Gillette’s Latest Innovation Is Removing Blades From Razors

Every duad of geezerhood , Gillette reveals the late breakthrough in skimming technology . That has often involved adding more blade to its razors . More steel must equal a better shaving , veracious ? ! One , two , three , four , five plus an extra one hidden on the back — the company has done it all . But now , after decades of splendidly bestow all those extra blade to its razor cartridges , Gillette is removing them .

Meetthe new Gillette SkinGuard Sensitive . It appear a lot like the last immense razor instauration from Gillette , the Fusion5 ProShield , except rather of featuring five blades , it has just two . Where the other three blades would have been in other Gillette razor cartridges , there ’s “ new SkinGuard technology , ” which is fundamentally a blue piece of slotted plastic that hang back along your human face during a shaving . It ’s supposed to reduce hide irritation .

But do n’t feel like Gillette is skimping on those two blade . According to the fellowship , they ’re “ two optimally place grim cutting force ( LCF ) blades ” that let in “ Gillette ’s sharpest border with [ its ] most advanced covering . ” These breakthroughs were announced at the Gillette Global Innovation Summit in business district Manhattan on Wednesday , where there was a skin doctor who kick in a presentation on peel irritation and picture a number of relatively graphic illustration of a razor blade pulling a hair follicle out a humans ’s nerve . This was uproarious because it looked an awful lot likethe Gillette Mach 3 commercial from the late 90sthat showed how three brand were better than two . Not any more , says Gillette .

Photo: Adam Clark Estes (Gizmodo)

I try shave with the novel two - bladed Gillette SkinGuard Sensitive razor a few minutes ago . It did not palpate too much different than the two - steel Gillette razor my gym gives aside for free . If anything , I ’d say that it irritated my skin a little bit more than the Fusion blades I apply at home base . Gillette might say that the SkinGuard is n’t for me , since the caller ’s administrator stressed again and again that it ’s a particular kind of razor for a special form of guy cable . What ’s wacky to me is that I intend this sale pitch will go on a stack of mass .

To be honest , I ’m not even delirious about the twisted marketing scheme . If an American shaving caller has the guts to expend 20 years convincing everyone that its razor blades are better because they have more blades and then , one day , hold a Global Innovation Summit and bring out a product that looks like something from 30 years ago , I ’m impressed . Gillette now allege that it drop three years developing the SkinGuard technology so that it would have a mathematical product that appealed specifically to guys with tender cutis . few blades would irritate the skin less , the fellowship says . This is after Gillette kept total more blade to its razor , and everyone made fun of it for doing so . Philips even made a mocking TV commercial :

Here ’s the funniest part , though . Gillette ’s new SkinGuard and its two blade will be $ 8 for a handle and one pickup . Four additional cartridgeswill cost $ 18through Gillette ’s razor vane subscription service . The three - blade Mach3 is $ 10 for four cartridges . That signify the two - blade Gillettee razor costs almost doubly what the three - blade one costs . Put otherwise , you could buy the Mach3 for almost half the cost of the SkinGuard and get 50 percent more blade . Again , it ’s quite the marketing strategy !

Photo: Adam Clark Estes

Photo: Adam Clark Estes (Gizmodo)

Gillette ’s definition of innovation is creative , at best . This has been the casefor years , as the company continues to make out up with reasons for men and women to buy new types of razor brand . A few age ago , it wasa spring - load hinge equipment call the FlexBallthat was conjecture to keep you from missing spot . Before that , it was a battery - power equipment called the Fusion Power that vibrated when you shaved . The shaking was supposed to cut the pilus more easily or something . It ’s been a XII years since Gillette released the original five - bladed nuclear fusion razor , and it ’s been a full two decades since the launching of the Mach3 and its triple - blade plan . So if , to Gillette , excogitation has historically meant adding thing to its razors , now it means taking them away .

None of this makes it easier to envision out which razor is n’t going to ignore up your face or legs or whatever you wish to trim . The affair really worth considering is that innovation can be a tricky word , when you ’re talking about basic goodness like razors . At the end of the day , Gillette ’s job is to talk you into thinking you need the raw thing that it ’s selling . In this case , the raw thing looks a muckle like the old thing , because it ’s all marketing . It ’s up to you to bribe into it or , in this case , just laugh about it .

Razors

Photo: Adam Clark Estes