Which Line?

If you had the capital & means to be a "cog" in the niche wet shaving world which line would you choose? Let's eliminate blade manuf. as that would require a king's ransom to start up. Soap maker? Well, IMO that would be hard as the audience is as fickle as an autistic chimp with their constant search for The Lost City of Soap and the artisan razor field is perhaps even worse in that regard. Brush maker? Well, the playing field is deluged with makers and superb Chinese imports are the rage it appears and are only getting better.

I think that Maggard or WCS have the right idea as they are utilizing the age old & proven model of "mining the miners" so to speak. They are like a frontier general store that has everything and with shipping costs being what they are today it behooves one to "one stop" shop when possible.

Regardless, my hat is off to anyone who can make a good living at this as. But now that I think about it the perfect job would be for me to make one shave related video per week and get say 200 million viewer hits so I could live in leisure from Youtube revenue and not feel pressured while cruising on my Super Model laden yacht. Yeah, that's the ticket!!

I agree that having a lucrative YouTube page would be nice. Test out products, rap for a while, get money... not bad!

I also think it would be cool to have a ton of land and livestock, and be able to utilize all the assets (i.e. killer steaks, tallow, leather, lanolin etc). Of course in this fairy tale I would also have the skills to work with leather, to make dopp kits and whatnot and donate a portion of the proceeds to a worthy cause.
I guess my reply might have strayed a bit, ha...

For me it would most definitely be brushes. The soap game seems way too saturated and as you mentioned we are some rather fickle consumers when it comes to soaps and scents. Razors would be a PITA to get into making with all the machining involved and whatnot. Too much start up capital and too much trouble for me. So that leaves brushes. I'm very much a DIY type of person and I love making things and working with my hands. Perfect fit. A lathe isn't terribly expensive and I don't think it would be that hard to learn how to use (no disrespect to any turners out there). That's where my creativity can come into play. I am also an artist so that lends itself to creating aesthetically pleasing things. I believe that is where brush makers can set themselves apart from one another. And with all of the amazing different knots available now, there's something for everybody who may be in the market for a custom brush.