condom light
The classic latex condom may have a strong competitor come 2015. Wikimedia Commons

Talk about ingenious design and engineering. In an effort to make wearing condoms more appealing to men everywhere, a small California-based business called “Origami Condoms” has come up with a new "folding" condom that supposedly feels more comfortable.

The company’s creator and founder, Danny Resnic, told The Huffington Post that his product is an improvement over the classic latex condom, which is strictly for protection and which no one likes using.

“We are trying to create a condom that feels great and is much closer to the real deal to encourage people to use them,” Resnic told HuffPost. “It’s a shift from protection to pleasure. Our focus is on making condom experience more pleasurable than anyone imagined possible. We almost didn’t want to call it a condom.”

The new condom folds up instead of rolling up, which is supposed to make it feel looser and follow the natural movement of the body.

With condom use a matter of national public health in helping prevent the spread of sexually transmitted diseases and HIV/AIDS, health professionals and major condom manufacturers have taken notice and want to license the design, Resnic said.

The origami condom is also personal for Resnic, who contracted HIV in 1993 when a condom broke. He decided to use his design background to come up with the new concept.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation last month deemed Origami Condoms a leading innovator, posting on its blog: “Origami Condoms provides an excellent example of a private enterprise focused on new condom design to promote consistent use by emphasizing the sexual experience.”

Condom designers have a $100,000 incentive from the foundation to come up with a new condom design as part of a global health campaign initiative. Resnic said that his company has already received $3 million in funding and research investment.

The new origami condom, made of silicone, which enables the folding, will not be available until early 2015, Resnic said. It will have to undergo multiple stages of rigorous testing before it’s presented for approval to the Food and Drug Administration.

To learn more about this innovative condom, check out Origami Condoms' website and watch the video below that demonstrates how the newcondom works.