New York International Beauty Show

Just finishing up another great year at the New York International Beauty Show. There were fewer vendors there this year but the IBS folks brought in some top notch big named educators so I didn't hear any complaints by the stylists who attended. Our sales were up 40% over last year telling me the beauty industry really is recession proof. Gene and I had some great help with the father-daughter team of Ed Wozniak and Robin Scott who worked the booth with us. Also, special thanks to those platform artists who were using our shears on stage. I don't know who all of you are but we had so many stylists and students coming by saying they saw our shears in work on stage. It makes me feel really thankful since we are not one of those companies who give away our shears to people who are cutting on stage. Those using our shears in the various education classes chose to purchase our shears and become part of our Bonika Family. It is great to see our family grow.

I'm writing this from Charlotte at this year's Class of the Century or whatever they are calling it. I'll post photos and give a report on this when I finally get home next week.

Another Great Bronner Brothers Hair Show

Last week-end we finished up the best Bronner Brother's Hair Show ever. The beauty industry is certainly a recession proof industry. I want to thank sharpeners Eric, Ed and Ron for their help at the booth as well as our family including Mystie and Jay. Jay sharpened a record number of shears. I also want to thank Sheila Tate for an excellent class. It was at the last hour of the day in the last room at the World Congress Center and we found the class not only full, but stylists standing and sitting on the floor.

I most assuredly want to thank our loyal customers. We have about a 40% repeat sale rate at the show. Here's a photo of Derek J of Atlanta Housewives fame and Good Hair fame. Derek bought one shear last month at the ISSE show in California and nine more Sunday at the Bronner show.

Most of the photos I've uploaded were taken by Eric Gentry who worked at the booth with us. I am embarrassed to say with all the hundreds of photos he and I took, none have him in it. We will rectify that next year!

Born in the USA

Some things are still made in America. We saw that first hand when we were granted a tour of the Oster Plant in McMinnville, TN. The logistics were worked out in the spring through Casper Kiser, the plant superintendent of Oster. Gene and I have known Casper since 1997 when he was with Arius Eickert in Fremont, OH. We were delighted when we heard he was in charge of the shear production at the Oster plant facility. Frank Davis, Ed Wozniak and our Bonika staff, Harry, Jay, Mystie, Gene and I along with a handful wives were able to see the entire facility. This was made even more exciting since tours are rare and we had never seen photos of their operation since photography and videography are strictly forbidden.

What did we see? We saw skilled, efficient friendly Tennesseans each with decades of experience making shears and clippers. Stanley Gross, the business team leader of the blades department proudly gave us a tour of the clipper production area. The facility was enormous and all the Oster clippers are made right there with the exception of the screws and some of the newer small trimmers. The housing and parts were created from raw materials to the final product. We watched heat treat process and cryogenic freezing process of the clipper blades and individually hand sharpened, assembled and tested. Modern machines wound copper wire for the motors and lasers etched the name on each blade.

What did we learn? The comb or upper blade of the Oster clipper is ground flat and the lower blade or cutter is ground hollow at an incline angle on the plate that is a proprietary secret. We also learned innovations are coming based on feedback from the customers and clipper repair folks.

We ended our tour in the area of my interest, shears. Since Oster purchased Arius Eickert a few years back the scissor factory there went through a lot of changes and innovations since they were in Ohio. Now, only the finishing operation, the part that makes the shears cut is made in the factory. We were told the shears are coming in semi-finished from Asia (none from Pakistan). In other words, the 440C shears come with handles attached and polished before they reach the states. The hone, hollow and finishing is completed there in Tennessee. That means the part that actually does the cutting is in fact made in the US.

