He died in 1931, but millions of men still unknowingly pay tribute to his technical and commercial genius every morning.
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Daily morning ritual
Every morning, millions of men start exactly the same way. Standing in front of a mirror, they lather their cheeks and, picking up a shaving machine, carefully shave off the stubble that has grown over the day. And every other machine has “Gillette” written on it.
How and what did people shave before Gillette?
It is believed that moustaches and beards always adorn a real man. The ancient Greeks proudly wore these male-only signs of gender. But even then, many men shaved off their stubble, and among the sculptural portraits and frescoes we constantly find men’s faces with clean-shaven chins.
In ancient Rome, wearing a beard was already considered a sign of barbarism. Men shaved in the following centuries. Catholic monks shaved not only their cheeks and chins, but even the tops of their heads. At first, men shaved with everything that came to hand: scrapers, fragments of clam shells, then razors appeared: stone, obsidian, copper, iron.
The shaving process was long, difficult, and, at times, dangerous. The first barbers appeared in Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome. They were highly respected people and made good money. Their services were used by citizens of all classes and even emperors. This continued until the beginning of the 20th century.
King Camp Gillette
To the delight of the entire male part of the world’s population in the USA, in Wisconsin, in the town of Fondulac (Lake Depth) in 1855, King Camp Gillette was born. His father, the owner of a hardware store in Chicago, was obsessed with a passion for invention. This passion was adopted by his son. The family was constantly doing something and making things. After the famous Chicago fire of 1871, which destroyed the store, Gillette Sr. could not bear the blow of fate and began to drink.
The family moved to New York, where the 16-year-old King began working as a travelling salesman. Wandering around cities and towns, he did not stop inventing, dreaming, like Edison, to get rich on his inventions. Gillette patented all his inventions, but they did not bring tangible profits. However, King believed that one day one of the inventions would make him rich.
Million Dollar Advice
In 1891, King got a job as a travelling salesman for the Baltimore Seal Company, whose founder, William Painter, suggested to Gillette the direction of finding an idea for a new invention. He advised inventing something that would have a one-time use, but would be massively necessary.
In 1895, while shaving, Gillette had an idea. He decided to separate the straight razor into two components: a constantly used handle and a replaceable blade. Instantly, he saw in his head, down to the smallest detail, the design of the shaving machine.
As an experienced salesman, he immediately realised that he had found his “gold mine”. Every man who shaves will become his client.
In search of a blade
If Gillette had at least the basics of technical knowledge, he would have given up his idea at the very beginning. To make steel at the same time strong, thin, and so cheap that it could be used several times and thrown away, at that time it seemed an impossible task.
Six years have passed in fruitless attempts to find a person capable of solving this problem. In 1901, fate brought King together with engineer William Nickerson, who undertook to implement the crazy idea of mad Gillette. Nickerson was talented. In the same year, 1901, he received a thin strip of steel of the required strength with a certain sharpening angle.
First year: Total collapse
The partners registered the Gillette Sofety Razor Company and issued shares that were not worth a penny at that time. But there were simpletons who bought these shares (to the delight of their descendants).
By 1903, having raised $5,000, Gillette and Nickerson launched a factory in Boston for the production of shaving machines with interchangeable blades. At the time of the launch of mass production, the company had a debt of $ 12,000. In the first year, the company sold 168 shaving machines and 51 blades.
Gillette conquers the market
But King believed in his product and made heroic efforts to promote his invention. That’s when his experience as a travelling salesman came in handy, the ability to convince a person to buy an absolutely necessary, absolutely unnecessary thing for him. Gillette sells razors below their cost; he gives them away for free, he sells machines complete with coffee bags, chewing gum, and canned meat.
At the top of success
In the second year, 90,000 machines and 123,000 blades were already sold. By 1917, the company was already selling 1 million machines and 120 million blades.
In 1917, Gillette sought an exclusive contract from the US government for the supply of 3.5 million machine tools and 36 million blades for soldiers of the active army.
This is his finest hour. The soldiers who returned from the war no longer wanted to shave with anything other than Gillette machines.