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Gillette Guard and the shavepocalypse?

I was reading this article on the new Gillette Guard.

To summarize it simply:

  • The develooped world (US mainly) has abandoned DE shaving for "system" shaving, in other words, patented cartridges like Fusion
  • DE blades are not patented, and are very low-profit (how much money can you make on a $0.10 blade? not much)
  • Shaving "systems" are highly profitable, as anyone who has ever bought a pack of Fusion cartridges would realize
  • Most of the developing world shaves with either DE blades, or cheap disposable razors, and some even still use straight razors (often with disposable blades)
  • Gillette wants to get all those hundreds of millions of developing world shavers onto high-profit catridges
  • To do this, they have bought up many / most of the major manufacturers of DE blades around the world, and are introducing their new Guard catridge, which will be cheap enough for the developing world but a lot more than a DE blade

Put it all together and you have... the shavepocalypse. As someone who has had quite a bit of experience in the Third World, this whole thing makes a lot of sense to me. I've spent a bit of time in India, where they are releasing it, and I think it will appeal to them.

Obviously, we can prepare for this pretty easily. A lifetime supply of top-quality blades costs a few hundred bucks (which is why Gillette wants to end this situation) and can fit in a shoe box. Or we can try straight edge.

What do you think?

Here's their press release:

About three years ago, we set out to make a difference in the lives of these men. A multifunctional team – and I mean every member of this team – travelled to India to experience the consumer’s world, watch him shave, and hear him discuss his needs. For every member of the team, this experience was eye-opening. They watched these men shave with a double-edge razor without running water, sometimes outdoors, while balancing a hand held mirror – an experience laden with nicks, cuts and frustration. The team also learned that the typical drivers of our razor development process are different for these men. Our "developed market" mindset of "closeness and comfort" was less important to these consumers. What they valued most were safety, ease of use and affordability.

I've seen that (the underlined bit) many times, and also sidewalk barbers armed with straight edges in India, Cambodia, etc. I even got a straight edge shave from one of them (a terrible shave, my hair is a lot thicker than theirs). They also love things that are modern and American, and so this will be a hit for them.

These things will cost about $0.11, which is within reach of mid-income consumers there, but it's twice as much as their current DE blades. Gillette's purpose is to get Indians into the idea of using cartridges (Gillette ctgs in particular). Then, later, they'll try to get them to move up to double blades.

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Hmm... the cost of producing DE razor blades is so low that were it to become a niche market, at least some companies would probably find it profitable to serve that market. Also, I think two things about Gillette: (1) they like to have a finger in every pie and (2) have a history of continuing to produce "refills" for old products.

I expect the marketing strategy you describe to catch on in India, just as it did decades ago here. Gillette sees this: $$$$$$$$$
 
I think it means that the Golden Age of international blade availability that we currently live in is coming to a close. It will probably take a few years, and I think there will be some DE blades in production for a long, long time, but eventually the era of a vast choice of cheap, quality blades will end.
 
I think it means that the Golden Age of international blade availability that we currently live in is coming to a close. It will probably take a few years, and I think there will be some DE blades in production for a long, long time, but eventually the era of a vast choice of cheap, quality blades will end.

I just ordered a couple hundred astras... maybe it's not enough. How can you store packets of blades so they will never degrade? o_O
 
There have been other Gillette Guard threads, and many shavepocalypse, blade hoarding ones.

People who will be alive forty or fifty years from now will have to do the worrying about what will be available then. You'd think that sufficient demand among consumers would keep the technology alive, but this is hard to predict, and products do vanish. I think I've got enough SE and injector blades for my lifetime, and more than enough DE ones. I was too quick to hoard the DEs before I figured out that they weren't going to be my favorites, but rotating those in will make my injector blades last longer.

Even specific cartridges may be threatened. Once the original patents expire, and anyone can make cheap compatible ones, the original maker may want them phased out. There's no guarantee how long Trac II type cartridges will be out there. All we can do as consumers is provide a market, and hope the manufacturers are paying attention. Oh, and we can stockpile, but I wonder if that actually hurts the market, since we get a certain amount and then don't buy more.
 
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Note, that the Guard has been out for about six months now.

The quoted article is a whole lot of "oh no, the sky is falling" speculation.

Rather than speculation that might have no actual grounding in reality, I would like to know if the Guard is performing as Gillette expected. What's the real numbers on this? For all we know the product could be a total failure. :001_smile

Just to add to the discussion, I have used the Guard. It's is not what I would call a great product. I drew blood on most shaves, and it's longevity is not great (about 3-4 shaves as I recall, with only the first two shaves really being acceptable; a far cry from the 7 Gillette promises on the packaging.). The razor weighs about the same as a disposable Bic. I would honestly say it's little better than a cheap disposable.
 
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Well another way to look at this is how many companies are making DE razors?

I would think they would like to keep people buying their razors and if DE blades disappear then so would their companies. If they are smart they would get into blade production as well.

I'm also not convinced at this point anyway that Gillette is buying all the blade companies.
 
The DE market is still healthy. There still are a variety of makers of DE razors. They also are from a variety of price points and makers. This allows continued viability.

The point about shaving systems becoming unviable is a good one.

For example:

The injector market has no razors available. There could be one made by a third party (as was tried about 5 years ago), but currently one is not. Blades are down to Schick online and ASR only through scientific vendors. The NOS supply has really dried up in the last year (and tripled in price).

