Thread: There gold in them hills..

Heck of a good article on the money being made in this hobby of ours..............
Shaving wars pit tech start-ups against Gillette

One of the three main companies they mention seems to be offering a DE type razor with replaceable blades instead of cartridge.
They're pretty funny claiming to be breaking some new ground with that idea

Originally Posted by gugi

One of the three main companies they mention seems to be offering a DE type razor with replaceable blades instead of cartridge.
They're pretty funny claiming to be breaking some new ground with that idea

Just a question to all reading this.........
What is your estimate of the percentage of male shavers in the USA that use a brush/soap&mug/DE or Straight Razor?

I would guess less than 10%. For the other 90%, this would be a novel approach to shaving, inexpensive and very convenient.

Actually, I would guess significantly less than 1%.

I have an acquaintance who has a subscription to Dollar Shave Club. They have the subscription mainly to save money but do say the razors are more than adequate. The commercials are funny.

My guess is five percent of North American males use a DE or straight razor. I know people who use a brush and shave soaps/creams with their cartidge razor because the product is better for the skin and those who do because it makes them feel manly.

I decided to delete another couple of sentences about people who claim to be wet shavers but have a cartridge razor under the sink to finish up with.

I just converted one of my shipmates to DE shaving. he had looked at my straights for quite a while but found them intimidating. I showed him the DE and he thought maybe. Shaved with it for a week and was hooked. Now I'm introducing soaps and brushes. I think he is well hooked. I had given him four different blades and he is talking about which one is most comfortable. He is a lifer now!

I've done the same with two more people in the last couple of months. I never try to bring people over to straights unless they beg me, but I'm always eager to educate about DE razors and soaps and brushes. Whenever I can find a decent safety razor for less than $5, I buy them and offer them to people to try. Everyone who has tried one has become an eager convert!!!

Originally Posted by Utopian

I've done the same with two more people in the last couple of months. I never try to bring people over to straights unless they beg me, but I'm always eager to educate about DE razors and soaps and brushes. Whenever I can find a decent safety razor for less than $5, I buy them and offer them to people to try. Everyone who has tried one has become an eager convert!!!

I've converted a couple of buddies to DE shaving as well, one went out to buy a brush...he was outraged that a badger brush, "to shave with for X's sake.." could cost $25.00...I just nodded my head and said, "Uh-huh"...yikes!

Originally Posted by randydance062449

Just a question to all reading this.........
What is your estimate of the percentage of male shavers in the USA that use a brush/soap&mug/DE or Straight Razor?

I would guess less than 10%. For the other 90%, this would be a novel approach to shaving, inexpensive and very convenient.

There are few ways I can think of estimating it. They say the industry revenue is roughly 2.6B/year. Population of US is 300M, the male part is 150M, let's say 100M those who shave (the other third is too young or having beard - I know overestimate but I'm trying to get first approximation and correct later).
2.6B$/year divided by 100M shavers is $26 per shaver per year. That's $2.2/month so it doesn't match the narrative that Gilette and Shick cause people to spend orders of magnitude more than that. This is also the number that the new disruptive companies are offering as significantly lower.

So, it seems that either the revenue estimate is wrong or the number of americans males who use the expensive cartridge razors is significantly less than 100M. Which leaves the number of people who shave with the cheaper DE or the unaccounted straight method is significant i.e. in the dozens of percents.
Or may be a lot of people really spend very little on the cartridges. In my store they cost $3-$6/cartrige so $2/month means using the same cartridge for 6-12 weeks.
If this is the case the real story on these new companies is that they're allowing people get better shaves by shaving with sharper razors due to the more frequent change of blades. But they're marketing it through 'cheaper' because people are really unhappy with the price of Gillette and are responding by not changing cartridges often.

I wonder what's the real story. I should try to figure out a way to ask my friends how often do they change their razor cartridges.

Gugi, I think that you might be on to something on how often people change their cartridge out. A friend of mine and his brother say they change out about every three months. I just about fell over thinking about how rough a shave you'd get doing that. They also complain bitterly about the cost of the carts.

Bob