Golden Age of AB/DL

[LunaCat]

I think we'll shortly find out how much of this the market can sustain. The problem with having more "pretty good" choices is that, unless the market grows at a similar rate, everybody just makes less money, and so has less money to devote to improving their offerings. And that's kind of bad. Already, we're seeing signs--in the form of poor communication from certain sellers, for instance--that selling AB/DL diapers might not be sufficient as a day job. Really, we want to be in a place where the entrepreneurs among us can make full-time jobs of this stuff and devote all of their time to being awesome at it. It'll show.

We've seen a bunch of new diapers sellers appear in the last two years. I'll withhold my own declaration of a Golden Age until we've had a proper die-off and find ourselves left with a select few deserving winners--who will then be in a better place, financially, to do awesome new things.

I generally like your posts

I've been worried for awhile myself. I'd hate to have all these nice options, and then the market to just disappear completely.

I'm in a position financially, where I can put up with "boutique" style costs. I mean we all make choices with our money, but I don't have to choose between AB style diapers and life necessities. I actually have more diapers than I know what to do with atm. If I lived near another AB, I'd probably give a great deal of them away to make way for the ones I prefer.

I think the lack of good customer service is a possible indicator of (and/ors):
--The profit not being high enough to make the effort worth it
--The market still being a more "wild west" landscape being filled by people not really knowing what they're doing
----Just trying to make a quick buck off the lifestyle
----Actually wanting to provide a quality product and service to a lifestyle they partake in
----Both not having a good grasp on the demographics/numbers (if anyone can right now)

So every time I see a new diaper, my first thought is one of excitement. The immediate second is is wondering how this affects the market. I love having lots of choices, I'm just not sure the market can bear it.

e.g. in my own case, as new diapers came out, I pretty much stopped buying ABU diapers. I tend to like the thicker diapers. I only wear diapers throughout the day (where I would appreciate thinner) in the "winter" which is practically non-existant in the disgusting outdoor sauna that is Florida. I'm not incontinent, so I don't need them.

And even then, we'd be splitting the money around an already existing pool of funds/buyers.

Customer service is the place to compete right now I think, but as you indicate, we probably need a good die off to make that feasible.

I keep hoping more of us come out the woodwork now that you can easily purchase a variety of such products and have them shipped discretely. I think increased tolerance of ABDLs would help this as well. I imagine a lot of us would wear more often if we were out of the closet so to speak.

 

[babysnow]

yeah and i think it will only go up from here

 

[Eclectic]

Coming from someone who's been wearing diapers since the late 60's, I agree that the choice of products is unparalleled. A large part of what's driving the market is the aging population. Probably all ABDL themed diapers are manufactured in a facility that produces "Plain Jane" diapers for the incontinence industry. Meaning it's the larger number of incontinent adults who are really driving the selection in diapers. My guess is without that demand, the relatively small group of ABDLs would not find babyish products beyond mom and pop producers and probably not the kind of mass produced ABDL disposables we see today. There will always be a market for diapers. However, for those of us who are incontinent, I can't afford disposables that are ridiculously high priced because they look like a baby diaper when I go through four or five a day.

I agree with some of the previous comments about the term "golden age." My interpretation of that would be we are all wearing diapers and babyish clothes openly, there are adult changing facilities scattered about public places, large toys and baby furniture are readily available, etc. In short, a complete acceptance and thriving market for anyone over the age of a toddler who wishes to be diapered and live like a baby. Then again, we may all be incarcerated in the future for our different needs and look upon this time in fond remembrance. That is, of course, until the SAP rebellion of 2032.

 

[Taysidepampers]

Your totally right, its great and I want to try them all. My main bug bear is the price of postage, of course I appreciate it isn't there fault

 

[bringmesunshine]

I kind of dislike the phrase 'golden age' as well, mainly because in some areas after golden ages it was never the same again in an unpositive fashion: See for instance the golden age of UK steam - we're years away from (an almost re-creation of) that - quite a few more old lines need to be re-opened. And the golden age of pop music (The Sixties - duh!), yes music is doing very well at the moment but it's not ticking over at a 1960's level if you will (and in that argument ilegal downloads and the sad fact tours make mor money than CDs...are info snippets that can't be ignored.

