An Accidental Beginning in St Paul

In 2010, in a studio in St Paul, Minnesota, something unplanned began to take shape.

Silicone was already there. Not as part of a commercial strategy, but as leftover material in an art space where experimentation often comes before intention. Around the same time, Colin was working in the kind of creative environment where curiosity tends to override structure.

The result was not meant to become a brand. It began as a series of personal experiments.

That is how Hole Punch Toys came into existence. Not through market research or industry positioning, but through dissatisfaction and repetition. At the time, most sex toys on the market felt overly literal, heavily anatomical, and visually repetitive. Colin’s reaction was simple: make something different.

Something colourful. Something non-anatomical. Something that did not feel like an imitation.

Trial, Error, and Unexpected Output

The first objects were not perfect. They were experimental in the most literal sense of the word. Shapes were tested, adjusted, and remade. Some were too stiff. Others didn’t feel right in form or function. Each version led to another, and over time, a small collection of fully functional silicone objects emerged.

At that point, the question shifted.

Not “how do I design this better?” but “what do I do with all of this?”

Selling them was not originally the goal. It was more of a practical response than a business decision. But once that idea appeared, the next phase began: figuring out how to present something like this to the world.

From Studio Objects to Store Shelves

There was no polished launch. No formal branding strategy. Instead, there was a sequence of emails, cold calls, and in-person visits to sex shops with handmade objects in hand, trying to explain something that did not yet have a clear category.

Eventually, Smitten Kitten in Minneapolis agreed to take them on consignment. It was a small moment, but an important one. The first real validation that these objects could exist outside the studio.

They did not sell quickly. There was no immediate demand surge. But a few did move. And that was enough to continue.

A Design Language Takes Shape

What followed was a period of slow refinement. Mistakes became part of the process. Designs evolved not through theory, but through use, feedback, and iteration. Over time, a clear philosophy started to form: prioritise form, colour, and a sense of whimsy over realism.

These were not meant to imitate bodies. They were meant to feel like objects that could exist outside of sex entirely. Sculptural. Playful. Sometimes strange. Something you might leave on a shelf without explanation.

That perspective became the identity of Hole Punch Toys.

Going Beyond the Local Studio

In 2012, the website launched, and the work quietly expanded beyond its local beginnings. A small but steady audience formed. Not mass market, but specific and engaged. Collectors, artists, and curious buyers were drawn to objects that didn’t follow conventional design language.

Even as interest grew, the production approach stayed intentionally small. Each piece is still designed and sculpted by hand, made to order, and finished with a DIY sensibility that reflects its origins.

The goal was never to scale in the traditional sense. It was to preserve the process.

The Boner Cloner and Radical Customization

That approach also shaped how the studio eventually expanded its work. Instead of moving toward mass production, it moved toward customisation.

Recently, that led to the introduction of the Boner Cloner, an extension of the studio’s custom work that transforms a personal mould into a finished, retail-quality silicone object.

Unlike standard kits that stop at a raw cast, the process continues further. The model is refined, structurally finished, and transformed into a fully functional, harnessable silicone piece. The result is not just a replica but a finished object with design attention applied at every stage.

It is used in different ways. For some, it is about intimacy made tangible. For others, it serves as a performance object or a custom collectible. In every case, it extends the same philosophy that has defined Hole Punch Toys from the beginning: specificity matters.

Mass production removes individuality. This work does the opposite.

A Practice That Refuses to Standardize

Looking back, the throughline is surprisingly consistent. A studio experiment that became a practice. A practice that became a small business. And a small business that never fully let go of its original instincts.

What keeps it together is not scale or branding, but a refusal to treat the category as fixed. Each object is a small argument for a different way of thinking about form, function, and pleasure.

And it all still traces back to the same starting point: leftover silicone, a bit of curiosity, and the decision to make something better than what was already there.