Although we were not allowed to see the actual clamping mechanism we had a general demonstration on how the hollow is put in the inside of the blade and how the so called “twist” is formed. I was impressed with the small size of the wheel (about 3” diameter), which is much smaller than those I’ve seen in other factories. The deeper hollow makes the ride or hone line easier to create and for us sharpeners to maintain. The initial convex shape was created free hand on a large flathone and the final edge precisely ground using a modified clamp on three smaller 6” stone flathones using progressively finer and finer grit. Final alignment tweaking was done with a brass bending block rather than hammers. Between each step of the operation, an inspector tests every shear before in proceeds to the next step on the production line.

Our observation of the shear making process impressed on us the importance of the hollow and the hone as well the skills and abilities of the scissor workers. Casper will be giving a more in-depth understanding of the process when he speaks at the Sharpeners Jam the last week-end of July in Atlanta.

Northeast Sharp N Shop Report

The Sharp N Shop in North Bergen became a combo meet n greet for sharpeners and a training.l Here is Ed Wozniak of Ultimate Edge, Chapel Hill, NC with a private training for three new sharpeners while we (Gene and Bonnie) conducted the Sharp N Shop in the meeting room downstairs. Like usual, everyone came and went throughout the day. Each had a specific thing they wanted to see, learn or buy and conducted their business, chatted with whoever was there and went their way. It's like a fluid open house and makes it easy for everyone to get complete undivided attention. I was really fascinated by Mr. Lee of Long Island who is an accomplished nipper sharpener and was wanting to modernize and update his equipment. I took some photos of his current sharpening equipment which he had made himself and installed in his mini van.

Big Joe Caladorci (I think I misspelled his last name) came by and Gene insisted I take his photo next to Joe so he would look small.

See all the photos here http://picasaweb.google.com/bonika/NortheastSharpNShop2009?feat=directlink

New York International Beauty Show 2009

It's the first day of the IBS New York Show and as always there's an energy that is uniquely New York. Our Sunday sales were about what 2007 was, but not as good as 2008. This may be due to the economy or the booth location. The sharpening was about the same number, but so many people used our 2 for 1 coupon that the overall sharpening income was down. Ed Wozniak did a superior job of sharpening and Robin was great with her stylist expertise. Our poor little mannequin was so chopped up today, I don't know if anything will be left for Tuesday.

Days 2 and 3 were dollar-wise about the same as Sunday. All in all with the economy and threats of swine flu, it was a successful show... so much so we are signed up for next year. We will be in about the center of the show (the floor plan will change). In the past we have always chosen the right side of the show, but have been moving more toward the center in the past year. We felt in the past the right side by the ladies rest room made us easy to find. Now, we have such a following and directions to our booth listed on our website that we seem to be better located in the middle. It is always hard to guess because of last minute changes on the floor.

Did we see anything new? I was impressed with Dave Ray's fantasy hairstyles. They add fun and glamour to any show. I think fantasy hair allows for ultimate creativity and challenge that allows stylists to push themselves. The brain slap from this creativity boost can influence their ordinary everyday haircuts making them less than ordinary.

This was the easiest in and out ever for the New York show. The traffic once outside the show was gridlock but not much worse than I-85 in Atlanta at rush hour even though 8 and 12 lanes of traffic have to merge in to two for the tunnel. The last day of the show ended at 5PM and we were back in our hotel at 6:30. That was break down, pack up and drive through the tunnel. Sweet!

All kinds of drama with sick and injured grandchildren while we were gone, so it was good to be away. Gene and I love these road trips but are glad to be home. Ed Wozniak is really a delight to have around. Thank you for all your help Ed!

The Day Before the IBS New York Hair Show

Our booth #1644 is set up. We are near a number of shear companies and between the entrance and the main stage. Unlike last year, we have 1 instead of 2 booths this year. Ed wanted to work with us instead of running his own booth. He and his daughter Robin will be working with us tomorrow. We took Ed to our all time favorite restaurant, Segovia in Moonachie, NJ for a late lunch, early dinner. You need time to digest before bed time. Notice the quantity of food on the table. Ed had a garlic and red pepper cover pork chops, Gene a huge bacon wrapped filet mignon and me, my favorite that I order everytime I go a seafood pialla. Lobster, clams, shrimp, calamari and more in a light seasoned safron rice base. Did I mention the bread is crisp on the outside and soft, yeasty and finely textured on the inside.

