Good vibrations: The Hollywood sex toys that are creating a global buzz

Ron Braverman (right) and his son Chad Braverman, owners of Doc Johnson, a California-based sex toy company, pose for a photo in their factory showroom in Los Angeles. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Chad Braverman is an early riser－you have to be to keep ahead as America's top sex-toy magnate, overseeing production of tens of thousands of "pleasure products" a week.

Every day the 34-year-old gets up around dawn, jogs for 30 minutes and heads to work, where he runs the largest maker of vibrators, massagers, strokers and other R-rated gadgets in the United States.

Set in a sprawling industrial campus 15 minutes' drive from Hollywood's Walk of Fame, "Doc Johnson" is unrecognizable from its origins as a fishing tackle shop bought by Chad's father and mentor, Ron, 40 years ago.

"I always say he still hasn't told me what he does for a living, which is true. He's never sat me down and told me what he does," jokes Chad, who has taken over as the de-facto head of the company.

Ron Braverman, 69, opened for business in Los Angeles in 1976, having spent time in the Netherlands, where his eyes were opened by the liberal attitude to what were then coyly known as "marital aids."

Today, his 500-plus workforce pours 4,450 kilograms of molten materials every day into molds of penises, vaginas and other orifices, supplying retailers and individuals across the world.

The company makes a staggering 75,000 sex toys a week－many lovingly finished off by hand, to employ a phrase largely redundant in the high-tech world of "intimate pleasure."

The rise of Doc Johnson coincides with a period of unparalleled growth in the market, with sex toys moving from the edge of acceptable into big business.