Old Technology is New Technology – Creating the EverBlade

Chris Wilson , United States

We developed the EverBlade under the conviction that it works. Most people around us shared our excitement for the idea of keeping razor blades sharp, but they were rather skeptical of how we were able to achieve this. They were so skeptical, in fact, that even when we gave it away people didn’t use it. This was rather discouraging, and yet we kept pursuing the development anyway. I think part of the thrill in creating something new is overcoming the odds, whether they are real or imagined. This was also an exciting project as it was the first venture in which my father and I joined forces.

My father holds patents on a couple of his ideas and is constantly working on new ones. I share his entrepreneurial spirit and his enthusiasm for creating new things. My background and profession are in sales – in particular, selling custom products and working with manufacturers to produce those items. This is our first project together and it has turned out to be a good combination of engineering talent and sales/marketing vision. In the process of creating the EverBlade we developed the CRW Group LLC to lay the groundwork for new ideas to come.

My father and I couldn’t help but notice the staggering waste of material and enormous cost that accompanies the use of disposable razor blades. We asked ourselves if there was any way to keep razor blades sharp consistently without creating a whole new set of problems, like the maintenance and time of a sharpener or the cost of batteries to keep a sharpener running – not to mention all the additional costs and packaging associated with the upkeep.

With a little research we came across many claims that a product using the shape and design of pyramids, if manufactured correctly, could keep razor blades sharp longer. I think most everyone has heard this idea and thought, “How could this possibly work? If it did work, people would already be using it.” We certainly did.

However, our curiosity got the best of us. We were drawn to the work of a few scientists. According to some, pyramids with exact relative dimensions of specific pyramids designs can act as "an effective resonator of randomly polarized microwave signals which can be converted into electrical energy." This electrical energy apparently has the ability to keep razor blades sharp by repelling particles that attach to the razor blade’s edge and thus make it dull. Without these particles attaching to the blade, the blade stays sharp longer.

We took this as a basis to start and then recreated some of these pyramids, testing them on disposable razors and, low and behold, it worked! Thus we designed the EverBlade stand. We’ve consistently seen razor after razor stay sharp by simply storing it on the EverBlade stand.

Our innovation is in the design, branding, marketing and manufacturing of the EverBlade. In other words, the EverBlade houses some very old and controversial technology. Our goals were to bring to the public something that works, saves money, saves waste and gives people a great shave.

In addition, we feel it’s a shame to have perfectly good technology sitting on the shelf because of misunderstandings, preconceived notions and lack of explanations or scientific proofs. We have not been able to understand fully the effects of how the EverBlade works exactly, yet it does work and works well. It took science hundreds of years to be able to explain how aspirin and gravity work. And in their infancy these were both debated and people struggled to understand their effects. Perhaps in a hundred or two hundred years people will say “Did you know that people use to think that the technology of pyramids didn’t work?”

We also realized this was a very timely product to bring to market given the shift toward conservation with regards to waste and becoming more ”green.” Additionally, razor blades have reached an all-time high in price and nearly everyone is looking to save a few bucks these days. As a marketing effort, this was really great because today we have two distinct markets, the eco friendly “green” market and the shaving market. As recently as ten years ago, we would have had only the shaving market to approach, and there may not have been as much interest because razors weren’t $8 apiece at the time. Perhaps this is why no one had the ambition to develop something like the EverBlade until now.

Our next challenge with our overall business plan was that we would not have repeat customers with this product. Once we sell an EverBlade, we have no expectation of seeing that customer again, unlike the business plans of disposable razor manufacturers like Gillette.

To solve this problem, we partnered with the maker of a collection of unique shaving products that have just hit the market. They are made of concentrate, meaning there is no filler or air, so you get more product per bottle and you use smaller amounts of it when you shave. Therefore these products will last much longer than the shaving products on the shelves at your pharmacy or supermarket. Further, the ingredients of our shaving products are natural, do not contain chemicals or alcohol and are made with a natural preservative system.

Incorporating these shaving products into our EverBlade line was essential to our branding efforts establishing EverBlade as an environmentally responsible company. We are now a full service shaving store, offering people a unique one stop shop to purchase high quality environmentally friendly shaving products. Our products our offered online, and more and more offline retailers are adding our product line to their offerings.

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