It’s hard to imagine Jackie Richerson as a green retail part-timer from small-town Kentucky. After all, today’s Richerson is an old pro at the sex toy game, for whom phone calls to Europe to lend her manufacturing expertise are the norm. Looking back, however, Richerson delights in recalling her path, which she says is proof that anyone with enough drive can make their mark on the industry.
Richerson’s career began on the retail floor 13 years ago when she was still a teenager, but it wasn't long before her passion for pleasure and wellness turned this determined store clerk into a road warrior. Now, with seven years and counting as the North American face of Spanish brand Adrien Lastic, Richerson has come up through the ranks, climbing the ladder from beginner brand ambassador to vice president of operations.
The environment of creativity and passion that drives so much of our business is my favorite part of our industry.
A new year full of possibilities looms on Richerson’s horizon, and and a WIA Woman of the Month accolade is only the start. Most of all, Richerson says, she can’t wait to see how she and her female colleagues will continue to shape the future of the pleasure space.
XBIZ: You’ve been a staple of the Adrien Lastic team for quite a while now. How many years has it been, and how has your career evolved since your first day on the job?
Jackie Richerson: It was actually seven years at the end of October 2022. I started out as a brand ambassador, taking care of the U.S. market only. Today, I’m the vice president of operations throughout all North America and LATAM.
We’ve gone from just myself and 15 SKUs in my kit, traveling across the country, spreading the word about Adrien Latic, to a small team and catalog of 200 SKUs across five lines. So much growth!
XBIZ: What are your favorite aspects of our industry? Have these changed or evolved at all since you first started out?
Richerson: After 13 years, this industry feels like home to me, as I know it does for so many others. The environment of creativity and passion that drives so much of our business is my favorite part of our industry.
There is always something cutting-edge to discover with our companies. We thrive on competition and grow with each other to create some truly genius designs. I feel it’s rare to find such a tight-knit community in other industries and it truly is something that sets us apart in the best ways.
There’s been a ton of evolution since I first started as a part-timer in retail at 19. We’ve grown so much more compassionate, inclusive and deliberate in our decisions, due to the wonderfully diverse community of creators that we are. This really shows in the new toys, marketing trends and companies that have come to the forefront of the industry in the last several years.
I also have to say that I really love the customers! I’ve had the chance to get to know some of the most interesting, charismatic, loyal and devoted humans during my career. Our store teams and customers are really what keeps us all coming back every year.
XBIZ: What does your typical day look like? What job responsibilities do you have to tackle?
Richerson: A typical day for me can look like so many things! Some days you can find me on Zoom calls with our home office in Spain, looking over purchasing and logistics. On others, I’m on the road seeing customers and getting in trainings. I take the big meetings where they need to be taken, attend the trade shows whenever possible and spend as much time as I can supporting my team on the ground in my market.
I do a bit of everything that needs to get done. From accounting to sales, purchasing and marketing. Just no IT. I’ll leave that to my team.
XBIZ: What’s really special to you about your role at Adrien Lastic?
Richerson: There is so much that I love about Adrien Lastic and my company as a whole. From our unique and sometimes whimsical designs to the rock-star teams that I get the privilege to work with both in Europe and the U.S.
The owners are brilliant. They’re constantly searching for something that can revolutionize the way we see pleasure and relationships, always looking outside the box for an angle that most wouldn’t have sought out. It’s been such a pleasure to get to work alongside and learn from both Jean Pierre and Tina, to understand the finer aspects of international business and logistics for a company that stretches across the globe.
Our toys are what make us really special, though. There has been so much dedication and thought put into each design, whether they are our patented pieces that we brought to life from the minds of my team or the hand-selected choices for our little sister brand, Alive. We strive to bring something different to the market with each new toy to come into our CNEX family and push boundaries for what defines pleasure products.
What I really love most about my role at Adrien Lastic is the opportunity and responsibility that has been passed to me in running the North American branch. In this new role, I’ve been able to dig a bit deeper into what sourcing and production look like on a smaller scale, helping to assist chains and locally-owned stores in creating their own toys and brands. In doing so, I have a hand in the shaping of the coming generation of pleasure product professionals. That’s so special for me.
XBIZ: Which Adrien Lastic products are you most proud of? Are there any products you’ve had a hand in developing, marketing, etc?
Richerson: There are a few toys and concepts that I am really proud of across all the brands.
In the past few years, we’ve really focused in on a couple of design concepts that we believed would be key in innovation throughout our industry. In particular, our SilexPan material and SilexD toy line are a personal favorite and a project that I’m proud to have been included in. The patented inner core is 72% natural and 100% recyclable, bringing to our customers a premium silicone dildo product that is both flexible and thermoactivated.
