True, but I can't even imagine how absurd one would look. The current plans assume 1 cart = 1 month with shipments of 4 or 5 carts per shipment. If we assume 1 DE blade per week, that would be approximately 6 of the 3-blade tucks of Platinum Plus per shipment. (Hmm... starts looking cost comparable to cartridge...)
Yah. After over a year of promises of "any month now" nothing has come of it. Oh yah, the MANY MANY emails from Gillette to DE enthusiasts that inquired saying it's not true. Here's one such response:
After more than a year there has been NO announcement. Most AoS stores have NO idea what anybody is talking about (including the one I went to where the manager said he never heard about it). And there have been quite a few emails sent to AoS and Gillette and the response is always the same, either a "no" or "never heard of it." The mere picture of a razor and a barber pole mean nothing, especially when you consider how long ago this rumor started and the fact every alleged deadline has been blown. For all we know, it could merely be a throwback picture that makes for a cool advertisement. It certainly looks cooler than a picture of a disposable or Mach 3. But if you can find a single AoS or Gillette employee who has gone on record saying anything about bringing back DE's, I'd love to see it.
Heck, I've only been in one AoS store, and I wouldn't believe a customer service rep from almost any company if they said they were sitting down, let alone anything important. The _only_ people that could say Yea or Nay on that would be a higher up - at least a general manager, if not a VP. Good luck contacting any of those.
I'll give you that. And the few times I've been in the AoS store in the Chicago burbs the clerk seemed like an out of touch hipster who knew mustache waxes better than he knew razors or razor blades. At this point, I'd say AT BEST it's an unsubstantiated rumor that missed it's first deadline (of many) by more than a year.
Seems to me that Gillette would have every reason to let word get out officially, in order to build interest. It's very unlikely there's anyone who could suddenly decide to compete with a novelty reissue by jumping back into DE manufacturing. On the other hand, it seems extremely unlikely that that company would allow a handful of employees (if that) at one or two locations to start this rumor when there's absolutely nothing to it. It could end up making the whole chain look bad. The poster doesn't actually promise anything...perhaps it is simply an advertisement for shaving in general, and the Tech in the window is just an original used as a prop?
Remember Gillette and Art of Shaving are just marketing tools of Proctor & Gamble and even there it is split between two semi-independent divisions. Gillette today is simply a TradeMark and if P&G decided there was a market for a Gillette Branded DE razor all that would be required would be a few overseas phone calls and a couple weeks shipping time.
One reason I don't think Gillette would attempt to recapture the DE market is that they can't compete, as dumb as that sounds. It's not worth it for them to make small runs of razors. To be profitable enough to do it, there'd have to be financial incentive. But tossing that reason aside, they also wouldn't be able to compete against the used market. The market for DE razors is still a very niche' market and for them to capture that small amount of market share, they would have to sell a razor that is either better or cheaper than their own razors on the used market. Neither of those will happen. The chance of them releasing an all brass razor that's either plated in nickel or gold is zero to none. I also don't believe they have ANY of the machines to make any of the vintage stuff again. So all that leaves for them is re-branding someone else's razor and putting a markup on it. Why bother?
