LOS ANGELES – It had to happen: Major league sports teams sell logo merchandise. Pop stars sell logo merchandise. Now a transsexual content creator has joined the merchandising game by opening an online store.
In addition to branded T-shirts, stickers and other related products, the Grooby Store sells a T-girl version of the old “naked pen” pen novelty. Turn it one way, and the T-girl is clothed. Turn it the other and… Well, you know.
As well, the producer has launched a T-shirt campaign to build awareness of the brand and T-girls in general.
Steven Grooby is Grooby Productions’ chief executive officer.
YNOT.com: What is the Grooby Store all about?
Steven Grooby: The Grooby Store is just a way to get our branded goods out to anyone in the public who might be interested. We’ve produced a number of promotional items for trade shows and the Transgender Erotica Awards over the years and thought we may as well see which of the more fun ones people might have interest in.
It coincided with our new T-shirt and tattoo campaign. We knew there would be girls who would want a shirt, but we weren’t in a position to send free ones out to everyone—other than our models—so this seemed to be a good way to be more inclusive.
You’ve also opened a social site for your TS performers. What is that all about?
GroobyGirls.com is a free portal we launched aimed at all T-girls, whether working in the adult industry or just who enjoy the socializing part. We noticed models were calling themselves “Grooby Girls” once they’d done a photo shoot with us, so why not coin it as a brand and we can be proud of?
With all the politicizing of the words for transgenders right now, we decided it was just time to have a little fun and camaraderie.
Is merchandising T-girls a way to make them more mainstream by making them more visible?
I’m not sure if mainstream would be the right word, but I think what Grooby is consistently trying to do is normalize transgenders in adult entertainment. Merchandise like the calendar, pens and some of our future plans are nothing really new in adult items, but they may be for transgender content.
The T-shirts are a bit more stealth, with the idea that being a trangender or a guy who likes trans girls could wear it in public and even recognize like-minded people.
