Months before Mount Prospect gained unwanted global notoriety for a new, one-of-a-kind store geared toward “Adult Baby Diaper Lovers,” some officials at the village hall already were quietly concerned about the business license application from a company called Tykables.
An administrative assistant emailed the community development director in February, saying she was doing so as a mom and resident of Mount Prospect, not as an employee.
“I feel that the village will get a huge amount of negative publicity if this business is allowed to open,” she wrote. “We chose Mount Prospect because of the wonderful schools and the safe, family-oriented neighborhoods.”
Sure enough, Tykables and Mount Prospect became the, um, butt of jokes around the world as England’s Daily Mail, the Washington Post and other major media focused attention on the storefront at 512 W. Northwest Highway last month.
Village records obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times show how officials scrambled to handle the furious fallout from their decision earlier this year to allow Tykables to open.
The mayor says she didn’t know anything about the new business until May 31. That’s when Mount Prospect officials learned of a YouTube video starring Tykables co-owner John-Michael “Tod” Williams.
OPINION
In only a diaper, white tube socks and a Tykables T-shirt, the 30-year-old Williams showed off the store’s 7-1/2-foot tall crib and 5-foot high rocking horse.
“We definitely want to fill the space with things for people to come and play, take pictures,” he said. “Come join us. Come see us.”
Back in February, when he applied for a business license, Williams wrote to officials that Tykables wouldn’t seek approval for a sign because “we are not promoting this location to the general public to ‘stop by.’”
The village issued the license to Tykables on March 11.
Three months later, once the mayor and public became aware of the fully-grown diaper devotees in their midst, records show village officials requested a meeting with Williams. The community development director wrote to Williams asking him to “eliminate the YouTube advertising” and promise there would be no “playing” or taking photos on the “the equipment.”
The video remained online. Yet, top village officials said Tuesday they found no reason to revoke the business license.
Village Manager Michael Cassady said he met with Williams at Tykables after the video surfaced.
“He admitted he went overboard in the YouTube video,” Cassady said. “He was very excited. He retracted that. We accepted that.”
But in an interview Tuesday in his store – which is painted peach, light yellow, and powder blue – Williams reserved the right to advertise and to take promotional photos or let customers clamber up on his oversized nursery furniture.
The YouTube video was directed at his clientele, not at “the average person on the street,” he said. Williams said Tykables has done nothing different than what he told officials he planned.
Williams said Tykables diapers are of higher quality than what adults who wear diapers due to medical issues normally wear. They have a higher “level of absorbency,” he said, and are more durable, “for more extended wear.”
“Some people do use our product for a fetish need,” Williams said. But he said most Tykables customers come from the “non-sexual side of the ABDL community,” dressing as babies to cope with stress.
“It’s not sexual for me,” Williams said. “It’s more of a comfort thing. It’s kind of a security blanket.”
Mayor Arlene Juracek, a retired ComEd executive, said older constituents have been more accepting of Tykables than parents of young children. She said it would be wrong to associate what’s known as paraphilic infantilism with pedophilia.
“Today’s young parents have so much to worry about, and this is another bogeyman under the bed,” Juracek said.
Irate residents blasted village officials with calls and emails. One told the mayor that Tykables owners originally said the Northwest Highway location would be primarily used as an office but now were “inviting customers into their store.”
Officials were directed to a blog promoting visits to Tykables. The Diaperboys blog’s motto is, “We all need a little padding sometimes.”
As complaints mounted, Williams asked Mount Prospect police to provide “special watch” over Tykables. Police dispatched extra patrols, according to village documents.
Through the hue and cry, some Mount Prospect officials kept a sense of humor.
After the community development director, Bill Cooney, wrote that the public reaction had been “pretty brutal,” Police Chief Timothy Janowick replied, “Need a blankey? Might know a place I can purchase one for you …”
