Meet Glenn Catapano of Fetish Factory

Today we’d like to introduce you to Glenn Catapano.

Fetish Factory was founded by Glenn Catapano and Donna Leone, both whom succeeded in a specialized area of pharmacy in South Florida in the mid 90’s. After selling their company, they decided to leave their professions for something alternative which was more their passion. Fetish Factory opened its doors in 1995 as a small boutique catering strictly to the fetish market. Over time they expanded their inventory to better meet the needs of their growing audience.

Owners Glenn and Donna understood early on that it would be extremely difficult to grow their concept store with such a tight niche market, especially in a small city that was ignorant about fetish fashion. Fetish Factory understood the importance of branding with the creation of a powerful logo and slogan to set their name above the world competition. The Fetish Factory logo and brand are protected by numerous irrevocable Federal trademarks as well as trademarks in the European Union.

Fetish Factory realized they must become more than just a store and soon began pioneering a fetish community. They created a concept social gathering called Alter Ego; a place where like-minded people that enjoy wearing fetish fashion could gather, share ideas, dance, and make new friends. Since it’s inception and 2 decades later Fetish Factory has become one of the largest Fetish Boutiques in the world and rivals stores in every big city. Fetish Factory enjoys a reputation not only as a place to shop but where one could also become a part of a growing community. Fetish Factory has succeeded in building incredible relationships and “goodwill” over the years. Alter Ego Fetish Factory’s monthly fetish party is the largest strict dress code fetish party in North America.

Fetish Factory developed an online presence in the early days of the World Wide Web in 1997. They perceived the importance of embracing internet shopping with the development of an online store. Our online store displays all of the items we sell in our showroom offering customers from around the world that may never visit our showroom, an opportunity to do business with our stores. Our community websites and online store allow us to continue to build our customer base worldwide and has gained us a solid reputation as one of the premier fetish shopping websites online.

In 2000 Fetish Factory relocated to a much larger retail showroom one that is industrial by design and inviting to their customers. The larger showroom also allowed Fetish Factory to further expanded and diversify its inventory to include club-wear, adult novelties, and tantalizing footwear.

When Fetish Factory hit their 10-year mark they created an event of epic proportions and international gathering for fetishists who gather from over 40 countries to participate in the top fetish weekend in the world with 10 fetish parties hosted over 5 consecutive days it truly is a fetish marathon. The Fetish Weekend is now in its 13 iterations with 100% fetish hotel takeover each year of a top huge 4 star hotel, world class fetish performers and a very elite international traveling fetish crowd the Fetish Factory Fetish Weekend is the top fetish weekend in the world.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
The biggest struggle we have has lingered since our inception by using the word Fetish in our name. The business was build on adversity and we are driven to overcome adversity as we fight against the grain. We have had difficulty with getting a lease, setting up bank accounts, merchant accounts and all because our name has the word Fetish. We continue to be misunderstood and still to this day can not advertise in places like Facebook! We are proud to still be around 23 years later and have no plans on stopping this runaway train!

Fetish Factory – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
Fetish Factory stands up to social norms and remains focused on freedom of expression. We have opened hundreds of thousands of peoples minds over the years and continue to help people express themselves through the fashions we sell the social networks we have built to network our crowd and the fetish parties we host.

We pride ourselves with helping people open their minds and to release their Alter Ego.

What set us apart from other stores is just that we are more than just a store and we are community builders. We created our first social network in 2000 called Alter Ego to cover our monthly strict fetish dress code fetish party by the same name. We are a store, a community and a party!

What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
We had the opportunity to build our business before the internet and were a part of the hot bed of fetish in the 90’s. Fetish Factory was first in North America to create glam fetish rubber clubbing. We have had countless people attempt to emulate or copy what we do and they have all come and gone and we are proud to have survived the internet and survive with the internet and still in business 23 years later.

Contact Info:

• Address: 855 E Oakland Park Blvd
  Oakland Park FL 33334
• Website: www.FetishFactory.com
• Phone: 954-563-5777
• Email: glenn@fetishfactory.com
• Instagram: /FetishFactory
• Facebook: /FetishFactory
• Twitter: /FetishFactory
• Yelp: /FetishFactory
• Other: http://store.fetishfactory.com

Image Credit:
Fetish Factory

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