Gillette developing TREO razor for assisted shaving

CINCINNATI, Ohio — Procter & Gamble’s Gillette brand looks to be gearing up to introduce its TREO, a razor designed exclusively for assisted shaving, which the company said would be the first such product on the market.

In a blog post on P&G’s website, the company details the realization roughly 18 months ago that the more than 75% of caregivers who shave loved ones and patients every 3-5 days might need a product to meet their needs — as 60% of them report using disposable razors.

Since then, the company said it has been prototyping and developing the Gillette TREO with an agile team that looked outside of its standard development process. As part of the process, P&G created the short film “Handle with Care,” which spotlights caretaker Kristian Rex and his father and won several Lions at the Cannes International Festival of Creativity.

P&G said that in the coming months, it would be sending Gillette TREO samples to care homes, at-home caregivers and P&G employees who care for their loved ones to gain insights to improve the razor for its launch.

With the development of TREO, Gillette appears to be positioning itself to meet the needs of the ever-growing pool of American caregivers. An AARP Project Catalyst report from 2016 projected that 117 million Americans will need some sort of caregiving assistance by 2020, at which time the market size for the 45 million unpaid and 5 million paid caregivers is expected to reach $72 billion. The report highlighted that 71% of caregivers are looking for innovations that support their caregiving activities.