Is there room for innovation in the deodorant category?
Switch Fresh deodorant is the first product from The Future of Fresh, a company founded by Antoine Wade. “Deodorant is used by nearly everyone on the planet,” says Wade in a press release announcing the new product. “But, with a product so well known and used, there hasn't been any real innovation in the industry, so I really wanted to put a cool spin on something we use every day,” he explains.
Redesigned and refillable
What’s not new about Switch Fresh is that its sold stick deodorant in the familiar rectangle/oval shape. And this may turn out to be a key factor in the brand’s future. Grooming habits and personal care routines as universal and common place as deodorant and antiperspirant application can be challenging to change, and getting a preponderance of consumers to switch to a spray, powder, or paste can be a hard sell.
The Switch Fresh design is a refillable, reusable bottle that holds two deodorant cartridges, one on either end of the bottle. And in place of the push up mechanism, the Switch Fresh package uses gliders on both side of the bottle that consumers adjust to set the level of the product and to replace the cartridges as needed.
This redesign, “reduces the amount of disposable waste by 96% compared to traditional deodorant bottles,” according to the company press release, which goes on to assert that “this eco-friendly design is an alternative to the 800 deodorant bottles the average person will dispose of in their lifetime.”
A brand for the modern age
Besides a package redesign that reduces post-consumer waste, Switch Fresh has built several other on-trend features into the brand.
Switch Fresh will be sold online and delivered directly to consumers. The reusable package will be customizable: “Future options will include fully customizable bottles, where customers can upload their own designs,” according to the company.
As Wade explains it, “I wanted to make personal care more individual for everyone. The packaging, the scents, the formulation – it’s all about personal preference. You choose what’s on the bottle, what’s in the bottle and it shows up where and when you want it.”
That each package accommodates two deodorant cartridges makes the product useful on the go, since it can hold two different scents for two different activities. Plus, Switch Fresh is celebrity adjacent. Antoine Wade is the cousin of NBA star Dwyane Wade, and the two apparently collaborated on the idea that became Switch Fresh.
Soliciting equity online
The company is in the midst of a crowdfunding campaign on indiegogo.com. That campaign got started just over one week ago, on Thursday January 19. By The end of next month, Start Fresh needs to have raised $40,000 to receive the pledged funds.
Crowd funding beauty and personal care is nothing unusual today. Sahi Cosmetics began with Kickstarter funding, as Cosmetics Design recently reported. And, several other brands are soliciting funds on Indiegogo right now, like the Evie Blender (a glittery silicone makeup application tool) which has raised over $88,000 on the site to date, and the Juno makeup mirror (that features auto adjusting light technology) which has raised over $500,000.
