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William Marvy Shave Soap - officially discontinued
- Thread starter gLet
- Start date
No. Pretty sure the two are completely separate.
Williams said they were going to discontinue their soap back in 2016. Then we had a large e-mail campaign to contact them and ask them to keep it. Our threads induced a lot of wet shavers to go empty store shelves of any remaining stock. These actions kept it alive for a few more years, but with the number of artisan soaps out there, and the large portion of Williams' demographic, aging out..... the sales just aren't there. And when's the last time a barber used a mug soap on their clients? It's sad to lose these brands, but I get it. IT's truly the end of an era.
I have enough Williams to last the rest of my life, because I stocked up well in advance. So many products these days, just don't last very long and get discontinued. It's inevitable. If you love something, you need to stock up on it while you can. There are no guarantees. We take some products for granted, then are at a loss when they disappear.
Used to be my daily soap for a good long while. Still have a bunch of it so I'll hang onto it now and use it sparingly. Haven't looked for it in a while so I didn't even notice it was gone.
I have only bought/used 1 puck of Marvy soap (I have the big Marvy mug so I figured I should get a puck of soap) and I was not impressed with or excited about the total experience...so I feel no loss with the soap being discontinued. That said, I agree it is a sad sign of the times when old classics like Williams and Marvy are discontinued. I happen to love vintage soaps and purposefully seek out and buy vintage soaps of all kinds, even if I never intend to use them. One soap that I figure is much like Marvy is Surry, I don't know when they stopped productions and sales but Surry soap was often sold with a Surry branded brush and a mug. The Surry brush looks VERY cheesy, like it was intended to be a cheap add-on to make a "gift" package. The mugs I usually associate with Surry soap may not have actually been made by or sold by Surry (they are cool little mugs most often printed with classic cars on them). I am sure @Spider can provide a much more complete list of vintage/discontinued soaps that may have once been popular ...but not popular enough to remain.
I am hesitant to say the demise of Williams and Marvy have much to do with the rise of the artisan soap makers. I would be more inclined to say the rise in artisan soaps may have help to keep these brands around longer by introducing more hype and popularity (and willingness to blind buy ANYTHING wet shaving related) to the market. I feel like the real reason these brands are no more is a more concerted effort from the bigger brands to dominate the wet shaving landscape in an attempt to profit from the rise in popularity among younger shavers. Maybe the Harry's, dollar shave and Jermy's razors play a part in all of this but I don't know what that part is.
I am hesitant to say the demise of Williams and Marvy have much to do with the rise of the artisan soap makers. I would be more inclined to say the rise in artisan soaps may have help to keep these brands around longer by introducing more hype and popularity (and willingness to blind buy ANYTHING wet shaving related) to the market. I feel like the real reason these brands are no more is a more concerted effort from the bigger brands to dominate the wet shaving landscape in an attempt to profit from the rise in popularity among younger shavers. Maybe the Harry's, dollar shave and Jermy's razors play a part in all of this but I don't know what that part is.
gLet
Shave Newbie
Let’s speculate about the market the big companies like Harry’s, jeremey etc dominate.
Then what about companies like proraso, la Toya, Speick, arko, derby. These are all “cheap” soaps products …it would be interesting to see if these companies get impacted. Personally I don’t think so.
Ironic that the two companies that make round pucks for mugs that almost look the same have been discontinued.
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supertrunker
Shave Member
Where some of these companies like Proraso will stand out is that they sell a lot of gear in certain markets, but they also diversified - so Proraso has Omega* make their boar brushes for example. They can sell a brush and soap and now you're half way to being a proper wet shaver even if you still use a cartridge. It's fair to say that a few soaps can claim heritage based on nationality. Speick, MWF.
Proraso, Cella, SV all trade on a long tradition of Italian soap being good.
Other 'cheap' ones have a really strong regional following - lots of Turkish barbers are going to use Arko for example. Hairy those Turks!
i heard enough tales about trying to lather 'Marvy' to put me off ever trying it and while i have some Williams the fact is few people use a mug with soap in it and other than being slick, there's nothing else to commend it for.
They are discontinued because they are not selling and compared to what else you can use - not very good.
T
*Have shaving soap too.
Proraso, Cella, SV all trade on a long tradition of Italian soap being good.
Other 'cheap' ones have a really strong regional following - lots of Turkish barbers are going to use Arko for example. Hairy those Turks!
i heard enough tales about trying to lather 'Marvy' to put me off ever trying it and while i have some Williams the fact is few people use a mug with soap in it and other than being slick, there's nothing else to commend it for.
They are discontinued because they are not selling and compared to what else you can use - not very good.
T
*Have shaving soap too.