Bevel shaving

Hello,
Has anyone seen this. https://getbevel.com/learn-more
Seems the closest to mainstream advertising I have seen.

Cheers
John

I have heard of it and visited the site. Bevel is the production of Tristian Walker, a former business developer for the social media app Foursquare. He had a noble and potentially profitable idea, which was to provide the tools and re-education of his fellow black men to change their shaving habits to avoid razor bumps.
That known, he borders on being a ripoff artist IMHO. He does not sell just the goods, but instead sells a subscription service. The website is a teaser that is made to draw men in to putting up a lot of money. The starter kit, which includes priming oil, cream, balm, and fine badger brush, is a sufficiently reasonable $59.00. It is in the maintenance phase where he gets you. The monthly fee is $29.99 per month to have supplies shipped quarterly. That works out to a dollar a shave. So much for saving money with DE. Any person could be far better served to get their own information in a forum such as this one and make their own independent product buying decisions instead of being locked into a program, but I suppose you cannot rip people off without their tacit or expressed consent.
The cost of the Bevel program has come under some criticism, which has forced him to offer an option to "pause" shipments. To some of his other critics, he offers the defense that he is doing something about a long-standing and highly fixable problem. To its defense, the program can be cancelled at any time, but personally I would not subscribe to anything that does not have a subscription expiration date.
http://www.fastcodesign.com/3028803...ging-high-design-to-neglected-black-consumers
http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showthread.php/387968-Bevel-Razors-Everything-old-is-new-again

What Retro said. I participated in a thread on Bevel when it was first introduced a year ago, and was quite critical of the subscription model. I predicted the business would have trouble flourishing. Here we are a year later, and the company is still around, whatever that indicates. Not that I really care. I had completely forgotten about the company until you started this thread. With any luck, I'll forget again.

Side note: perhaps this isn't Tristan Walker's fault, but am I the only one bothered that he posts regarding his own product line, but isn't labeled a vendor?

I hoped he would have answered this question in that thread:

mastershake said:

yes but can you simply cancel and when you do do you then have to ship the initial razor back? or are you only ever allowed to "pause" shipments and never to simply cancel? this is a very important question i do not see the answer to. i see you can send it back for a refund but what if you decide to cancel after that? are you then still required to send the razor back? there imo should be a much more clear explanation of all that. otherwise its a really nice looking razor.

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GoneRetroInOH said:

That known, he borders on being a ripoff artist IMHO.

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Oh man...I just checked out the order page on the website, to see if he clarified any of the questions about subscription obligations, when this little nugget jumped out at me:

"4 out of 5 men reported clearer skin using Bevel during our clinical trials.
Bevel revolutionizes shaving for men with curly hair."

DR. MICHELLE HENRY
Board certified dermatologist

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Let's see...a DE razor, pre-shave oil, shaving cream, and aftershave balm. Yep, that's revolutionary alright. I'm shocked she offered no explanation of her trial methodology.

MrLara said:

I hoped he would have answered this question in that thread:

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He does clarify a lot of those questions now on his website. Unfortunately, the answers are complicated, due to the fact the customer is billed monthly, but products are only shipped once every three months. For instance:

On pauses: "If you temporarily pause your account, we will continue to charge you and you will be responsible for paying the monthly fees for the then-current 3-Month Bundle that you have already received but you will not receive or be charged for the next 3-Month Replenishment Bundle unless and until you un-pause your account."

On cancellations: "If you are canceling prior to receiving your first 3-Month Replenishment Bundle, you will be charged $30 upon cancellation to convert your 30-Day Starter Bundle from a membership to a gift order. Additionally, any discount, coupon, or referral credit deducted from your Starter Bundle will also be charged at the time of cancellation."

This one is confusing to me. The Starter Bundle already costs $60 up front. Why would a customer then need to pay an additional $30 should he cancel, provided no additional products are sent? Is the $60 a de facto discount price for subscribers, whereas the actual cost of the bundle is $90 for non-subscribers?

On returns: "In order to be eligible for a refund, the bundle must be returned unopened, unused, undamaged, and contain all items originally shipped in original condition and in the original packaging, and you must pay a $9.95 USD restocking fee as well as pre-pay all return shipping fees; otherwise Bevel may refuse to accept your return and may not issue a refund in its sole discretion."

Seriously, why would anyone sign up for this nonsense? My cell phone contract isn't this complicated, and I actually need that service. I was happier having forgotten this company even existed.

that's very confusing indeed, since there doesn't seem to be a way to just buy the kit and be done with it.

MrLara said:

that's very confusing indeed, since there doesn't seem to be a way to just buy the kit and be done with it.

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The way to "buy the kit and be done with it" is to subscribe, pay $60, receive the kit, cancel subscription, and pay an additional $30. How hard is that?

I admire his initiative to solve the shaving problem that many men of color face, and I think he's sincere in doing that. The subscription model is more about profit and business than serving the customer. Still, while he's only peddling products we all already know about, most people don't know much about traditional wet shaving. Most people don't know about this board and others like it, and if they did they might nit want to spend endless hours here. The kit and subscription are a great wat to get people on board and provide a viable alternative to people who don't currently have one.

Yea his stuff looks nice... excellent product design and marketing messages.

If he ever decided to sell his products without the subscription I'd probably try some of his products but with knowing what's out there, $60 up front and $30 a quarter is absurd... it doesn't take 150 bucks a year to clear up razor bumps

I looked at the Bevel a while back, and I was not impressed.

The gear looks decent, but of course, the way it looks online doesn't really tell the whole story until you actually shave with it.

The company is obviously marketing to African American males as their target audience. By doing this, they are missing the mark and excluding themselves from a much broader selling opportunity. ANYBODY can use Bevel products. Caucasian, Hispanic, and Asian men can all benefit from high quality shave gear, but if they are not being included in the advertising, they might never know about it.

I don't like the subscription model. I've had subscriptions for other items, including coffee, and some exotic grocery items, and I find that my pantry filled up faster than I could use the stuff. So after a while, I had to suspend, and eventually cancel my subscriptions until I had used up the stockpile I already had, most of which had long since passed its expiration date.

With shaving gear, I can't imagine using the same thing every single day. I like variety and options, which is why my shave den is filled with so many different products. With making a one-time purchase from a company like Bevel, I'd be set for at least 5 years worth of shaving before I needed a refill.

And they charge $90 for a 90-day supply? That's about the same cost as cartridges, so where are the supposed savings?

Jerry-built Hustler said:

What Retro said. I participated in a thread on Bevel when it was first introduced a year ago, and was quite critical of the subscription model. I predicted the business would have trouble flourishing. Here we are a year later, and the company is still around, whatever that indicates. Not that I really care. I had completely forgotten about the company until you started this thread. With any luck, I'll forget again.

Side note: perhaps this isn't Tristan Walker's fault, but am I the only one bothered that he posts regarding his own product line, but isn't labeled a vendor?

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Whatever that indicates?
It could indicate he had enough startup capital to operate at a loss for some extended period of time.
It could indicate he has backing of some private capital partner who is fronting him the cash in exchange for the hope that he will become profitable.
It could indicate, of all things, that his model, the program, the not-so-unique products, and the racial identity marketing is actually working as designed, even with whatever bumps he has encountered. If someone can make money by steering people into paying over $1.00 per DIY shave, that is simply free enterprise. As P.T. Barnum so famously said, "There's a sucker born every minute".