BAKBLADE

BAKBLADE is an American men's grooming brand built around do-it-yourself shavers for back and body hair. It is owned by Dryfhout Body Grooming LLC and sells a small catalogue of hand-held shavers, replacement blades and accessories through its own website, Amazon and a network of retail partners. The brand is most often associated with a single problem it set out to solve: removing back hair at home without creams, salons or another person's help.

The company grew out of its founder's own frustration. Matt Dryfhout struggled with his back hair and found that the only options on the market were messy and expensive creams and treatments, according to an Inc. profile of the business [6]. After experimenting with combs, razors and prototypes, he and his wife Angelina created BAKBLADE, a back and body shaver they describe as an inexpensive, pain-free alternative to professional treatments.

Accounts of the company's founding differ. Several business profiles — including its Inc. 5000 listing, Tracxn and Starter Story — record that Dryfhout Enterprises BAKBLADE Body Grooming was founded in 2013 by Matt and Angelina Dryfhout [6]. A founder podcast interview instead dates the company to 2009, which appears to be an outlier and may refer to early market research rather than incorporation or product launch [5]. The brand's own site states no founding year. By the consistently corroborated account, the couple started the business with roughly $5,000 in savings [6].

The company was founded and historically based in Chicago, Illinois, with warehouses in the city's suburbs [5][4]. Its current site lists the corporate address in Brentwood, Tennessee, under Dryfhout Body Grooming LLC [1].

BAKBLADE's catalogue centres on hand-held shavers designed to reach the back without assistance. The current line includes the BAKBLADE 3.0 and BAKBLADE 2.0 back shavers, the BODBLADE PLUS ergonomic body shaver, and DryGlide replacement blade cartridges. In November 2019 the company introduced the BODBLADE, and in February 2021 it launched a multifunctional body groomer called the BODBARBER [6].

The products are built on what the company calls its patented DryGlide technology. According to the brand, the design lets users shave wet or dry without moving parts or batteries. In its FAQ, the company explains that the technology is meant to control the razor's flexibility so there is lighter, less rigid friction between blade and skin than with a typical facial razor [3]. The brand positions the range as an economical, easy-to-use way to manage back hair, aimed at what one founder profile describes as self-conscious millennial men who prefer a private, at-home solution to costlier professional alternatives [4].

Self-funded in its early years, the company turned to crowdfunding in 2016, when Kickstarter and Indiegogo campaigns together raised over $1 million [6]. The product was featured by CNBC in 2018 in a segment on men shaving their own backs [7], and the founders later described the business as generating eight-figure annual revenue across Shopify and Amazon [5].

In 2021, BAKBLADE was named to the Inc. 5000 list of the fastest-growing private companies in America [6].

BAKBLADE remains active. Its website is live and selling the current product line, and the company distributes through its own store, Amazon, Shopify and retail partners including Bed Bath & Beyond and Walmart [5].