Shavemac Closing

[Steve56]

I believe that Brad Sears is closing because he’s retiring - he is in his 70’s I believe. That’s a different, and worthy cause.

I also messaged a vendor via their website, about an expensive brush ($250-300-ish). Never heard back from them. Apparently if you don’t contact some of them on social media, they aren’t interested in your money. This seems especially true of European vendors (not Shavemac).

They shouldn’t complain about Chinese competition if they are turning down sales because they don’t like reading their email.

 

[ZeelandsRoem]

After stocking some Vielong brushes, now I placed one more order at Shavemac as well. Sad to head the business is slowing down.

 

[Mr. Shavington]

After stocking some Vielong brushes, now I placed one more order at Shavemac as well. Sad to head the business is slowing down.

Well, we don’t know he is slowing down. It could just be that he’s stopping custom orders and doing standard designs instead. There would be plenty of good reasons to go that way - it would reduce his costs for sure.

 

[ZeelandsRoem]

It could just be that he’s stopping custom orders and doing standard designs instead. There would be plenty of good reasons to go that way - it would reduce his costs for sure.

That’s what I also suspect. But I still see that as a slowing down. Now, the production is firing up all its cylinders to manufacture the standard catalogue designs plus the custom ones. By stopping taking custom (brush) orders, I would expect that also the number of sales will lower. I could be wrong though (and for their sake, I hope I am). Whether or not this also means the net revenue will be affected, I also do not know.

But seeing where the shaving brush market is at now, I don’t see this situation looking great: it’s a business with low profit margin, manufacturing niche products with a long lifetime expectancy (thus limited demand) and a fair amount of manufacturers competing for the same target group.

 

[Georgi]

For me - Simpson Brush is better.

 

[Pat Puma]

I guess I am just more pessimistic. I see this as writing on the wall. If Bernd is just closing the configurator at this time, full closure is not far off. I hope I am wrong, but I am starting to be glad that I have built up enough of a collection that most, if not all, of my brushes will outlive me.

 

[BigJ]

UGH!!

Glad there is a possibility that he may still continue in a more limited fashion.

 

[Multum in parvo]

For me - Simpson Brush is better.

The brand or a specific brush?
You know, each outfit builds a ton and also very diverse brushes to say at least.

 

[Mr. Shavington]

The way I look at it we were fortunate to have a shaving brush brand offering a custom service, and his prices were very reasonable. Nothing lasts forever but we did enjoy many years of this special service and there’s still the possibility to order one for the next month and a half. There are of course still independent artisans who will make a custom handle and even one well known here who uses Shavemac knots.

Personally, as nice as the custom option was, the standard Shavemac offerings are probably more tasteful than what some of us ordered (I mean me), and I found whenever I specified a custom loft it did not improve the brush compared to the loft Bernd would spec. There’s some merit to trusting the professionals.

I can also imagine, with Thäter sadly closed, there is an opportunity for another good German brushmaker to fill this unmet demand - and Shavemac made the handles for Thäter so they are the natural choice. To many people the brushes were very similar, though I think I found Thäter knots to be different. Same style, though.

 

[Yvonivz]

You got to read this carefully:
the Brush-Configurator will be closed down, not the company.
I will be still getting knots from them, also after the dateline set in the newsletter.

That is good to hear they aren’t shutting down