What is the status concerning "Shaveapocalypse"?

Does anyone remember a few years ago Gillette was going to come out with a new Tech?
Yeah, like P&G would want to lose billions of profit.. disposable means $$$$$.

 

Truth.

 

True

Those people are called "enablers"

 

Once more, very encouraging news from the other side of the ocean!

 

The manager of the local Art of Shaving store told me that the new Tech was ready for production. All Gillette had to do was press the Go button. They used the patent drawings to get the dimensions. I doubt that they would move forward with the R&D, getting the sales collateral ready, and notifying the store managers that introduction was imminent unless they were serious about selling the razor. The Art of Shaving store managers really wanted to get the razor in stock, as they thought that it would sell very well. At the last minute, Gillette delayed the product introduction, and each month they would delay introduction by another month. The AoS manager said that no explanation was given.

Gillette's biggest worry at the moment is cartridge subscription outlets, not old school shaving. It is not cartridge razors vs. safety razors so much as Edwin Jagger/Muhle/Merkur/Parker/etc. vs. the new Gillete Tech. Art of Shaving already resells Muhle and Merkur razors, so it's not like there will be a big gap in their product lineup without the Tech.

 

Well, if they did come out with one, especially if it were brass, they could sell it for a fine profit and have their name brand recognition behind it. Even if it was a production of 3,000 per month to start, rather than the old 4,000,000 per year, as long as they make a profit, it should be a no-brainer to do it. It's just when a company is addicted to 1,000% profits, taking a mere 40% profit, to them, is losing money. This is also the pharmaceutical market.

 

i agree.i started using a brush and williams/wilkinson soap in 2005 after 20 plus years of canned goo.no real selection of any kind and zero blades.blades have finally started appearing in drugstores and supermarkets in canada in limited quantities.

 

seems that way in most markets;profits up,quality down.disposable world.

 

the good thing about wet shaving today is that it isn t controlled by the hands of a few like in the 20th century.gillette made billions converting straight razor shavers to the new safety razor as the new thing ,the very marketing guise they are using today.today it is a choice instead of a necessity. today guys like me can shave with a british aristocrat,in 1949 most were still lining up for bread.artisans are filling the the shoes of the few and making better products.i think traditional wet shaving is like classic cars,fine art,50 year old rock groups etc.,if the people want it ,it will be available in some form.;just more refined and not next to the hair dyes and vitamins.artisans are local hard working people for the most part and i would rather purchase from them by choice than a conglomerate by necessity.thats my .02 cents.

 

Scarily enough, it _is_ controlled by a few. The razor blades. The Russian plants - whoever owns them. The Lord plants in Egypt. The Personna/whatever plants in Israel. The one(s) in China. Maybe? a plant in Germany?

That's about it. It's not like the days of the carbon blades, where there were hundreds of companies, and they were even making them for the advertising market.

 

i agree,same goes for steel manufacturing,antifreeze,gasoline/petrol,oil,car parts,paper to a degree.when in doubt a small stockpile is good.

 

I'm not as afraid for steel manufacturing or oil/plastics. There are still mothballed mills all over the Rust states that could fire up pretty quickly. Living in Houston, Texas, I'm also not afraid for the various refining, right now. It may LOOK like there isn't much competition, but there's more than most think, and most of the companies can quickly ramp up to produce something that another person stopped making. Car parts? I'll admit that the aftermarket parts market is overwhelmed by crappy chinese parts.

I'd be more afraid for electronics. Does anyone else here realize that we make almost _nothing_ beyond the prototype level in electronics components? Capacitors - China, Taiwai, Japan. hard drives - Indonesia, Japan, Korea. It's not even a function of expensive labour, as most of that is straight automation. I personally think it's inventory taxes.

With razors, though, if Gillette put pressure, I wouldn't be surprised to find half of the better razor blade production facilities closed within a month.

 

Those mothballed rust belt factories could not be brought back on line without an enormous financial investment in technology and upgrades to meet all the environmental laws now on the books. Modern steel plants are virtually fully automated now. Most of the old plants just are not configured to meet the manufacturing techniques of today. It would be easier and quicker to demolish them and build new. Probably would be cheaper too.

 

@Col C - I simply meant that if something happened where we _had_ to have things running fast, they could be put back online. My uncle worked a steel mill his whole life, and what little I remember (and read) said that they're not complicated operations - just BIG, and somewhat complex (lots of steps, but nothing difficult). So if we had to, we could have a steel industry back up and running quickly, then set up the modern facilities. We just can't do an electronics industry like that. Too many steps.

 

when the world runs out of razor blades i ll use a straight razor.fortunately there are still lots around and will be while there is a market.

 

And, straight razors can be created by a machine shop, or by a decent blacksmith. I have three good ones, but I've never shaved with one.

 

i agree..i have never used a straight razor but are cool to look at.will try in the future

 

Ok. However I think thats a bit simplistic. The industry is totally changed over the last 20 years. It simply is not that easy. They are complicated now and very automated. That's why our steel factories closed down. The ones overseas were built new with new technology and we just could not keep up. Having just retire this past year from the heavy industrial sector - the environmental laws are impossible to meet anymore unless you totally change the operation. When I visited the steel factories in Japan to study their operations - I found very small operations/facilities but lots of them. They have totally gone away from the single large complexes that we used. The Japanese steel industry is thriving.

 

me neither,have worked for both.happy to enjoy what we have at present.everyone needs to work for the future.

 

Yes, there is "Feintechnik" in Germany, which produces: Elios, Croma Diamant, Lamix and Bolzano superinox blades. The bad thing, is that i read some very bad reviews about those blades...

Edit: Oh, there might be also a plant in Pakistan (at least Treet is pakistani brand) and i am pretty sure there is a plant in India, because i stumbled upon a review talking about "these horrible, indian laser cut blades", but i can't recall which brand was that. And then there is Dorco, but i am not sure if they are produced in S. Korea or in China.