Hi gents, If you could run a shaving brush factory, what kind of brushes would you produce? What would it be the material you'd want to use in the handles? What shapes do you consider to be the most popular? What existing models are the most popular? Thank you
Sounds like it. Some interesting materials for handles. Obsidian, granite, Soap stone, Teak. Nice Soft hair that works great for soap and cream. 20mm seems to be the standard although some prefer a larger knot.
I would start small and conservative..................inject politically-based smirk Find an unique medium for your handle (see SW's post) and limit the badger options to the most cost - effective for you. I would think pure and best only might be a good starting point. Use a more traditional shape(s) to begin with until you get some momentum up and then add new styles.
Find a real good source of knots first. Finest and Best as I think Rick mentioned. I'm partial to 21-23mm size. The base needs to be unique or your just another brush maker. What makes someone want to buy your brushes? Price, quality, service, style? Pick one or better yet pick a couple. I have a really nice wood handled brush but it needs some weight.
Yes and no. I'm trying to gather some information on what makes people buy certain shaving brushes. I'll use that information to help a local shaving brush maker to restyle some of his models. He already has a good suplier of all kinds of badger hair. What need improvement, IMHO, are the handles and the size of the models (could use larger knots, more dense hair, etc.). I think the handle is the main eye-candy in a brush, at least for me it is! Then again, I could be wrong, I'm not a doctorate in shaving brushes, I'm more into straight razors and I only have one brush - a Rooney Silvertip - so I'm not into brushes like most of you gentlemen are. So, what are your favorite handle shapes? Why is that the vast majority of the handles are white (and made of resin I guess)? What do you consider a good price for a low-end, unknown-brand, silvertip badger hair, medium sized, resin-handled, brush?
I think another important aspect of selling a brush (or anything, for that matter) is the marketing strategy. Look at Art Of Shaving for example. Maybe they make good brushes, but I know a lot of wet shavers at other forums are turned off by the perceived smugness of their name. Eshave is another one. Again, the brushes may be nice, but their frou-frou handle colors are a big turn-off to me. People like tradition, but if you can't give them that, give them uniqueness and quality. I seriously think the nicest looking brushes I have seen are made by our very own rodd. Nothing more unique than a handmade wood shaving brush. Just my 2 cents.
What do you mean by smugness? Oh, we can deliver tradition, allright, he showed me a wooden handle made about 50 years ago, of one of his first models. I thought it was cool, but, will it sell today? We can't afford to ask the handles suppliers to make a few thousands of handles if it's only going to sell a couple of dozens. Although it's a long shot, I'd like him to have at least one vintage wooden handle. The other handles are going to be more "modern" - white polyester resin.
I would think that your best bet would be to post either pictures of the shapes that you are considering and / or narrow down the choices in materials then ask the same question. Leaving it open will give you too many answers as everybody has their own idea of the ideal handle and while you may sell one brush attached to a scaled down pool cue most of us would not be interested. Personally? I prefer the idea of a natural material (specifically horn, though I could see buying a really nice brush with a marble handle were they made.) I would consider staying with the "tried and true" shapes and materials if you are looking to have a couple of thousand handles made. There are only two or three companies that mass produce brushes with horn handles, and even then I assume that it is only a couple of hundred at a time- I doubt that the market for them is not that large. The other thing to keep in mind will be cost. Would I spend a couple of hundred dollars on a brush from an unknown maker (regardless of what material the handle were made from)? Not likely. Stick with the lower cost materials until you establish some kind of reputation. Yeah, in a way I guess that I am suggesting that you mass produce the same brush that every other company mass produces (I realize that you want to set yourself apart in design / material- but from a business standpoint it would be almost impossible to create a "different" shape or use a "different" material, do so cost effectively and guarantee that it would appeal to thousands of people.) If you were looking at creating a few different types of brushes then you could target individual markets (heck there must be some wet shavers that are pool fanatics) but if I were looking to mass produce one style of brush I would likely stick to the traditional shapes / materials. One of the other reasons that I doubt that there is a huge market for new shapes / materials is because the owners of some of the online shaving shops would make them if there were. They are in touch with their customers and if they felt that they could sell a large quantity of thick handled brushes to their arthritic customers they would have their supplier manufacture them. Having said that you may want to get in touch with one or two of them and ask if there is any material / shape they think would work. It may also lead to them wanting to stock a line of "special" brushes made by you if the quality / price point were right. People would also be more likely to buy a slightly more expensive brush from them as the retailer is putting some of his reputation behind your brushes just by selling them. Good luck
The materials worth considering right now are wood, acrylic and ceramic. Absolutely. My taste is very classic. I don't like any fancy futuristic handles. I believe that the most sober and classic handles are the best. So, I'm giving him some sketches of some shapes I collected and then we'll see what's the final output. Thank you so much everyone!