We also put so much care and dedication into the launch of our dual Inspiration kit, which just won Sex Toy Product of the Year — Powered (Vibrating) at the 2022 XBIZ Europa Awards. Complete with both an air pressure toy and a stunning vibrating egg, the Inspiration is a romantic deep burgundy color and is app-controlled. The app functions span everything from the classic modes/vibrations to features that allow you to vibe while watching videos and content on your phone, to a shake function that gives a good rumble to the inserted toy with every step that you take. Very handy for discreet play on the dance floor or out and about with your partner.
My absolute favorite feature is the writing mode, though. As a fiction and erotica writer myself, there is something super dreamy about being able to literally write love notes to your partner’s body while using a toy. I like to scribble down my most recent snippets of writing when using the app and make my partner guess exactly what lines I’m using.
I am most proud of the toys that I have had a direct hand in bringing to my customers. In 2022, we launched both a beginner’s BDSM line and a new boxed lingerie line within my market. While every toy that is debuted here in North America is an SKU that I have hand-picked and reviewed for our customers, these two new lines really embody the spirit of our company. We went with a very sleek, dark design for both boxes and were very deliberate with our marketing choices.
For the Alive BDSM line, I wanted to cultivate a collection that was open to entry-level kink users on both functionality as well as cost. We chose some lovely floggers, anal douches, restraints and a collection of affordable, high-quality anal plugs. Every piece is something I consider classic and necessary for a wide range of beginners kits, hopefully allowing the doors for exploration to open further for those seeking new experiences.
The Moonlight lingerie line may just be my favorite thing we’ve ever done for the company. For the North and South American markets, we chose to launch plus-size first to better suit the needs of our customer base, keeping in mind that plus runs from size 12 to 20 and somewhere in that range falls the American average for dress size. We were also very deliberate with our packaging, having the only plus-size woman of color on a lingerie package within the industry.
It is so important to me and to my team to offer actual diversity and packaging that allows our customers to see themselves represented. I personally tried on every piece of lingerie from the plus line before it launched in the States and approved each style. The thought process being that if I know I feel sexy and empowered wearing our pieces, I can feel confident that my customers will feel the same way when they take them home.
XBIZ: What are you most looking forward to in the new year? What do you and the Adrien Lastic team have coming down the pipeline?
Richerson: I am so excited for 2023 with Adrien Lastic! In the coming year, we’re launching a brand-new opportunity for a custom app under our production and sourcing umbrella. I’ve spent a lot of the last year working very closely with our development team in creating brands for my customers and going over the little details in making those dreams come to life. I’m thrilled to now be able to offer a custom app experience for my customers who are interested in expanding their lines with this next big step in adult industry technology.
For me personally, I am really excited about some of the lineup of shows and travel for the U.S. branch. We hit every single U.S. show in 2022, accompanying our distribution partners for support at every opportunity. I expect you’ll see a lot of the Adrien Lastic team in the future as well, giving meaning to the phrase “road warrior.” I aim to throw support at our customers, distribution and teams wherever I possibly can.
We’ll also have a few new toys that will be coming to the line in the next year, both for the Adrien Lastic and sister brands proper, as well as through sourcing and production opportunities. I expect to see some new vibrating SilexD hitting the shelves and am even keeping my eyes open for some possible glow-in-the-dark and vibrant color styles!
XBIZ: What advice would you give to young women who are seeking to get into and succeed in the sex toy space?
Richerson: The biggest piece of advice I can give is to see every interaction as an opportunity. When you are meeting these titans of industry at shows and during trainings, soak up the knowledge that you receive and always network yourself. The connections I made at the very start of my career are some of my most valuable now and are certainly some of my most treasured friendships.
I advise that young women keep an open mind when presented with new ideas and always keep that passion for learning, growing and thriving alive. You can go so far in our industry with a passion for pleasure products and a thirst to succeed. I believe that if I can make the leap from part-time in a small, Kentucky town to where I am now, truly anyone can make a mark on this industry and help us continue to grow as this amazing collaborative industry space.
I’m really looking forward to seeing what the next generation of young women in sex toys and pleasure products looks like, actually, and the changes they will inevitably bring with them. It’s exciting to think of where I started versus where we are now, and what is yet to come is going to be spectacular.
Each month, XBIZ spotlights the career accomplishments and outstanding contributions of Women in Adult. WIA profiles offer an intimate look at the professional lives of the industry's most influential female executives.
