The ProGlide FlexBall ($10) features a ball hinge that helps the head pivot, and Gillette claims that it trims whiskers 23 microns shorter than other razors. But consider the waste: Confronting upstarts like the Dollar Shave Club that exposed the absurdity of the $5 price Gillette puts on each replacement cartridge, the industry leader decided to pour money into "a dumb novelty" of a handle, apparently to keep customers paying $5 for replacement blades. The FlexBall might excel at shaving, said Kevin Roose at New York, but it "represents everything terrible about America's innovation economy."
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
Garsington Opera opens its summer festival with two 'very different productions'The Week Recommends A 'fabulous' new staging of Tchaikovsky's The Queen of Spades and Donizetti's fake-love-potion comedy L'elisir d'amore
-
The Rehearsal series two: Nathan Fielder's docu-comedy is 'laugh-out-loud funny'The Week Recommends Television's 'great illusionist' has turned his attention to commercial airline safety
-
The Ballad of Wallis Island: bittersweet British comedy is a 'delight'The Week Recommends A reclusive millionaire lures his favourite folk duo to an island for an 'awkward reunion'
-
Nobody seems surprised Wagner's Prigozhin died under suspicious circumstancesSpeed Read
-
Western mountain climbers allegedly left Pakistani porter to die on K2Speed Read
-
'Circular saw blades' divide controversial Rio Grande buoys installed by Texas governorSpeed Read
-
Los Angeles city workers stage 1-day walkout over labor conditionsSpeed Read
-
Mega Millions jackpot climbs to an estimated $1.55 billionSpeed Read
-
Bangladesh dealing with worst dengue fever outbreak on recordSpeed Read
-
Glacial outburst flooding in Juneau destroys homesSpeed Read
-
Scotland seeking 'monster hunters' to search for fabled Loch Ness creatureSpeed Read
