Need some Gillette info

Discussion in 'Safety Razors' started by Corey, Mar 18, 2009.

  1. Corey

    Corey Member

    I'm looking for a Gillette from 1979 but the pickings look incredibly slim. What model DE Gillettes were available for that year?
     
  2. Bronco

    Bronco Mac Daddy

    Z code

    DE/TracII/Atra/Disposibles

    Don't know what DE models were available!

    Good luck with your quest!
     
  3. MTgrayling

    MTgrayling Rocket Man

    There were the black handled Super Speeds and Super Adjustables, and I bet Knacks also.
     
  4. D.irving79

    D.irving79 Gemocrat

    yeah, thats my birth year and i have a LH adjustable. minty and shiny too :D
     
  5. Corey

    Corey Member

    It's my birth year as well. I'd like to find one for nostalgia's sake, but the only one I've found on ebay is a mutilated mess that is a little more than I care to spend.
     
  6. Adeptus_Minor

    Adeptus_Minor Active Member

    That's the trouble with us 70's kids.
    We were born after DE's had already fallen into the land of generic plastic.
     
  7. Corey

    Corey Member

    That's what I'm finding. The big switch to cartridge crap and one size fits none razors seemed to be kicking in during the late 70's. I'll just keep an eye open on the forums and ebay.
     
  8. Etoyoc

    Etoyoc Backwards

    Pauldog had some NOS 79 techs for sale once upon a time. I don't know if he still has any.
     
  9. pablo_h

    pablo_h New Member

    I was born early 70s, So I'm lucky enough to nab a super adjustable, a black handled superspeed, a knack and a british slim TTO.

    As far as 1979, they did still have techs, albeit aluminium and just in a blister pack.
    edit: I can't post a link, even to an image I uploaded off site on imageshack. Look for a 1979 tech on mr-razors page.
     
  10. Jim Corbett

    Jim Corbett Member

    I wonder why Gillette just totally gave up on the DE and if they will ever produce one again. After all Merkur, Parker and others seem to be doing well w/ their DE products. I bet if Gillette came back w/ a HIGH QUALITY adjustable and maybe a slant it would be a big success. Maybe a basic tto to round out the line.
     
  11. jbcohen

    jbcohen New Member

    There is some debate about just that topic jim here in the funny farm. Thus far the only theroy that we inmates have been able to come up with is that back in the days Gillette noticed all of the sales that they were missing becuase of the competition. They were simply unable to doubble the cost of their products becuase of all of the competition who were not about to follow their lead. Somehow in order to raise prices they were going to need to find away to eliminate the competion.

    One way to do this is to innovate and find ways to make a better product, customers were definetly willing to pay more for a better product. Troubble is the research and development costs of putting out a supiror product. Gillette was unwilling to invest the time and effort into building a better beast. The only other ways is to use patent laws to outlaw anyone from competing with you. The way to do this was to shift production to a new product that would cost them less to make than the standard double edge blade yet they could charge anything they want for it and use patent laws to eliminate competition. The cartridge was ideal - it cost Gillette far less to make a cartridge then a double edge blade becuase it is simpler to make and can be made primarily with plastic, a cheaper materiel. So the Trac II was born. The only troubble with this approach is that the patent expires meaning in order to keep out the competition Gillette had to keep finding cheaper ways of production, even if it ment making the product worse and attracting more customers. The multiblade apprach was ideal since it cost a minimal amount of dollars to add blades yet the comapny could present it as improved and attact customers. By adding blades they could continually patent newer and cheaper products for them to make yet charge indefiently higher prices for the cheaper product since the patents kept anyone else from competing. Hence the Atra, Sensor, Mach 3 and finally the Fusion were invented.

    The bottom line is that the reasons that Gillette went to the cartridge razor is simple:

    1) Cheaper to make
    2) Use patent laws to eliminate competition
    3) Can charge anything they want for it
    4) More dollars for the company

    The fact that the product was not as good at the job of shaving their customers and caused ingrown hairs is not really a problem, since Gillette freely admits that their first job as a company is to Increase profits first and server their customer's needs last.

    Some of use here at the funny farm have recognized that the cartridge razor is what is often referred to as a proprietary technology or available from only one vendor. And therefore a curse word while double edge and single edge razors are non-proprietary, available from many sources and therefore good. The double and single edge razor has 100% of the customer base in here. We don't use the injector becuase none of us have found two or more sources for the blades, it has been found from the American Safety Razor Corp and no one else and therefore proprietary and bad.

    Oops got to go we inmates are taking over the funny farm again. Hope that we can manage to say in control for more than an hour this time around.
     
  12. Jim Corbett

    Jim Corbett Member

    I love it. Thanks.
     
  13. DarkAudit

    DarkAudit Active Member

    Considering Gillette is now nothing more than a label for Engulf & Devour (I'm sorry, Proctor & Gamble) to stick on whatever they feel like, I'd say the chances are nil. Given time, there won't be a person left in the company with any connection, let alone loyalty, to the old days.

