Dive Brief:
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Men’s grooming startup Harry’s is giving shaving the Warby Parker treatment, selling high quality razors and grooming kits at low prices online.
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In January, the company took the audacious step of buying, for $100 million, the 100-year-old German company that makes the razors it was selling. That brings to mind Remington shaver’s Victor Kiam’s famous slogan that he liked the razor so much,“ I bought the company.”
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One of Harry's co-founders, Jeffrey Raider is also a co-founder of Warby Parker and says the company is agile enough to incorporate its customers’ needs and suggestions into the design of its products. He says that this is something that will give it leverage against stalwarts Gillette and Schick, especially now that it is also the manufacturer of its products.
Dive Insight:
Harry’s is an example of the creativity and audacity demonstrated by many of today’s retail startups. The company seems undaunted by the entrenched market share enjoyed by Gillette and Schick, which sell their razors and blades in pretty much every drugstore and supermarket in America. Harry’s is an ideal retailer for millennials who desire style and quality without breaking the bank, and a challenge for the status quo in this area of retail.
Who knows, maybe now even hipsters will take to shaving.