Where DLABI(nfantilism) is concerned I'd say it'll only be the golden age for us wen there's more acceptance for us - I've sed this before and I'm saying it agen now but wen there's better understanding and tolerance for us (you never know we cood even get people dealt with if hate crime (both verbal and pyshical) comes our way) i'll be able to say "Yes this our golden age - from here we can progress to a point of positive equilibrium".

I of cors want good results in my lifetime and especiably before I'm...oooh, lets say 40 (and I'm 22 now). In a perfect world it'd all be hunky dory now and having buckets of infantilistic freedom before I hit the big 3-0 would be paradisical with doubt. It's taken roughly 64 years to legalize actual same-sex marriage in Britain so that's not hope inducing at all...that sed I feel the cogs hav been in motion and feel that throughout the 22 years of my life enough's been going on to say that 10 more years of waiting if you will is entirely feesable (we as an understanding speices have changed now). Evidence of change...10 years ago wen I mined the mighty (and in too many corners) dangerous internet as a boy of 12 I could find barely a whisper of non-hardcore-sexualised nappy addiction, now throw an e-stone (if you will) and you hit a supportitive or explanatory website (or dating website/vanilla dating website that also understands) that ten years ago would have really really helped me. I haven't had my ear to the ground as much as I should have done and I accept that back in the day I mis-handled much...and I only say that because I'm going to say is it true that 10 years ago there wasn't a single company making adult nappies with baby prints? And I'm talking both sides of The Atlantic...production of adult sized baby clothes and furniture wouldn't surprise me but specalist nappies...I don't think so but of cors thers prob's some user on here wiv the answers! bringmesunshine

- - - Updated - - -

(continued) So there's good and there's bads. Bads: All the vanilla incontinence briefs are going cloth - just UK Attends, iD Experts and Lille Classics (may have left out one or two bad brands!) fly the flag of plastic-backing in Britain now and they could have gone through a switch after the next - possibly - two years have passed. I've also not forgotten that some of the great hard-to-obtain (If you're British) vanilla brands: Comficare, Wellness, Attends USA and Dry 24/7s may slope off before i can lay my hands (and booty!) on them...the original Abena's are already disappearing like black rhinos! but...
Goods: There are more DLAB Nappies than there's ever been - too many to list at this time in the morning!

The future's white my friends...and padded! bringmesunshine

 

[Fruitkitty]

We've definitely seen a wave of new ABDL products and a general move community-wide towards higher-quality sites and businesses, but I'd say it's been a steady march that has been going on for awhile now. The first widely-available ABDL disposables came out almost a decade ago.

Have we reached some critical mass that qualifies this as a golden age? I don't think so, because I think there's plenty of reason to expect things to get even better.

 

[BabyDenise]

I have to agree with the 'the golden age hasn't happened yet' group.

We are having a number of new companies and diapers but the attitude of the general public is not yet to what I would call 'the golden age'.

Will it happen in my life-time? Probably not. In the life-time of our youngest members? I hope so.

 

[DanElmontan]

Diapers have definitely improved over the years. Fortunately, adult diaper companies tend to take the improvements that have been made in infant diapers and port them over to the adult diapers. I seriously doubt there is much in actual development done on adult diapers since the market is smaller, what usually happens is that the infant diaper market gets it first.

With that said, we have definitely made major strides in what is available for diapers. I know a lot of people can't remember Pampers from the 70's that were basically a folded flat sheet with the crotch bunched up and tapes on the sides. Moving from those to the early hourglass design in the 80's was a huge step, now the form fitting design meant that plastic pants over the diaper were not a necessity. Throw in the development of SAP, leakguards, and elastic in critical locations and you have a diaper that is discreet and is solid protection.

not to mention refastenable tapes! remember the first Huggies with refastenable tapes? They were designed like the Molicare tapes, with refastenable pieces adhered to the tape, not the front of the diaper.