    We're dealing with a multinational superconglomerate here. Even if they did decide to produce a DE razor for the US market, I guaran-effing-tee you it will be a) cheap (in more ways than one), and b) made in China.

    Those days are past, and trying to revive them in the current business climate will never be able to compare favorably.
     
  14. Sugarbush gnome

    Sugarbush gnome New Member

    I suddenly feel very old. I got T-shirts older than some of you fellas.

    Doc
     
  15. MTgrayling

    MTgrayling Rocket Man

    I've got underwear older than them youngin's.

    I forgot about the Tech's :o
     
  16. DarkAudit

    DarkAudit Active Member

    I got a birth quarter Slim... but just barely. :D
     
  17. pablo_h

    pablo_h New Member

    Gillette was always about selling the blades. That's why they sold the razors cheap or sometimes even gave them away. Even though they were selling DEs, they were still selling you a 'system' just like a M3 or a fusion is selling you a system.

    It no longer made sense to them to sell you a well designed razor if you could buy it and then buy some other brand of blade, if you don't buy a gillette brand blade, their loss leader razor itself is a waste of time and money to make and sell.

    So to guarantee you'd buy their blades, they got out of DE and made proprietry cartrodge razors.
    Gillette has always been about selling the blades, selling something consumable (blades) makes money. Selling something with no planned obselence doesn't make much money because you can only sell the product once to each buyer who wants it.
     
  18. jbcohen

    jbcohen New Member

    True enough pablo but you need to keep going with your ideas. In 1908 Gillette anounced to the public that stated goal of the company was to make a profit first and serve the needs of their customers last. Today Proctor and Gamble will never admit it but the purpose of their business still remains the same. Its about making dollars not about serving your needs. Think about the Safety Razor and think how was the safety razor just another manifestation of the same policy on Gillettes part? It was.

    To understand how the safety razor served the needs of Gillette corp and Gillette only and got you to spend more and more and more with no end in site I will need to tell a short tale so as to make the concept clear.

    Let's get into a time machine and go back to approximatly 1850s. The only razor available is the straight razor. Men are happy and getting excellent shaves with minimal cost. Ture that the razor represents a significant investment, but thats a one time only cost and can be used for several generations with nothing more need to be purchased. While they are very hard to learn to use, this does not really present a problem since pop shows his son to use them along with presenting him with grandpops razor, in such a way each razor skips a family generation. Its a time honored tradition for father to show son how to do the job with grandpop's hardware creating family togetherness. Frequently mom will join in and use her grand mother's hardware learning the task from mom.

    Now enter Gillette into the picture. King Camp Gillette looks around at the seen and sees millions of men getting great shaves from a razor that needs to be purchased once every 150 or so years. There is really no way for him to make any dollars off it at most he will make an ocassional sale of one razor every year or so. Its a great situation for the consumer but terrible for the producer, he has to find away to get these straights out of the hands of his customer and sell them something that wears out much faster. His genious is two things: 1) The safety razor removes from the customer the ability to sharpen the blade there by providing him with a steady source of income; now his customers will have to buy a lot more frequently and incdently a lot more dollars; and 2) a loss leader, sell the hardware at a loss and make up for it in the long run.

    The safety razor was never as good at the job as the straight was, but it still provided the most important thing - away to get money out of his customers.

    Troubble is the devil was where he generally was, in the details. Others saw the wisodom in King Camp Gillette's approach to getting people to pay more dollars. So all they needed to do is wait for his patent to expire then they copy and under cut his prices. Bad thing for gillette's corporation they need to find away to eliminate the compeition that had come to market, thus the cartridge razor was born.
     
  19. pablo_h

    pablo_h New Member

    Not so much. KC gillette just wanted a sharp blade available for a safety razor at any time, without getting someone to sharpen it for him.
    Most people didn't shave with a straight everyday, they either went to the barber and paid for the service, or did it for themselves whenever they felt like it.
    In KC gillettes time the safety razor was already around, and that's when people started to buy razors and shaved themselves everyday, with the safety razor.

    He did work for the kampfe company who did sell safety razors, but at that time they all sold razors that needed resharpening until the point where you'd have to buy a new one.

    So his idea was twofold, a disposable blade that he could sell new ones forever to make him money, and a razor that you'd never be inconvenienced with, ie wake up, find it blunt and have to deal with it or go without a shave and get it sharpened later on somehow. edit: we're talking about average city folk here, not someone who slaughters animals for shaving soap and knows how to sharpen a razor. He did have a genuine market for people who wanted to be clean shaven everyday, but did not want to pay or have the time for a barber or to get someone to sharpen their safety razor every second day or so.

    He wasn't competing with straights, but with safety razors in the day that were already out there.
     
  20. jbcohen

    jbcohen New Member

    This is a rather interesting topic in my humble opinion. Wikipedia leads me to think that King Gillette was the first with the safety razor. You mean to tell me that Kampfe's razor used a blade that could not be removed and replaced? Did you have to buy a whole new razor?
     

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