Let Go, Play Longer - A Distillation
By now you will have all seen this new branding, especially over the last twelve months as the ABU Events Team have traveled around the USA and the rest of the world. It’s time to talk about where it came from, what it means, and where we hope it will take us.
Through the pandemic the team at ABU talked a lot about our goals, our direction, how better to serve our existing customers, the community, but also to reach new people and take age-play and diapers into new spaces. It was time to capitalize and push deeper into places where we had found good, green-shoots of welcome as kink communities have matured and grown, and invited diapers and ageplayers in, where, quite simply, we had not been welcome previously.
It is no coincidence that you have seen our team at more kink events. IML, MIR, CLAW, MRM and London Fetish Week (and now as a ‘tribe’ on Recon, the organization behind FWL). These evets and the communities they support have all recognised that people within their communities use, like or play in diapers. A lot of these folks aren’t ‘age players’, and for some our cute, pastel branding was a turn-off. But these players still want and deserve the best diapers out there. The distillation began.
Who are we, what do we stand for, what has worked well for us and helped bring people together? We spent some time reflecting on PeekABU, the caps, their being a badge and signal to other players in the wild. How could we reach further, using less and let others take what they needed from us without our branding being overly prescriptive or suggestive of a certain way of playing with or in diapers.
Maybe you’ve noticed already how many times the word ‘play’ has come up. Play is an essential part of life, normal development, but also a key part of exploring identity, sexuality, sex and gender. We need the freedom to play. ABUniverse has been in the business of facilitating play for almost a decade. We have been creating tools that help people find headspace. Physical objects that aid in a mental shift. This is true no matter the gear or scene. You don’t need a pup hood to be a pup,or a diaper to be a little, but ‘gear’ and physical cues can rapidly accelerate how we find headspace.
Okay, so diapers and play… Cool! Sounds like a good start. What about play? With our background in supporting age-players, as well as DLs and cross over communities, we enjoy the idea that what we do is an extension and re-exploration of play. There’s also the slightly tongue in cheek thought that diapers let a kink scene carry on for longer. No need to pause the scene for a pee break when you’re taped up in something snug and thick. ‘Play Longer’ fit the bill neatly, but there was still something missing, something about relaxing, about not overthinking it, about enjoying the diaper for its comfort as well as its practicality, that was both physical and mental. Then it hit us, as these things often do when you get a team of highly skilled kinksters together… We help people LET GO! If you’ve ever had the pure joy of watching some try and eventually wet their first diaper you will know exactly what kind of struggle letting go can be! The same is true when you finally push a person’s buttons in the right order and watch them slip into headspace. It’s bliss on both sides.
Let Go, Play Longer! It was stripped back but said enough. Our beautiful monochrome busy print art work complemented this. Recognizably us, very much ABU but with a broader appeal that would pique interest, tease, be eye catching, but different from what we had done before.
We love it and hope you do too!
-The ABU Crew
