Design Showcase: The Hot Rubber

I am happy to present the first post in our “Design Showcase” series. I always felt that finding the right brand for your needs is strongly connected with the personality of the condom brand. It’s also interesting to see what kind of condoms you will find in other countries or regions. As an example read the The Top 10 Weirdest and Funniest Japanese Condoms.

The series will help you discover the various products out there (with their up- and downsides) in a fun way. It will also help you find your personal favorites, which normally wouldn’t be available at your local drugstore (and you didn’t know even existed). To see the summary head all the way down.

The Hot Rubber is a swiss brand, which recently completely relaunched their whole appearance:
old product family

new style and fair trade concept with 5 elements: water, fire, wood, earth, metal

Apart from the pretty unusual packaging design and concept, the condoms are produced from fair trade latex. What does that mean?

Fair Trade Condoms

The Hot Rubber is the first condom brand to support fair trade latex, a concept developed by FairDeal Trading. This means the latex is bought at a minimum price (it means they get a guaranteed price) from an indian plantation with humane working conditions and no child labor. On top of it there’s an extra supplement for the support of some social activities on the plantation. While I think this is a good idea, it will be interesting to see if other manufacturers are doing/planning similar things.

5 Elements

Let’s get back to the second obvious feature of the new “Hot Rubber” familiy:

Its concept is built around the 5 elements water, fire, wood, earth and metal. [Wikipedia: 5 elements] What does chinese philosophy applied on condoms look like then? Each of the elements stands for certain characteristics of each of the 5 products. They are called like this:

• Pure (element: water - symbolizing purity, vitality and life)
• Passion (element: fire - symbolizing passion and warmth)
• Power (element: wood - symbolizing strength, endurance and power)
• Pulse (element: earth - symbolizing reliability, balance and security)
• Iron (element: metal - symbolizing consistency and power)

Each product comes with a special lubrication (developed by pjur) which fits the element and therefore provides you with a unique sensation. Read on to see what they’re coated with. [You might also be interested in reading more about general lubrication and condoms in our earlier post.]

Products and Packaging

1. The Hot Rubber Pure
Is a regular condom coated with silicone based lube (10 pieces)

Length: 180 mm Width: 52 mm

2. The Hot Rubber Passion
Is a condom with ribs and dots coated with a ginseng extract (10 pieces)

Length: 180 mm Width: 52 mm

3. The Hot Rubber Power
Is a XXL condom coated with a ginkgo extract (10 pieces)

Length: 200 mm Width: 54 mm

4. The Hot Rubber Pulse
Is a regular condom coated with jojoba-oil (10 pieces)

Length: 180 mm Width: 52 mm

5. The Hot Rubber Iron
Is an extra strong condom coated with extra lubricant (10 pieces)

Length: 180 mm Width: 52 mm Strength: 0.09 mm

Unboxing The Hot Rubber

To make sure you know how to open the package and what’s inside we’re doing unboxings: To view the gallery with more pictures click here!

There’s also an unboxing video for those interested in the opening process. To view on youtube click here!

You will realize that the box is some sort of dispenser, which can be really useful. Though getting rid of the application manual and making it work can be a tricky task at first.

Summary

• Brand origin and date of formation: Switzerland, 1985
• Pricing: 9.90 to 15.30 CHF
• Length: 180-200 mm/ 7.1-7.9 inches
• Width: 52-54 mm/2-2.1 inches
• Strength: up to 0.09 mm/ up to 0.004 inches
• Quality: EN ISO 4074 (european standard), meets swiss “OK Verein Gütesiegel”standards
• +: First Fair Trade condoms and interesting over-all concept
• ++: Meets safest standard in the world (OK Gütesiegel)

I think The Hot Rubber accomplished quite an exceptional rebranding from a rather dull to an interesting concept (5 elements & fair trade). However to rate and comment is your job anyways. Feel free to discuss, share thoughts and ideas, to agree and disagree with me but just make sure you’ve read the terms of use before you post.