued the Justice Department—who really wanted to shut him down—for harassment and for violating his First Amendment Rights.

Here in North Carolina, Adam and Eve is known as an excellent place to work. They’re known for their support of LGBTQ rights and for their commitment to diversity. And they do know their stuff–I recently toured their headquarters with their head of PR. She and every employee I saw knew every product–and their warehouse is the size of a football field.

When Adam and Eve contacted me about writing a post about my favorite of their products, I was at first unsure that it was a fit for All About Romance. I’ve decided it is. I hope you agree.

I am putting together a blog about products I think are cool for later this week, but today, I just wanted to let our readers know the history behind the company.

Adam and Eve is giving AAR readers a special deal! Visit them online at AdamEve.com and use the code AAR to get 50% off 1 item and Free Shipping in the US and Canada.

I hope you find something that makes you smile.