The Business Behind the Razor Blade: How King Camp Came Up with the Idea That Would Change the World2 photos

King Camp Gillette, the inventor of the disposable razor and founder of the company that bears his name, proved that big profits can be made from everyday items (even those that seem cheap) if they are designed innovatively. Just like a simple rubber stopper. Remarkably, King Camp Gillette didn’t establish his successful business until he was fifty years old. Before that, he had spent 30 years as a traveling salesman.

The future “razor king” (his parents aptly named him King) was born in 1855 in the small town of Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. His father, who owned a hardware store, was obsessed with inventing and constantly improved everything he came across. King Camp Gillette followed in his footsteps. After his father’s shop was destroyed by fire in 1871, he got a job as a patent agent in New York City. There, at the age of 16, King Camp Gillette began earning his own money by working as a salesman for a hardware company.

For many years, he traveled throughout the United States, selling all kinds of goods. This experience gave him invaluable skills in persuasion, which proved to be crucial later in his life.

Throughout this time, he kept inventing: a novel valve made of soft rubber, a water faucet mechanism with a piston and barrel, several types of electrical conductors, and more. These inventions were useful, but they didn’t bring him much profit. Later, Gillette admitted that he lacked the time and money to promote his innovations himself, so others took credit for them.It was his boss, William Painter, owner of the Baltimore-based company Crown Cork & Seal, who gave Gillette the idea for his groundbreaking invention. Painter had invented a popular rubber stopper for bottle caps.p>The next morning, while performing his daily routine, King Camp Gillette had a sudden epiphany: he imagined what his future razor would look like. In that moment, many questions popped into his head, but the answers came immediately, as if it were all happening in a dream.

He noticed that only a thin blade was actually used for shaving, while the rest of the razor holder was just there to support it. He realized that producing the handle also required time and money. Why not design a cheaper, more efficient way to hold the blade?p>Later that same day, he came up with the idea of a disposable razor with a double-edged blade and a T-shaped handle.