>>697837

>А в треде грят, что и Феникс-то не так далеко ушёл.

Можешь изучить

History
Phoenix Artisan Accoutrements has a long (infamous) history in the artisan soapmaking world. The company started as How to Grow a Mustache in 2013 and is owned by Erik Hodges. Erik Hodges advertises heavily and offers free soap products to reviewers in exchange for glowing remarks. (Source Video #1) New shavers frequently find his products and don’t realize the historical and on-going extent of Erik’s unscrupulous business practices.

How to Grow a Mustache
How to Grow a Mustache or HTGAM was founded in 2013 and was Erik’s first foray into soap making. Erik marketed heavily and promoted his company through blog posts, videos, and reviews. HTGAM was purportedly founded and run by Douglas Smythe. Erik Hodges had documented experience in Costa Rica with an entertainment/marketing/writing firm before founding HTGAM.

“Who is Douglas Smythe?”
Douglas Smythe is one of many pseudonyms for Erik Hodges. Erik Hodges, the person, has been banned from a number of shaving social media platforms for setting up multiple accounts and multiple usernames and then using those to shill his own products and deride other artisans. Erik Hodges is fully banned from reddit for violating the Terms of Service.

Why Does This Matter? From a business perspective, Erik Hodges/Douglas Smythe/Hodges Appelido were selling products to vendors as three different companies. This means that these three companies were vying for the same market and taking up space that could have otherwise been allocated for other diverse product lines.

This also matters, because we value our connection with artisans as a shave community. We’re fortunate that we are able to interact with the artisans at professional and even personal levels. With Douglas Smythe, many users realized that they had been interacting with this person for over a year, and that person (Douglas Smythe) didn’t even exist. (Source 2)

“Allow Me To Introduce… Myself.”
At the time (circa 2014) Douglas Smythe, artisan owner of HTGAM, interviewed Hodges Apellido and Frances of Petal Pusher Fancies for his own blog. In this interview, Smythe reviews and speaks of products while clearly distinguishing that the companies and people are different. Reviewing your own products by sock-puppet accounts/users that are, in fact, just yourself, is obviously deceptive and unethical. Doug/Hodges/Erik claims that it was public information that he/they were the same person.

Here is the self-review (Source 3)

Why Does This Matter?

In a small community such as wetshaving, we have to put a lot of trust in reviewers because everything is based on user experience. Because of the subjective value of hearing/watching/reading someone's experience, we tend to trust reviewers. Part of this trust is the belief that reviewers will disclose their relationship with their audience, if any exists. This flies in the face of all "honest disclosure understanding" between vendor and customer.

Melt and Pour Controversy
HTGAM’s 1.0 formulation was claimed in ad copy by “Smythe” to be a “funky, hot-process soap,” when in reality it was a melt-and-pour. For non-soapmakers, “hot process” is a technical term in soapmaking, with a very specific meaning, which does not and can not include melt-and-pour soaps.

Ingredient Dishonesty
HTGAM’s Synergy Soap featured an ingredient list that was a lie. By law, products that make a health claim (HTGAM chose a moisturizing benefit) must provide ingredient labels must contain the ingredients used in order of weight. Erik Hodges intentionally re-arranged the ingredient list so that his soaps appeared to have more “expensive ingredients” than they actually did. Of particular note was the HTGAM-touted kokum butter. Artisans and users determined, in a now deleted thread from Badger and Blade user “LBussy” that his soap was impossible to make, as labeled. Here’s a Reddit Thread discussing it. (Source 4), (Source 5)

Why Does This Matter?

Many wetshavers start wetshaving because they want to improve their shaving experience. One of the biggest improvements is the cream/soap. Canned goop from the big shaving companies has ingredients that many of us can’t pronounce and are loaded with chemicals. We put a lot of trust in artisans to use ingredients that are safe for use, and that they disclose all ingredients accurately. Because we’re spending more money on products and we have a relationship with the artisan, the expectation is higher quality and honesty. Furthermore, if an artisan lies about ingredients, then their products may be harmful to consumers… especially those with sensitive skin.

