One other thing to consider besides all of the corporate maneuvering and patent strategies, was the market place.
When Gillette brought out his first Safety razor he was competing in an already established safety razor environment, but there was still an enormous number of men who were still getting shaves from the Original SE - the straight razor. The DE razor may have been considered revolutionary and the SE just an evolved straight. I would have thought so. Consider wedge blades. A modern SE blade is just a step away from those and the wedge blade is basically a chopped up straight.
I'm thinking an analogy might be the cell phone (non internet connected) -vs- the smart phone (internet connected). The cell phone is an evolution of the land line, but the smart phone is a revolution in the way we communicate. PLEASE NOTE, I am not saying DE is better the SE (just like a smart phone is not better then a plain old cell phone), just that men of the time might have been enticed by a truly new development.
But I don't think SE razors lost the market so quickly like cell phones, I've seen pics of ball parks with large GEM ads displayed in them and a pic of Sinatra shaving with an injector(?). But the fact is, SE safety razors had the first at bat.
And my last point - and folks seem to dislike this when I mention it - but SE razors did ultimately win the market - specifically injector style. If you shave with a cart razor you are shaving with a SE blade. And it is an evolved injector blade. There may be more then one of those blades in there and they are fixed into a disposable fixture, but Single Edge it is. And that cart handle resembles an injector more then it does a GEM or Ever-Ready handle.
-jim
When Gillette brought out his first Safety razor he was competing in an already established safety razor environment, but there was still an enormous number of men who were still getting shaves from the Original SE - the straight razor. The DE razor may have been considered revolutionary and the SE just an evolved straight. I would have thought so. Consider wedge blades. A modern SE blade is just a step away from those and the wedge blade is basically a chopped up straight.
I'm thinking an analogy might be the cell phone (non internet connected) -vs- the smart phone (internet connected). The cell phone is an evolution of the land line, but the smart phone is a revolution in the way we communicate. PLEASE NOTE, I am not saying DE is better the SE (just like a smart phone is not better then a plain old cell phone), just that men of the time might have been enticed by a truly new development.
But I don't think SE razors lost the market so quickly like cell phones, I've seen pics of ball parks with large GEM ads displayed in them and a pic of Sinatra shaving with an injector(?). But the fact is, SE safety razors had the first at bat.
And my last point - and folks seem to dislike this when I mention it - but SE razors did ultimately win the market - specifically injector style. If you shave with a cart razor you are shaving with a SE blade. And it is an evolved injector blade. There may be more then one of those blades in there and they are fixed into a disposable fixture, but Single Edge it is. And that cart handle resembles an injector more then it does a GEM or Ever-Ready handle.
-jim
