Rockwell Razors AMA, April 4th, 2016

Hi all,


First I'd like to thank Rockwell Razors for taking the time to do an AMA (ask me anything) with the Damn Fine Shave community.  Gareth has said that he'll be popping in and out of the forum from 9am-9pm to answer questions that we have for him.  

Please keep in mind that the questions that are asked NEED to follow our site rules.  Failure to follow our rules will result in the removal of your post(s).

Check out Gareth and his Rockwell Razors team at: https://rockwellrazors.com/




Thanks,

Andrew

Gareth,

First let me say thank you for your participation in DFS's very first AMA (ask me anything).  I have three questions here.

1) Having looked at the Rockwell razor thread here and at other sites, I think the number one question on people's mind is this:  Now that your kickstarter campaign is over why are you continuing to follow the kickstarter method of paying for a razor before production?  Is there not enough funding in place to handle producing a decent number in advance, or are you not sure if the razor is going to sell and you do not want a lot of razors sitting in a warehouse?  Hopefully you can answer this with some details so as to not have this question asked too often.

2) Creating a razor with 3 different base plates seems an odd way of making an "adjustable" razor and certainly not one I would have conceived of.  Why the different method of "adjustable" as I don't see users adjusting settings (bases) mid shave.

3) Can you tell us more about your upcoming Model T?  It is probably what most people think of when they hear the term "adjustable razor".  Looks a lot like a FatBoy to me.  

Hi Gareth,

Few questions...

- What were/are you studying in college?

- What do you like to do for fun?

Gareth, thanks for kicking off our merchant AMA events at DFS.

Your 6s razor certainly generated a lot of dialogue in the community and now we have the Model T on the way for another DE adjustable. Well done!

Have you ever considered a SE adjustable razor [or non] to complement your DE offerings?

Can you tell us more about any other potential finishes for Rockwell razors?

Your blades have been getting favorable reviews. Can you tell us more about their production and country of origin?

How has your experience in producing the 6s impacted the development and release of the Model T?

What's next for Rockwell?

Thanks everyone! I’m really looking forward to the AMA for the day. Just a quick disclaimer right off the bat - I sometimes can take very long to write. I find that I’m able to add the most value by carefully considering questions, which often results in me reviewing my own writing several times before posting it publicly. I’m committed to answering everyone’s questions (within reason) - please don’t think I’ve bailed if I’m taking a bit to answer yours, any delay likely means you’ve asked a very good question! If you see people mentioning the “Rockwell Model T” and you’re not sure what that is, it’s our newest product release (an adjustable twist-to-open), which you can read more about here, if curious.

I'm going to start off with the easy ones to get warmed up!

What were/are you studying in college?

I graduated last May in Environmental Science from Western University, up here in Canada. Renewable energy production and water desalination are fascinating processes that modern technology is unlocking at scale. These technologies really drove my interest and admittedly piqued my entrepreneurial curiosity, when I was very young, and I feel very fortunate that I was able to dive deep on all the modern research through my degree.

What do you like to do for fun?

I love cooking (and eating, let’s be real), and I travel with my girlfriend as often as possible. Beyond that, I’m an avid reader / researcher. Topics that I’ve been interested in recently include ketogenic dieting, intermittent fasting, and suppression of APO-e4 gene expression in humans.

Having looked at the Rockwell razor thread here and at other sites, I think the number one question on people's mind is this:  Now that your kickstarter campaign is over why are you continuing to follow the kickstarter method of paying for a razor before production?  Is there not enough funding in place to handle producing a decent number in advance, or are you not sure if the razor is going to sell and you do not want a lot of razors sitting in a warehouse?  Hopefully you can answer this with some details so as to not have this question asked too often.

Thanks for the question! I definitely appreciate that this has been somewhat a “hot button topic” on DFS recently so I’m happy to explain why Rockwell and other classic shaving vendors might use reservations (or pre-orders) as a sales mechanism.

I feel there are two main benefits for customers and the business around pre-orders / reservations:

Pre-orders allow businesses to gauge demand for products, especially products that are relatively expensive to make and must be made in large batches (like the Rockwell 6S). This helps determine how much production should be scaled up or down, depending on demand, allowing young businesses to optimize inventory levels and (hopefully) continue to be able to afford to exist!

Pre-orders allow customers to indicate that they would like to be "first in line" for shipping once the product is back in stock. Customers interested in purchasing the product only once it is in stock are not at all precluded from doing so, and there is of course no penalty to customers who purchase once products are in regular stock, other than that “reservation” customers will of course have their orders shipped first.

In Rockwell’s case, I can say that the need for reservations aren’t driven as much from a cash-flow need at this point, but are mainly borne of necessity after an unexpected massive spike in demand from a recent article I wrote for VentureBeat. We’re increasing production to correct for this increased demand, but didn’t want to miss out on residual sales from the strong traffic from that article.

I’m happy to answer anything more about the pre-order / reservation model, but hopefully this helps establish a baseline, transparent understanding!

Creating a razor with 3 different base plates seems an odd way of making an "adjustable" razor and certainly not one I would have conceived of.  Why the different method of "adjustable" as I don't see users adjusting settings (bases) mid shave.

Yeah it’s definitely an unorthodox design for an adjustable! We wanted our first product to be an adjustable, stainless steel razor at an incredible price point. Making an adjustable TTO in stainless steel was obviously going to be difficult to make right off the bat (design-wise and cost-wise) - the 6S design is ultimately what we can up with instead. Because the 6S design can be made in metal injection molding (scalable manufacturing), we can offer the razor at a lower price point than machined, non-adjustable stainless steel razors.

Can you tell us more about your upcoming Model T?  It is probably what most people think of when they hear the term "adjustable razor".  Looks a lot like a FatBoy to me.  

The Model T definitely does take inspiration from traditional adjustable twist-to-open razors, though modern manufacturing developments have allowed us to make countless improvements, especially around blade angles on the razor head. We wanted to make a razor that’s as friendly for beginners as the lower size settings on the 6S (extremely mild), but also more intuitive for beginners. The Model T still has the more traditional aggressive feeling on the higher sizes - the sizes between the 6S and Model T will match exactly. The trade-off is that the Model T is inherently slightly less durable than the stainless steel 6S that has no moving parts. I’m really excited about the Model T because I think this design, coupled with modern availability (it’s not only available on auction sites / online trades) has the potential to introduce a lot more people to classic shaving.