15 years of McHurt; how it all began
Berlin, 20th of March 2008:
Three notebook PCs stand side by side on top of a vintage English snooker table in an historic Kreuzberg apartment looking out at the “Platz der Luftbrücke”. Next to the table, cuffs, collars and about 15 whips are hanging off various hooks on a metal stand. On one side of the stand also hangs a straightjacket, which is going to be a game-changer. At that time, in 2008, it is nearly impossible in Germany to obtain a good quality leather straightjacket for less than € 600. The mens’ straightjacket hanging here has been manufactured extremely sturdily and is going to be priced at € 249. This will be characteristic of the course set for the emerging label McHurt. The name McHurt was introduced to the public only a month earlier by the official registration as a Europe-wide brand.
The PCs on the snooker table constitute McHurt’s 'data centre', as Volker, Pia and Kerstin named it during the half-year period of setting up the McHurt Online Shop.
Today is going to be the big day, the day the online shop is going live.
At about 18:20, after fixing some last minor issues and several trial runs, admin Volker, under the watchful eyes of Pia and Kerstin, is taking the lid off the shop. McHurt is now online and accessible to everyone.
This moment marks the birth of McHurt!
The next morning, on Good Friday 2008, Pia and Kerstin drove to Hamburg in order to present McHurt’s very first official stall at the Women's Easter Conference.
A lot has happened since then. During the first year, the growing product range steadily filled up Managing Director Pia's apartment. When climbing over boxes made it nearly impossible for her to get from bed to work desk every morning and living normally at the flat became difficult in general, in May 2009 the McHurt Shop in Dudenstrasse in Berlin was opened.
In time this small corner shop also filled up, as not only did the product range grow, there were also additions to the sales team. After about a decade, the first location no longer offered sufficient space for all of this. So it was time to bid farewell and head out to more spacious pastures.
Fortunately, new premises were soon acquired not too far away, which offered more space and made getting to the shop even easier. Which is how McHurt came to move from Dudenstrasse to Tempelhofer Damm in the spring of 2020.
The Covid pandemic and the lockdowns that came with it obviously kept visitor numbers rather low during the first few months but as soon as restrictions eased, more people than ever decided to drop in, and McHurt was once again known as a specialist store for kinky toys developed from practical experience, which offer fun and joy for a long time.
We are keeping our fingers crossed that the new shop will offer enough room for Pia’s frenzied creativity, for another decade at least….
By the way: the famous metal stand from Pia's living room still exists. You can admire it at every trade fair, serving as a whip rack, and consistently in an overloaded state, as McHurt’s range of whips has particularly grown over the last 10 years and is still far from fully available online. But rumour has it that this will improve in the future.
And that’s enough storytelling for now. Let’s party.
15 years of McHurt; how it all began Berlin, 20 th of March 2008: Three notebook PCs stand side by side on top of a vintage English snooker table in an historic...
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Berlin, 20th of March 2008:
Three notebook PCs stand side by side on top of a vintage English snooker table in an historic Kreuzberg apartment looking out at the “Platz der Luftbrücke”. Next to the table, cuffs, collars and about 15 whips are hanging off various hooks on a metal stand. On one side of the stand also hangs a straightjacket, which is going to be a game-changer. At that time, in 2008, it is nearly impossible in Germany to obtain a good quality leather straightjacket for less than € 600. The mens’ straightjacket hanging here has been manufactured extremely sturdily and is going to be priced at € 249. This will be characteristic of the course set for the emerging label McHurt. The name McHurt was introduced to the public only a month earlier by the official registration as a Europe-wide brand.
The PCs on the snooker table constitute McHurt’s 'data centre', as Volker, Pia and Kerstin named it during the half-year period of setting up the McHurt Online Shop.
Today is going to be the big day, the day the online shop is going live.
At about 18:20, after fixing some last minor issues and several trial runs, admin Volker, under the watchful eyes of Pia and Kerstin, is taking the lid off the shop. McHurt is now online and accessible to everyone.
This moment marks the birth of McHurt!
The next morning, on Good Friday 2008, Pia and Kerstin drove to Hamburg in order to present McHurt’s very first official stall at the Women's Easter Conference.
A lot has happened since then. During the first year, the growing product range steadily filled up Managing Director Pia's apartment. When climbing over boxes made it nearly impossible for her to get from bed to work desk every morning and living normally at the flat became difficult in general, in May 2009 the McHurt Shop in Dudenstrasse in Berlin was opened.
In time this small corner shop also filled up, as not only did the product range grow, there were also additions to the sales team. After about a decade, the first location no longer offered sufficient space for all of this. So it was time to bid farewell and head out to more spacious pastures.
Fortunately, new premises were soon acquired not too far away, which offered more space and made getting to the shop even easier. Which is how McHurt came to move from Dudenstrasse to Tempelhofer Damm in the spring of 2020.
The Covid pandemic and the lockdowns that came with it obviously kept visitor numbers rather low during the first few months but as soon as restrictions eased, more people than ever decided to drop in, and McHurt was once again known as a specialist store for kinky toys developed from practical experience, which offer fun and joy for a long time.
We are keeping our fingers crossed that the new shop will offer enough room for Pia’s frenzied creativity, for another decade at least….
By the way: the famous metal stand from Pia's living room still exists. You can admire it at every trade fair, serving as a whip rack, and consistently in an overloaded state, as McHurt’s range of whips has particularly grown over the last 10 years and is still far from fully available online. But rumour has it that this will improve in the future.
And that’s enough storytelling for now. Let’s party.