I'm of the belief that the long-rumored Tech reissue is definitely an AoS product. If P&G wanted to put Gillette back into the US DE market, they would be more likely to take the 7 o'Clock Sterling razor (or its somewhat nicer Rubie counterpart), pair it with the Brazilian-made Platinum Plus blades and slap it onto the shelves at Walmart and Walgreens. The following is my personal conjecture of events based on the various rumors, etc. Take it with a grain of Potassium Alum. I would guess that sometime in 2015, AoS noticed the interest in vintage DE razors and, thinking that there is always money in Nostalgia, decides to create Limited Edition reissues of classic Gillette razors. (Early rumors mentioned the Fatboy and, possibly, the SuperSpeed in addition to the Tech.) Foundries are sourced, prototypes are made, and a go-ahead is given, starting with the classic Fat-Handle Tech. Rollout is planned for summer 2016 and is to be accompanied by a marketing push (e.g., the Instagram post featuring a Tech and the "Brotherhood" posters with the crossed razors). I'll venture the possibility that it was also only planned for certain key markets, hence the knowledge disparity between AoS stores. According to reports, the razor is being made in the US, specifically Ohio. (I'll let the manufacturing experts here comment on the viability of that.) At this point, it's probably worth taking a moment to speculate on how the razor is to be manufactured. The original Tech was stamped brass. Since the original dies and equipment have likely long since been sold, repurposed, or destroyed, this would mean either making new dies or cast the razor heads instead. If we assume a desire for the lowest manufacturing costs, then we can reasonably conjecture that AoS went with Investment Casting. As we move into Spring of last year, "something" seems to have happened. The word on the street is that the release of the AoS Tech has been delayed with the reason given being that they had to "redesign" it because they weren't "happy with the results". This has always been a confusing statement since many would ask, "What needs to be redesigned about the Tech?" Let me throw out a couple of theories as to what may have happened: Theory 1: Low yields from initial batches due to QC issues. To support this as a possible case, we need look no further than to the experiences of Rockwell and Supply. Both of those companies started with Investment Casting and either had to abandon that approach in favor of MIM or go through additional finishing steps. If AoS did indeed have similar issues then the "redesign" may have consisted of changes to make the razor more amenable to Investment Casting or a complete change to MIM, including a change of suppliers. Theory 2: The razors were fine, but the testers didn't like them. This assumes that AoS put the completed razors before a focus group(s) where they were not well received. I count this as a possible explanation given a) that many shavers consider the Tech to be too mild and b) that modern DE razors tend more toward a bulkier design which may be more familiar to some shavers. Theory 3: We weren't going to like them. (This is an, admittedly, off-the-wall theory.) Basically, the idea is that someone in AoS Marketing is reading the forums in stealth mode and determines that, based on the comments in the forums, the razor will be a non-starter for some reason (e.g., being made of Zamac). In this case, the redesign is made in order to address those concerns proactively. (Essentially, this is what Rockwell has done at various times with the Model T.) Following the initial delay and redesign, the rumors call for a rollout for last Christmas... one which, obviously, did not happen. At this point, one can only guess at what happened and whether the razor will ever be released (if it ever existed at all).
I wish they would leave the past models in the past so that collectors don't get the shaft. This is an effort to take the improving classic shaving market from "the little guys" who are designing and making their own modern DE razors. Which I really like and I think if Gillette wants to get back into the classic shaving game, they should make us some NEW models, not rehash the classics. There are plenty of vintage razors out there, no need to kill the collector's value of their historical models.
If they want to create new versions of the old ones, why not? Everyone ELSE copied the designs, or still _is_ copying the designs. I think the supposition that it will hurt the 'vintage' market is way off. People that want old ones will buy them. People that want razors that have never been used - will buy the new ones.
For the record, the vintage market HAS no value. The razors are selling for a fraction of what they cost when new (taking into consideration inflation of course). The ONLY razors that command a high/colletable price are the ultra rare razors like bottom dials and toggles and if they didn't think there was enough value in them to manufacture them back in the day they certainly wouldn't attempt to today. I'd LOVE to see Gillette get back in the DE market seriously but they wouldn't do it out of fear it would be even remotely successful. Take a look at how much money they are making on cartridges. They have ZERO plans to disrupt that.
I went to the AoS store in Columbus Circle in New York back in November 2015, I think it was. The employee there told me he had just went to some sort of meeting and they announced the Gillette re-runs. I think there is (or perhaps was) plans to launch this. But seeing the amount of time that has passed without a word, it makes me wonder if the project has stalled. Perhaps the start up cost to build the machines and tools outweighed what they though they could get in return? Just my observation of course.
