I can see the arguments from both sides.....on the one hand, if a lot of people just buy the rip-off copies and are satisfied with them, razor companies will end up going out of business. On the other hand, there might be some people who buy the cheap rip-off and like the way it shaves enough to save up to buy the real deal. And maybe some of those buyers would never have done that without the chance to try the general design out at a cheaper price point.
I fell into that latter camp recently. I use replaceable blade straight razors exclusively, and had pretty much settled on the Feather SS as my ultimate razor. But I had the opportunity to purchase a cheap Chinese clone of a Kai razor, and, after using it for a couple of weeks, decided that I wanted the real Kai. So I forked over the $150 or thereabouts for the Kai. I had looked at that Kai razor about 7 or 8 times over the course of a couple of months, but had never actually put it into my cart. I may never have if I hadn't had the opportunity of trying the knock-off.
I guess what I'm saying is for the individual razor maker, it is hard to say what the end result will be. They may lose a few customers, who gravitate toward the cheap one and stick with it (many of whom may never have been able to afford the real deal, anyway), but they may also GAIN some customers who were on the fence about dropping that much money on a razor but then decide to do it based on a trial run with a cheap knock-off.
I fell into that latter camp recently. I use replaceable blade straight razors exclusively, and had pretty much settled on the Feather SS as my ultimate razor. But I had the opportunity to purchase a cheap Chinese clone of a Kai razor, and, after using it for a couple of weeks, decided that I wanted the real Kai. So I forked over the $150 or thereabouts for the Kai. I had looked at that Kai razor about 7 or 8 times over the course of a couple of months, but had never actually put it into my cart. I may never have if I hadn't had the opportunity of trying the knock-off.
I guess what I'm saying is for the individual razor maker, it is hard to say what the end result will be. They may lose a few customers, who gravitate toward the cheap one and stick with it (many of whom may never have been able to afford the real deal, anyway), but they may also GAIN some customers who were on the fence about dropping that much money on a razor but then decide to do it based on a trial run with a cheap knock-off.