Brushes…they almost seem like an afterthought these days. I mean, we use the hell out of them every day, and it sure is frustrating when we are searching through everyone else’s drawers to find our old, ratty favorite brush (hint: it’s actually still at the bottom of your drawer). But the emphasis on brush quality and design has been pretty stagnant for what seems like a decade, maybe two. Why has brush design and innovation been so stagnant?
Let’s Take a Quick Look…
In the beauty industry, there has been massive consolidation of beauty distribution on the professional supply side and a race to the bottom on the retail side because of the overwhelming influence of big-box retailers and online behemoths like Amazon. The impact has been twofold. On the professional side, large distributors control what hair tools they offer to sell us and at what price without contention. Hair tool manufacturers and brands, therefore, have to offer their tools to these handful of distributors at basement-level pricing because the distributors demand all the margin. The same scenario exists on the retail side where the Walmarts, Ultas, and Amazons of the world do the exact same thing to these brands and manufacturers.
So where does that leave us? Well, we get brushes that are made in the least expensive way possible with no room for premium materials, thoughtful design, and elegant packaging. We get brushes that hang on a hook with maybe a paper tag hanging off of it and are still expected to pay premium prices for the more recognizable brands.
Enter OVID
Our team at OVID saw this as an opportunity to truly separate ourselves from the pack because we are not beholden to distributors nor traditional retailers. We developed a handle design that not only looks chic but delivers the power, control, and soft feel that we hair stylists desire. We chose to upgrade the diameter of each individual brush bristle to 0.7mm (most brushes use around 0.5mm) and made them with the most thermally resistant polymer in the industry. These are expensive upgrades that not only provide us with maximum control of the hair during styling but also outlive any of their counterparts.
Last but not least, we chose to package our brushes in a luxuriously designed retail box. I’ve always felt that brushes are a wonderful gifting opportunity well beyond the traditional holiday season, and you just can’t grab an unboxed brush hanging on a retail hook and expect to wrap it nicely. The tools we use behind the chair should be represented equally well on our retail shelves with the same level of care and design as the styles we produce in our chairs.
I’ll get off my soapbox now but I felt it was worth sharing some of the insights into why things are the way they are and how we are changing the industry for the better.
Change your tools, change the game.
Joe
President
OVID
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