The key word there was perceived. I think others took their name and prices as a "we invented wet shaving" attitude. This is not my thinking, I was just throwing out some info that I picked up at other forums. I was talking about companies like Simpsons, Vulfix, and Rooney that have been in existence for many, many years. None of what I said was intended to be disparaging, and if it came out that way, I apologize. I was merely inputting what I had hoped to be useful information. I certainly wish you the very best of luck in your endeavor, but I guess I was trying to angle the thread in a direction that I think is pretty important when trying sell a product: the marketing.
Cost is the main issue for me. I own a boar brush and have been looking into upgrading- but I will not drop 100 dollars on a brush, no matter how good. I won't even drop 50. Many of the popular brushes on this site go for much more than I will pay- although not all. So if I were to go into the brush manufacturing business, I'd want to offer a dependable quality low-er cost brush. I'd focus on function over form. So the brush handle would probably be plain and straightforward. Variation would come with the brush bristles- boar, badger, or some mix of the two. I also love tradition- so I'd look to successful designs from years past if possible. But tradition's a luxury in this case- if you can arrive at a functional design that isn't traditional, I suspect it will sell better than a fully traditional design.
All good choices. I think there are a number of people producing some beautiful examples of exotic wood handled brushes. For mass production and quality control not to mention marketing it may be a poor choice. If I owned an internet store and were to stock them it would be a pain. With the grain of each being different and unique I would almost feel the need to take a picture of each individual brush and then offer, ship and track them separately. I would not want to picture a wonderful grain and ship a "bald" grain brush. Acrylic can be made to look nice but would be light (weight) for my personal taste (I like a bit of heft.) For my vote (only one guy in thousands and not currently looking to purchase a brush) it would be ceramic. You can bet a nice texture and even have some variation in the colours (the ceramic with slight beige, and black "spots" could turn out very nice.) Well, there you have it- keep us up to date and maybe post a picture of the final decision... I would love to see what you come up with.
This particular company also exists for many years. It's a tiny family-run company that exists for more than 50 years. I think that must count something on the "tradition" score, no? This is where their products are different. They have small production costs, so the final product is relatively cheap. They don't waste money on a fancy package with some beautiful flyers telling the company story and with a tag with an image of a badger. The package is a plain transparent plastic case. You can't get much simpler than that. What you're paying for is for a hand made brush, not the case, nor the flyer that will go to the trash. What do you think it's a fair price for a brush like this? Around 50 USD, no?
Oops, I have to apologize. I missed this part from your earlier posts: "Yes and no. I'm trying to gather some information on what makes people buy certain shaving brushes. I'll use that information to help a local shaving brush maker to restyle some of his models." I was thinking you wanted to start a company from the ground up. Sorry, sorry, sorry! :ashamed001
50 USD sounds fair for the brush you describe. But I still can't afford 50 dollars for a brush right now, no matter how good a buy..
I would make brushes that are dense, firm yet soft. They would have a short loft of around 50mm and would not splay out too much on the face(retain their shape well). Current brushes that have these characteristics are the rooney heritage series brushes. If you could make similar brushes to these for less than 100 dollars than I would be a loyal customer
I already have one model like that, and if you're willing to try it, I'll PM you, because the mods wouldn't like me to start talking about the brushes I've got for sale in this thread. I'd probably get slapped or banned. Anyway, I'll use this thread to discuss some ideas for future brushes. Thank you all for helping me with your opinions, they were all very important to me.
I agree on the cost point. USD$50 would be a fair cost for a very dense/firm brush with a short loft (<50mm) and very soft tips, but there are other players close to this price-point (Rooney $65/75). If you could match performance of a Rooney at $25 less, then you would have my repeat business. Regards. J
