Business
Global Protection Corp says its move makes Lynn the nation’s condom capital, with more condoms shipped in and out of the city than anywhere else in the nation.
Inside the Global Protection Corp headquarters at 630 Lynnway in Lynn. Photo by Naho Kubota, courtesy of This by That
A historic creamery in Lynn has become the new home of one of the country’s largest condom distributors.
Global Protection Corp, a sexual health and wellness company, recently relocated its headquarters from Boston’s Seaport to the renovated building at 630 Lynnway, saying the move makes Lynn the nation’s busiest hub for condom shipments, with about 250 million condoms passing through the facility annually.
Once known as the “Shoe Capital of the World,” Davin Wedel, founder and CEO of the company, said they are now calling Lynn the “Condom Capital of the U.S.”
The company held a ribbon-cutting on Thursday to mark the opening of its new offices. Operations moved to the new space in Lynn last summer.
Courtesy of Global Protection Corp
Wedel founded the company in his dorm room at Tufts University in 1987, motivated by the AIDS crisis. He was determined to make condoms fun and stylish and as second nature as wearing a seatbelt.
The first matchbook featured the Tufts Jumbo elephant with the slogan, “A Safe Jumbo is a Happy Jumbo,” and it broke through.
The company’s first office was in Davis Square. They later moved to a space above a liquor store in Winter Hill in 1990.
Wedel hired his first employee and had a few local high school students assembling the Knight Light glow-in-the-dark condom into packages.
Global Protection Corp then moved to Wilmington to secure more warehouse space, and when they outgrew that facility, with the help of the city of Boston, they moved to an old Army base building in the Seaport in 1996.
“The Seaport was desolate back then—vastly different from the retail and entertainment hub it is today,” Wedel said in a statement to Boston.com. “Over nearly three decades in the Seaport, we were part of a movement that transformed an industrial neighborhood into a thriving innovation hub.”
Now, they are trying to do the same thing but in Lynn.
The move also comes after the company was “bursting at the seams” after it outgrew its space in the Seaport. There wasn’t a large enough facility left in Boston to accommodate their growing business, it said.
The new 65,000-square-foot space at the former West Lynn Creamery building has everything the company needs for manufacturing, fulfillment, and office capacity for its 60 employees.
The company is known for inventing the glow-in-the-dark condom, opening Condomania, the first U.S. store dedicated solely to condoms, and launching MyONE Custom Fit Condoms in 52 sizes.
Beth Treffeisen is a general assignment reporter for Boston.com, focusing on local news, crime, and business in the New England region.
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