Condom with plastic wings wins ‘Oscar’.

It’s the Oscar for designers: the German iF Design Award. Remarkably, this year the prize doesn’t go to a designer chair or a futuristic lamp, but to a... condom.

The ‘Wingman’ is a condom with plastic wings, “because at the crucial moment, you just don’t want to touch a condom,” says one of the inventors, Paul Breur. The Wingman is a rubber with a removable plastic applicator in the shape of wings, making it easier to put on – even with one hand.

The fact that their invention would one day win the ‘Oscar of the design world’ is something the Delft engineers Breur and Adnan Tunovic didn’t expect back in 2014. “Honestly, I had forgotten we even submitted the Wingman for the award,” says Breur.

The winners of the iF Design Awards have been announced since 1954 at the International Design Forum in Germany. The jury, made up of about fifty members from the international design industry, selects from over 4,600 entries. Winning the award not only earns you a trophy but also eternal fame.

Breur: “We’re really thrilled. This could give us the publicity to compete with the giant Durex.” After all, Durex is the market leader in the condom industry. “When people think of condoms, they think of Durex. And it’s hard to break through that wall of consumer trust in a product,” Breur explains. Yet, the Wingman is gaining more recognition. The winged condom is sold across Europe through around a hundred online stores. “That’s the perfect sales channel for condoms,” says Breur.
Awkward
“No one casually browses the condom section at the checkout of a drugstore. Of course, our ambition is to eventually be on the shelves. That’s why we’re priced just slightly below Durex products.” The idea for the design was born easily. While discussing the weekend, Breur and Tunovic stumbled upon a common, universal problem. “It’s just always awkward. The light has to be on. You blow into it, where’s the opening again? It’s so user-unfriendly. We had to fix that.”

Still, the prototype sat on the shelf for four years. “We got a lot of media attention in 2006 and hoped a major brand would call to buy our invention. That didn’t happen. It wasn’t until after a failed pitch to some investors for another project, when we mentioned the Wingman afterwards, that things started moving. Then we could start working on financing and building a brand ourselves.” The men will accept the award in late February in Munich.