Article below was originally posted in Packaging Digest, February 11th, 2025.
ONE Condoms is bucking the trend toward omnichannel packaging with a new retail-only box for ONE Flex Condoms. The new packaging’s launch coincided with the product’s rollout at more than 1,000 Walmart stores in late 2024.
The new boxes will also be sold at select Walgreens locations. The brand will continue to use its ecommerce packaging, a colorful round tube, for online sales.
“In a retail setting, it can be a little tricky to ensure that the front of the tube is always facing front,” says Milla Impola, sex, condom, and lube expert at ONE Condoms. “Therefore, when we introduced the ONE Flex condom at Walmart, we placed the product in a box. With a box, it’s easier to ensure the package is always facing front, where the main selling points of the product are,” she adds.
The brand originally chose the round tube to match the format of its primary packaging, a round wrapper. The company will use the same primary packaging with the new retail boxes.
“No matter the type of packaging, the wrappers will continue to be ONE’s signature, trademarked round wrappers that feature various types of art on them,” Impola says. “From community-designed cheeky wrappers to those designed by artists from around the world, ONE uses artwork to inspire conversations about safer sex.”
Related:Graphene Gives PET Bottles a Lightweighting Boost and More
ONE Flex Condoms are made with latex bonded with graphene, which sources as diverse as the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the London-based Design Museum have described it as “200 times stronger than steel,” the latter adding that it’s “one million times thinner than a human hair.”
Thus, the sleek graphics on ONE Flex wrappers incorporate silver and black elements, “speaking to the product’s futuristic nature,” Impola says.
Graphene’s properties — including its strength, durability, conductivity, and light weight — have recently attracted interest from manufacturers of various products, including plastic packaging. Read more about our coverage of graphene in packaging applications here.
About the Author
Kate Bertrand Connolly, Freelance Writer
Kate Bertrand Connolly has been covering innovations, trends, and technologies in packaging, branding, and business since 1981.