Our story
The story of Callvin begins in September 2004 at the Lyon train station.
Stéphane is leaving on vacation, and Olivier who accompanies him asks him "Did you remember to take your condoms and your business cards?
The two friends exclaim:
"What if we put business cards on condoms?"
During the vacations, the idea does not leave Stéphane. He feels the ground, looks, tests, asks questions, and realizes that the concept does not leave indifferent.
When Stéphane comes back to Paris, the two friends decide to launch the business.
Olivier takes care of the business plan and files the statutes, and Stéphane prepares the market study. Trained as a graphic designer, he also took charge of finding a supplier and the technology that would allow them to print images and messages on condom packaging.
The duo was then joined by a third partner, Olivier Marchal, the founder of Cinestore, the European leader in cinema merchandising.
On April 1st 2005, the company was officially created. It was set up in Stéphane's home, with the office in the living room and the machine in the kitchen, and the first orders arrived.
During six months, Callvin perfects his printing technique.
In November 2005, the website is launched.
For Callvin to really take off, it needed publicity. It is done with an article published in FHM, then a nice subject in the 20h of France 2.
From one day to the next, orders poured in.
Our first order order, 500 condoms for the city of health.
In March 2006, he had a fashion designer make two dresses out of condoms, which two young women wore on the Croisette during the Cannes Festival... But the dresses are so successful that nobody notices that they are made of condoms, and the young girls pass unnoticed. This operation cost Callvin a lot of money, and the brand has to recover from its failure.
But Stéphane rebounds by declining the famous sentence "I love Paris" on the condoms. He puts the logo on condoms, lighters and ashtrays.
The enthusiasm is immediate, and Callvin is installed in several dozen souvenir stores. Faced with its success, the brand must now find a distributor.
In April 2007, it is done. Its condoms are present in 140 stores, and the company Hachette (Relay) installs its products in all its stores.
During the ten years which followed, Callvin endeavoured to extend its brand in Europe. The "I love..." condoms arrived in London, Madrid, Rome, Berlin and Ibiza, and the humorous products arrived in gift stores.
Callvin's condoms are available in various outlets: souvenir and gift stores, concept stores, tobacco presses, gas stations, party stores and love shops.
The French brand's condoms are sold in 22 European countries.
In 2015, a new partner joined Callvin, Gregory Prouveze, a graduate of the Institut Supérieur de Gestion, and completed the team.
In 2019, the company produced a collection for the Yves Saint-Laurent brand, which is offered in their Concept Store, rue du faubourg Saint Honoré.
At the beginning of 2020, the brand will be established on American soil thanks to a collaboration with Business France and will accompany the Saint Laurent house for the implementation of the products in the fashion house's boutique on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills.
Follow our adventure in the USA =>