The Beardbrand Master Plan
In honor of Elon Musk sharing his plan for Tesla, I wanted to tell you what is in store for Beardbrand.
The Plan From Day 1
When we launched Beardbrand back in 2012, we had a vision to change the way society views beardsmen. Back then there were a lot of negative stereotypes about men who had beards. It was generally frowned upon to have a beard if you were in a professional role. Frankly, I thought that was bullshit and any guy should be able to grow a beard if he wanted. That's when we created Beardbrand as a way to unite a community of urban beardsmen and to give them the tools they needed to feel confident about growing their beards. When I first started sharing this vision with peers I ran into a lot of haters. In fact, the very first comment on our YouTube channel was: "Bearded Lifestyle"? WTF, dude. But hey, good luck to ya, I guess. People would say that we'd never build anything more than a hobby and I knew that was hogwash. The beard is something that is ingrained in our DNA and for many men, something that must be displayed. So 4+ years into this great journey we've built an awesome community numbering hundreds of thousands. People who come from all walks of life, all different outlooks, and all around the world. The common bond is they want to become better men. They want to keep on growing. We've already had a tremendous impact and shifted the way society functions. With help from Shark Tank, NY Times, Forbes, Wall Street Journal, Fox Business News and more, we've been able to share news of the bearded renaissance and continue to break down the negative stereotypes that still linger. Today it's more acceptable than ever to roll up in a job interview with a nicely groomed beard.
Breaking Down Stereotypes
The one thing you'll never see in our messaging and marketing is the objectification of women, berating of people who choose to not grow facial hair, and assuming all guys are straight men. To break down the negative stereotypes we need to be open minded, inspirational, and be loving to others. Slowly we will begin to shift those perceptions. It's important note that we don't call out and embarrass those who chose to propagate negative stereotypes. Instead, our strategy is to lead by example and hope that others will take notice of our actions (or more specifically our lack of actions).
Beyond The Beard
Our customers are remarkable members of society and they deserve premium products. Our products are a core aspect of our business, but we are so much more than the products. We're about helping y'all become even better individuals. It's why we invest so much into our blogs, our YouTube channel, our podcast, and our social media pages. We want to give you grooming tips, style inspiration, self improvement, and lifestyle inspiration. We've done a lot, but we want to do more. Over the next couple of years you are going to see us focus beyond the beard. What does that mean? Well, we're going to continue launching products for your beard, but also your hair and body. Not only that, we are going to curate other great products under the Urban Beardsman brand to help accessorize your life. We have goals of launching a new product every month - so if your most desired product isn't launched this month, it may be shortly there after (keep the requests coming). In addition to that, we are hustling hard to make it as easy as possible to pick up our products - so that means more retailers & barber shops carrying our products. If you know of any spot that should carry Beardbrand, let us know.
TL;DR
We've made a big impact for beardsmen but need to do more. We will continue to launch beard care products along with new hair & body products. We are launching a new store of proven products which have been diligently selected from storied brands. It's been an awesome journey so far and it's only going to get better. I am so grateful that we can as a community change the way society views beardsmen. Thanks for everything and beard on!
Eric Bandholz
Founder