Official Statement by Baili: Vikings Blade Chieftain is Not the Same as BD179

GUANGZHOU, China, July 18, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- This statement is written in light of recent speculations made by some internet users about the relationship between Bailishaver (Baili) and Vikings Blade (Vikings)- an Australian boutique manufacturing house, particularly in respect of the similarities between the Chieftain razor and the BD179 razor.

We wish to clarify this matter and put it to rest once and for all.

(1)(i) On 2015-Jun-15, Vikings contacted Baili with a prototype to develop a brand new advanced custom butterfly razor model to be named The Chieftain.

(1)(ii) The production process outsourced by Baili was substantially delayed multiple times due to the:

• Complexity of the customizations;
• Creation of many new components;
• Sourcing of many rare raw materials (Swedish-Sandvik-13C26, bronze and brass alloys); and
• Extremely strict quality control requirements and regulations enforced by Vikings.

(1)(iii) In order to meet deadline and to make production easier for ourselves, we proposed some minor changes to simplify Vikings' advanced custom specs.

(2) Having accepted some of our simplified suggestions, the new Vikings Chieftain (which now did not have Vikings' name on the mold) was launched as a brand new premium model targeting the upper range segment on Amazon.

(3)(i) At this stage, Baili had only been selling a completely unrelated 3-piece model (BT131) on Amazon and AliExpress. The BT131 razor is smaller, lighter and has a different head mechanism.

(3)(ii) Since both the older BT131 and the future BD179 are created by Baili, this led to 2 untrue speculations that (a) the Chieftain was a copy of the BT131 (because they share a vaguely similar handle) and (b) the BD179 and the BT131 were the same razor. These speculations turned into a purposely ill-intentioned "misunderstanding" that the BD179 already existed at the same time as BT131 – giving it a false "pre-mature" appearance much before it was actually released years later.

(4)(i) Within 2 months of the original Vikings Chieftain's launch date, it quickly became the most popular butterfly razor on Amazon.

(4)(ii) This attracted many OEM sellers of all sizes to contact Baili, who now also wanted to do the same design as the Vikings Chieftain. However, due to the proprietary nature of Vikings' customizations, exact replicas were not allowed to be made.

(5)(i) Around this time, Baili began to sell a new bare-bone model on AliExpress (BD179) as a mass-produced version targeting developing markets. To stop other Chinese manufacturers from supplying this design to Baili's clients, Baili also had this design registered in China. Vikings was made aware of this.

(5)(ii) Due to the increasing popularity of the Chieftain, many international OEM resellers contacted Baili and we had to use the new bare-bone BD179 model for their orders.

(6)(i) We confirm that the Vikings Chieftain and the BD179 are not the same. At first glance, they may appear similar but the shave, feel and customizations are completely different. The Chieftain is produced exclusively in small quantities, fully regulated and controlled according to Vikings' extremely high Australian standards.

(6)(ii) We do custom parts as per Vikings' own specs and have our B-stamp printed on their baseplates, as we do with all other partners and ourselves. The B-stamp simply means that a certain component has been created with a mold residing at Baili's factory.

(7) Baili acknowledges that previously some casual sales staff were not fully aware of this and inadvertently made unsubstantiated claims about this issue. We admit that due to the high turnover of staff, we have difficulty controlling their words.

(8) Baili acknowledges that the entire Chieftain razor is Vikings' proprietary design, manufactured exclusively under the strictest QC and supervision by Vikings.

(9) As of 2017-Jul-01, the Vikings Chieftain and the Baili BD179 will no longer share the same base platform and there will be no references of Baili on the Chieftain anymore. The Chieftain will now utilize its early more advanced prototype which Baili originally found too complex to make.

We hope this puts an end to all accusations against Vikings and allow both companies to separately focus on creating new products to serve the wet shaving community better.

Media contact:

Fairy Lee
Bailishaver
[email protected] 
+8613760766022

SOURCE Bailishaver