Sportsheets: The Velcro Bed Restraint You Can Get Out Of

Sportsheets International, Inc. makes sex toys and bondage gear from Huntington Beach, California. The company was founded in 1993. The name comes from its first product. The specialty catalog now runs past three hundred items. For couples and for people new to scenes, it is one of the easiest American bondage brands to recognize. The Velcro-style bed restraint is sold in ordinary adult shops, not only in dungeons or leather stores, so adults can buy it and use it at home.

The idea starts in the mid-1980s. Founder Tom Stewart saw David Letterman stuck to a Velcro wall on television and started thinking about Velcro in bed. He asked friends and their partners whether anyone would try it. The answer that mattered for the business: many women would, if they could get themselves free quickly. Stewart got sample fabric from a Velcro supplier. A friend who sewed made the first sheet from it. Sticking a person to that sheet kept failing. Tom and his brother then paired Anchor Pads with Velcro cuffs. The cuffs hook to the pads, the pads grip the sheet and hold the body, and pulling a pad up from a corner releases it. No key, and no knife, if someone panics. That way out is why the product spread worldwide, especially among women.

From 1993, Sportsheets aimed the catalog at couples exploring sex together, rather than only at hardcore lifestyle players. In 1999 Tom’s sister, Julie Stewart, became president and ran the business. The siblings took the company from a garage to a large global firm, and it was named to the Inc. 5000 list of fastest-growing companies twice. Twenty-five years on, the public mission is still that partners stay connected while they explore sex. Updated Sportsheet designs are still among the bestsellers. The catalog grew from one Velcro bed system into a full line of bondage and sex products.

The original Sportsheet still shapes how a lot of beginners meet bondage. It has to be secure enough to be arousing, and reversible enough to trust. Anchor pads that peel off, Velcro cuffs that open without a key, and a bed system you can rearrange are a straightforward kit for couples. Calling it an on-ramp does not make it fake BDSM. People who go further may move to rope, steel, or heavy leather. What Sportsheets helped make ordinary was the sentence “we can try this tonight and stop right away.” From the Huntington Beach brand, hundreds of cuffs, straps, under-bed systems, and related toys now sit past that first sheet.