Awakening Boutique: Bringing New Energy to the Sex Shop Game

Founded in 2018 on “Trust, Respect, and Orgasms,” by Tory Johnson and Rose Kalasz, Awakening is a boutique bringing new energy to the sex shop game. 

“… There just was almost nothing when we opened in 2018 that felt safe or that had products specifically for queer people,” says co-owner Rose Kalasz. “I still hear all the time people telling me that they’ve never felt safe in a sex shop until they came to ours.”

Which is not surprising, considering the ways that porn and sex industries have historically fetishized queer and trans people. Despite being a huge part of the market for sex toys, brick-and-mortar stores continue to sell exploitative queer porn and gender their products. At the least, the closed exteriors of stores like Romantix or The Book Ranch, while they offer privacy, make sex shops feel clandestine.

In contrast, Awakening’s “sex boutique” is a wide-open space tucked between a vintage store and Sweet Action Ice Cream near 1st street on South Broadway. Awakening is one of a “short list” of smaller boutique sex shops with both health education and radical pleasure at their center. Kalasz mentioned stores like Self Serve in Albuquerque and Dynamo in New Orleans, both of which opened in the early 2010’s. Suddenly, there was a hunger for a “feminist, queer-positive sex shop” in the Queen City.

“(Johnson’s) mom actually … mentioned that we’d be good at it,” Kalasz says. “We just kind of laughed about that at first.”

One way Awakening centers community is selling affirming products like gaffs, packers, tuck kits, and harnesses—affirming products which used to be available only from discreet sellers online.

“When we first started carrying that stuff, probably in 2019 … I couldn’t even find it, like, it took me months to find where I could get that stuff to sell it,” says Kalasz. “There’s something to getting to go touch what you’re going to buy … especially with gender-affirming apparel and products.”

Awakening opened just a year before adrienne maree brown’s anthology “Pleasure Activism” was published. The cozy interior of the store, with books (including maree brown’s) and art positioned right next to vibrators and cock rings feels directly inspired by radical pleasure politics. 

“We call ourselves a sex shop and a community resource because we really do try as hard as we can to have products and workshops and an environment that just feels easy and welcoming to be in,” Kalasz says. 

Brown’s book is a collection of essays which radically challenge conventional attitudes toward pleasure, a book which teaches “how embracing what brings us joy is central in organizing against oppression,” according to Colorlines.

In addition to toys, apparel, and books Awakening also sells art entirely from small, often local artists. I once found a prized “Book Slut” sticker in the constantly rotating options. Some of the stickers are more pleasure-oriented, not specifically related to sex, making this sex shop actually feel refreshingly ace- and aro-affirming.

“We try to have a little something for everyone. You can buy a gift for your partner; you can buy a gift for your best friend; you can buy a gift for your mom,” Kalasz says. 

The store carries a more “curated collection” with both big-ticket items and small, unintimidating products. Their selection of cash register impulse buys carries stickers and pins next to keychain size cocks and vibrators. But the specific selection, and the fact that Kalasz and Johnson still work the shops themselves, mean that there is always someone safe to answer questions.

“You’re not just walking in blind … We try really hard to make sure we are there for people in a way that we are there for people in a way that (conventional sex shops) are not,” Kalsz says.

Awakening has one location on Broadway near first street and another in Fort Collins near the Armstrong Hotel in Old Town. Their cozy, boutique stores create a welcoming and un-intimidating environment for everyone from your rope bunny roommate to shy asexual trans girls. Remember to shop local, and keep them in mind for your pleasure buys this holiday season.

“Shop local for the holidays because it does make such a huge difference for little neighborhoods like Baker … and it changes our lives when people shop for the holidays with us,” Kalsz says.

Images courtesy of Jessica Christie Photography.