NEW YORK – Former Hollywood bad boy Charlie Sheen will lend his star power and personal experience with HIV to promoting an innovative condom developed by LELO. According to the company, LELO HEX is the first new condom design in 70 years.
In November 2015, Sheen revealed he has been HIV-positive since 2011. The admission confirmed less-than-shocking rumors, considering Sheen’s notoriety as an unrepentant womanizer. In the months since his announcement, he has maintained a low profile, which he now says he spent in reflection not only about his cavalier, “it’ll never happen to me” attitude but also about how he might lend his considerable voice to an effort to prevent others from making the same mistakes he made.
Condoms emerged as one of the things he truly believes can make a difference in a person’s health.
“Announcing my HIV condition gave me a new sense of purpose in speaking actively on sexual health,” he said. “That’s why LELO HEX is such an important project for me. Not only is it a revolutionary product that is ready to go, but it’s something radically different that can help curb the rise of STIs and reduce the stigma on condom usage.”
In an exclusive video shot for LELO, Sheen speaks candidly for the first time about condom use, why he feels condom usage continues to decline and why he feels LELO HEX can revolutionize safe sex. Sheen discusses his personal views about condoms and the stigma attached to their use, and explains why he agreed to become a spokesman for the new condom design.
“If you want to change how people see condoms, a great place to start is by changing the condom itself,” he said.
According to the manufacturer, HEX is structurally different, aimed at addressing the most common complaints people have about condoms: they reduce pleasure, slip frequently and break too easily. LELO’s engineers spent a total of seven years developing HEX, fueled by one important discovery: to upgrade the condom it wasn’t the material that needed to change, but the structure itself.
“The challenge was to make something radically different with a material already approved for condom use,” said Filip Sedic, inventor of HEX and founder of LELO. “We did this because people need to be having great, safe sex today, not 10 years from now. That’s why all the talk of new condoms has never resulted in a revolutionary design making it onto store shelves. Talk is talk, but innovation is what really changes things.”
HEX integrates 350 individual hexagons in its ultra-thin latex surface to help it perform differently from other condoms.
“There’s a reason why honeycombs are the shape they are, and why snake scales move the way they do,” Sedic said. “It’s because hexagons are strong, symmetrical and tessellate perfectly. They’re one of nature’s go-to shapes for anything needing to be at once lightweight, and incredibly strong. That’s why the structure of graphene, the thinnest, strongest material we know of today is — you guessed it — hexagonal.”
The HEX’s design is unique in that it combines a 0.055mm hexagonal web with ultra-thin, 0.045mm latex panels for thinness and strength combined. This allows HEX to flex and mold to the uniqueness of the wearer while it channels unwanted stress through the structure itself.
Another HEX feature was inspired by Formula 1 tires, which are specially textured to reduce the chance of slippage on wet surfaces. Sedic said he has never understood why other condom brands emphasize ribs and dots on the outside, when applying texture on the inside would have such a clear benefit.
Among the professionals endorsing HEX is Dr. Sara Nasserzadeh, a thought leader in the field of sexual health and AASECT-Certified Sexuality Counselor.
On Feb. 19, the Centers for Disease Control “published a reminder regarding the effectiveness of condoms in preventing unintended pregnancies, viral hepatitis, [sexually transmitted infections] and increasingly concerning viruses that could be transmitted through sex, such as Ebola and Zika,” Nasserzadeh sai. “This is if and when male condoms are used in the right way and every time. HEX is a timely intervention by LELO that upgrades condoms to a more appealing level. With its enhanced durability and innovative design, it promises to offer a safer and more pleasurable experience for both partners.”
LEO Chief Marketing Officer Steve Thomson said condom designs have not kept pace with the desires of sexually active adults.
“STIs are on the rise, and new ones are appearing at an alarmingly frequent rate,” he said. “Meanwhile the condom has failed to keep up. In terms of design, it’s basically the same as in the 1920s. Something needs to change, and for that we wanted a partner who was truly engaged on the topic.”
That partner, he added, is Sheen, whose personal condition is a tragic reflection on sexual health. Once television’s highest-paid actor, the notorious rogue also has the capacity to be a symbol for change because of his courage to confront the key issues head-on.
“He has gone out of his way to fully involve himself in the HEX project, and we hope his participation will put innovation at the center of the debate,” Thomson said. “He’s been a pleasure to work with, far beyond all expectations.”