The SE market has decent blades available, but mainly through one maker ASR. Others do make them, mainly for other uses. There are no makers of razors for these blades, but there are lots of NOS and used ones at a reasonable price.

Wilkinson Bonded. A great one blade system, much better than the guard. There are NOS razors for a reasonable price, but no real supplies of NOS blades and no blades being made for it.

Double II by ASR- Dead system with low demand, and only some availability.

Band Razors from Gillette and Schick- Dead systems with limited availability.

Schick Legacy systems- Protector and FX. Limited availability of blades.

Gillette Legacy Systems- All have multiple suppliers of cartridges, including the other majors making some cartridges. Continue to be healthy, even if Gillette blades are becoming more expensive to get.

Thus, continued strong demand for the blades seems to be the number one factor (SE and Injector are helped by their other uses). Continued production of razors for the format seems to be the second most important factor, although over time, it will doom any blade without other uses.
 
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To summarize it simply:

  • To do this, they have bought up many / most of the major manufacturers of DE blades around the world, and are introducing their new Guard catridge, which will be cheap enough for the developing world but a lot more than a DE blade

I'm also not convinced at this point anyway that Gillette is buying all the blade companies.

Note, that the article itself said nothing about Gillette buying up all of the DE blade makers. This was an erroneous assumption of the O.P. in his summarizing of the article.

Gillette does have several plants worldwide that make DE blades, under several different name brands. Since there is little money to be made in DE blades (when compared to the profit margins of the cartridge market) it only seems logical that Gillette would combine brands; it's the same thing that the big auto companies constantly do: consolidate product lines, as simplification should increase profit (less marketing dollars need to be spent, eliminate duplication of facilities, and employees).

Energizer Brands (Schick/Wilkinson Sword) has indeed bought ASR (who was bankrupt) effectively leaving only two global players in the world wide shaving market.
 
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Haiti222, that's a good post.

I agree, and I think we have years before the supply of DE blades changes in a significant way. How many I don't know, but I'd guess ten or more. It's going to take awhile for the cheap cartridge or disposable to nudge the DE off the market around the world, but it seems to be on the way to doing so.

Great point about the Injector blades.
 
The "Shavepocalypse" happened about twenty years ago. I think it's just being used to scare people into buying lots of crap they don't really need.

Gillette does not have a monopoly on DE blade manufacturing. If they stopped making DE blades today, all that would do would create a vacuum for other manufacturers to fill. That's exactly what happened in the United States. I don't know if Gillette still sells DE blades here, I haven't seen any in a long time. Nearly every store that sells shaving supplies sells DE blades made by someone else.

I seriously doubt the razor manufacturers catering to the wet shaving enthusiast (Edwin Jagger, Muhle, Merkur) depend on emerging markets for a significant source of their income. The Guard isn't going to be eating into Merkur Vision sales. As long as there's a viable market for those razors, there will be blades available.
 
"They watched these men shave with a double-edge razor without running water, sometimes outdoors, while balancing a hand held mirror – an experience laden with nicks, cuts and frustration."

Did they have no water at all or just no "running" water? Gents used to shave all the time, with a straight razor no less, with no running water.

I fail to see how, under identical circumstances, a cartridge razor would fair any better than a DE razor.
 
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Yes, I agree. As long as there are both upmarket and downmarket producers for DE razors and blades, it will be a fairly healthy and self-sustaining environment. If only the luxury makers remain, it will still be a small and viable market, perhaps with only premium prices.

For wetshaving fans, the best thing would be for a viable injector and then SE razor be produced and become a success. It could be made by (EJ,Muhle,or Merkur), or with the manufacturing trends, it could be made by someone else if the quality control was right. It could even be a subscription project where people put up the funds for their razor(s) to be designed and produced.
 
DE blades are not patented...

This is why I'm not worried. If Gillette doesn't actually have control over the "tech" (what little is involved in a DE blade anyway) then I doubt they'll actually push DEs out of the market. And even if the prices rise by a few cents, it'll likely never be as expensive as cartridge shaving anyway. :Yawn:
 
I seriously doubt the razor manufacturers catering to the wet shaving enthusiast (Edwin Jagger, Muhle, Merkur) depend on emerging markets for a significant source of their income. The Guard isn't going to be eating into Merkur Vision sales. As long as there's a viable market for those razors, there will be blades available.

Same with Feather blades. Not many of those being sold in developing nations, I suspect.

I'd say the availability of injector blades is very different than DE blades - injectors weren't nearly as popular as DE razors, and as someone said, the razors themselves haven't been made in a long time. You can still buy DE razors, inexpensively - Lord, Parker, Dorco.
 
"They watched these men shave with a double-edge razor without running water, sometimes outdoors, while balancing a hand held mirror – an experience laden with nicks, cuts and frustration."

Did they have no water at all or just no "running" water? Gents used to shave all the time, with a straight razor no less, with no running water.

I fail to see how, under identical circumstances, a cartridge razor would fair any better than a DE razor.

Actually it's multi-blade razors that don't work well in this situation. They tend to clog a lot easier, and thus need more water to keep them rinsed out. So the Guard with one blade and a lot of open space in the cart is designed to minimize clogging. Straights don't clog at all, and DE's don't clog nearly as easily as 2-5 blade carts.
 
How would you market DE shaving to the younger generation? I'm around 18-25 year olds and almost all don't know DE shaving exists and those that do are afraid of it or think products are not available. Because of that, I think DE shaving is doomed within the next 20 years--at least in most developed countries.
 
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