2008 Sharpener's Jam Report

This has been the greatest Sharpener's Jam yet.
This year's top winners are as follows pictured left to right: Fred Mueller - 2nd Place, Ron Ellis - 3rd Place, Ed Woznik - 1st Place and Honorable Mention to James and Melanie McCaughan. I will be adding several blogs to cover the events. Take a look at the slide show on this site. Click through on the photos to visit the album at Picassa to make any reprints. DVD's are coming out soon as soon as I have time to edit them. The events of the week were the classes on Saturday, Jam sharing on Sunday and presentations on Monday.

• Ed Wozniak's winning idea was Tilt the blade in the clamp down about 15 degrees to get a better edge on the tip
• Fred Mueller A. Molding the Bumper. Heat the bumper with a match. Hold close for 5 – 10 seconds with the scissor closed to where it should be and the bumper sets to the correct size.
• Ron Ellis had high votes on all his ideas which included:

A. Do not consider yourself a sharpener. Go in to sell. Show your merchandise. Bring in lots of shears and product. This sets you apart and helps you to compete with sharpeners.
A. Give out Band-Aid containers imprinted with your name and number. Stylists keep this more than a business card. Costs about $1.00 each if bought in bulk.
B. Give $25.00 gift certificates to students when they graduate. They always buy something else. The schools give it to them and the school likes it because they are presenting this to the graduate.
C. Find one or two people who you relate to in the business. Find a buddy you can talk to each other each day to pick each other up.
D. Add to your business more than just sharpening in order to keep your business going. Don’t spend too much time trying to fix something when they rather really buy something new. This sets you apart from the other sharpener and caters to what the stylist really wants. Anticipate their real desires and needs then supply them.

• James and Melanie McCaughan also had a variety of ideas that garnered votes: A. Use your spouse to help you.
  B. Sharpen a shear everyday so you keep your skill level up.
  C. Buy chamois and cut squares with pinking shears and hand out to stylists to clean their shears. Stamp name and phone number on back.

More than 50 ideas were presented at the Jam not including he vast information during the presentations and classes. The best dissemination of business knowledge was dispensed in one and one discussions between sharpeners in the hall way, in the restaurants and in the vendor room.

IBS New York

The New York show is behind us. It is one of the shows we must be at and have a presence but everything is twice as expensive as other shows except the New York City Hot Dogs which are expensive. Many thanks to Ed Wozniak who ran our other booth and his duaghter Robin. Also to Ted Powell who sharpened for us. He broke the record for the number of shears sharpened at at New York show and that was with a 20% price increase! No one complained about the price. Also kudos to Sheila Tate who helped at our booth. It is great to have such a knowledgeable Barber -stylist to work with us. Also to Chuck Chivaras who worked tirelessly demonstrating his new EDT Scissors for carpal tunnel syndrome. Also, Leah Watson's class on Crop Circles. As usually she had rave revues. She taught an energetic class even though she had just had a stroke and was supposed to be on complete bedrest. Now that we are back we had two days to catch up then I am training today a sharpener from Mobile, Al and on Monday a sharpener frm Louisville will be staying a week with us. My goals this week is to get the list of helpers finalized for the Premiere Show. Ed Wozniak is currently at the International Hair Show in Secaucus, NJ. We expect great sales since Nikita Smith will be demonstraing the shears in her classroom and also this is the home of Yancy Edwards. We sold several shears in New York just from the recommendation of Yancy. All his DVD's promote our shears just because he likes our shear and us. sort of gives us the warm fuzzies since we are not big and wealthy enough to pay a corral of platform artists like our competitors.

We got a wonderful letter form a recent trainee that was addressed to Charles Stanley how we changed his life. If he gives me permission I will post it in my next blog.

Saw a couple of new scissor screws at the last show. I hope to get those ready for the next blog.