Good Ideas
After a lot of work, we have received a United States patent pertaining to the UNO razor. While Paul and I celebrate this event, we also reflect on the course of human ideas, in the abstract.
One of the beautiful things about our great country is that there is no shortage of people with ideas. America is nothing if not a deep well of the pioneering human spirit. People ruminate constantly about the possible improvements to the things we do and use everyday. For instance, I live in an agricultural community in Montana. If we took a drive around my home you would see the celebration of our agricultural heritage proudly and prominently displayed in front of many of my neighbors' farms and ranches. Rusting old cultivators, draft horse and ox yokes, stone compactors, threshers, dilapidated wooden cattle loading chutes, reapers, harrows and graders. And to me, they're all beautiful. They represent a chronology of human ideas.
If you step on the showroom floor at a John Deere dealer today though, what you'll see and learn about is simply amazing. Remote controlled tractors that can support any implement you can imagine and be controlled by the same, loaded up with cameras to watch everything on a 4K screen from inside the climate controlled cab with a massaging seat. Necessary? No. Efficient and cool? Yes. What I see inside the cab of a new Deere is incredible, but useful. These are purposeful innovations which make the job much easier, much more efficient and also more fun - so you can get more accomplished.
When Travis Kalanik unleashed Uber on the world, it changed the way we think about transportation. It's brilliant, and extremely convenient. Do you lose some freedom if the only thing you had was Uber to get around, and not a car of your own? Sure. But very few use it that way here in the US. It prevents accidents and DUIs, parking problems and rental car costs, and also makes hard-to-plan transportation easy. It solved a problem, and very few can deny that.
What if, however, you started seeing “extreme” or “turbo” toilet paper on the shelf? What would you think? Ridiculous, right? You can only fool people so much, and this was not an area complicated enough to succeed in. So, the companies mostly didn't do it. Sure, other improvements existed in that product space which have created brand loyalty by human preference, but I think they're about done improving upon TP.
The human experience is rife with innovation that solved zero problems. And I give you as the prime example... the multiple-blade razor. Do you think we are going to look back, fifty years from now, and think “damn, they only had five blades in their razors!? Haha, how stupid! You need at least ten!” Logically (if logic wins), probably not. But, with enough marketing money, maybe that will be the case.
Presently, the commercial shaving razor is already standing at the edge of stupidity. By that I mean, to step over that edge and add a sixth blade right now to a mainstream market razor (seven-bladed razors already exist in foreign markets), at this point in history, would likely be met with mass public ridicule in America. Gillette and others are no-doubt aware of this fact. So, they're adding other gimmicks. Vibration, heat, exfoliating bars, silly-ass handles and so-on. Few of which deliver on their claims of increased performance. But back to the point. Why five? Hell, why even three, or two? No reason. It's just extreme-performance, turbo-glide, mentholated, cooling toilet paper.
The most expensive heirloom-quality designer razors on the market today have one blade, and they do not pivot. That is to say, if you went out right now and tried to spend the most money you possibly can for a shaving razor, it would be one designed to hold a single blade and not have a mechanical pivot. And say you didn't want to buy such a razor, but instead wanted to pay for the most premium shaving experience. Well, that would be sitting at a barber, and it would be with one blade and no pivot. The task would be performed by an artist, and his fingers and wrist would be his guide.
And just like the notion of “extreme” or “turbo” toilet paper, some things can only be so good. People aren't accustomed to shaving with heirloom style, classic safety razors anymore. Innovation beat it out. Today, we are all accustomed to cartridge razors of some type. And UNO is the only single blade cartridge razor which exists in the market today. That is why Paul and I have always said that beyond the razor we're selling you, what we're really selling you is the truth. And, it's a truth that the big razor companies fear most. Razor technology should've never deviated from the single blade.
The only problem they were solving at the time, was the problem of having competitors.
Dermatologists have admitted as much. There are teenage boys suffering from acne, induced by ingrown hair, induced by their multi-blade razor. There are men and women of color of all ages who suffer from the same. And many women, of any heritage, suffer the same on their bikini line. And the problem is, the big conglomerates will never own up to it. To do such would be to admit to a grand, multi-generational deception.
Protected from competitive pressure by their patents, they then sold us the deception. And we ate it up like Takeru Kobayashi be doin' to Oscar Meyer hot dogs. Much like the farming innovations I've alluded to above, the real move-forward innovation in shaving should only be to solve a problem that humans have, not what problems companies have. There's a-lot of money protecting the lie, believe me. A-lot. And, I've no doubt it will take a-lot of time to unravel it. But make no mistake about it, and you can ask your dermatologist for confirmation, a single-blade shave is superior for the health and condition of human skin than any shave performed with a multi-blade. UNO accomplishes this task cheaper, with less waste and with less irritation.
The future is bright. May the door for new ideas, and new ways to truly improve upon the human experience, always be open to everyone.