Petal Pusher Fancies
Petal Pusher Fancies (PPF) was founded by Frances Towle or “Fran,” as she is frequently referenced in PAA ad copy. Focused more on female beauty and skincare products, it was supposedly co-founded by Frances and a “Hodges Apellido.” Apellido means “last name” in Spanish. The performance of Petal Pusher Fancies soaps was noted to be eerily similar to those from HTGAM. It would eventually come to light that Frances and Hodges Apellido were dating and/or married, and that HTGAM and PPF products were being shipped from the same location. It became clear that in his interview with himself, that he was trying to draw in customers to re-direct them to his girlfriend’s company. In a post in The Shave Nook, a user states that Douglas claims to have “stolen” Towle from Hodges on the way to Arizona when the companies merged.

Erik Hodges, as Douglas Smythe, reviewed a Petal Pusher Fancies Soap product, and heaped praise (and only praise) upon his own product. The archived review is found here. (Source 6)

Crown King
Crown King, abbreviated as CK, was an additional soap company that Erik Hodges founded. Crown King offered a fully vegan line of shave soaps, which has become the primary soap base for PAA soaps.

Phoenix Artisan Accoutrements
Erik Hodges and Frances Towle moved from Boston to Arizona soon after it was discovered that HTGAM and PPF, Erik Hodges/Douglas Smythe/Hodges Apellido were all the same. They founded Phoenix Artisan Accoutrements to avoid the unsavory reputation of their previous company/ies. The titular use of the name “Phoenix” can be inferred to have been derived from their new company “rising from the ashes” of their previous companies.

Why Does This Matter? Many in the wetshaving world would have been willing to move on, and some did at this time. The “Apology Video” that Hodges posted essentially calls anyone who thinks he lied a “hater.” This video has since been made private. (Source 7)

Additional Controversies
Stolen Valor & “Dessert Storm”
Erik Hodges, searching for a group to target with marketing, co-founded a shaving group for military-only Veterans. Originally posturing himself as a veteran, he was eventually questioned about his service-record. He claimed that he had formerly worked in the CIA, which is a non-military, civilian organization. In a screenshot now lost to the internet, Erik Hodges claimed: that he served in the CIA, that he has a father who was an Admiral in the Navy, and finally, that he lost his older brother in “Dessert Storm. [sic]” There is no proof or indication that the “Hodges” killed in Desert Storm was related to Erik Hodges. (Source 8) After making these statements and then deleting them, Hodges claims that he never made them.

“The Boy Scout Sellout”
Searching for another angle to market, in 2017, Erik Hodges began a petition to his customers by including a “business card” with instructions to consumers. His plan was to establish a badge award for an objective skill and to “get to the boys before the cartridges.” (Source 9)

Further, and of greater concern, is that when users posted about this endeavor on the internet, Hodges used personal information from customer purchases to contact them. (Source 10) This is a violation of Shopify Terms of Service, as pointed out by u/whiskyey (Source 11).

Why Does This Matter? The personal information provided to vendors is intended to be used exclusively for the purposes of conducting the business transaction. PAA violated the terms of this agreement by contacting customers using their private emails to defend himself, regarding their comments on Reddit.

Banned From Reddit
Hodges founded his own wetshaving subreddit called r/against_the_grain. He set himself up as a moderator, which is explicitly against Reddit Terms of Service, seeing as he is a vendor. Upon being called out on this, u/cookie_duster, flaired as HTGAM, passes moderator duties on to a 3hr-old account, which is clearly a sockpuppet. (Source 12)

Documented Reddit Shill Accounts
Some of the (many) usernames that can be traced to HTGAM/PPF:

u/cookie_duster (Hodges)

u/tuputne (Towle) (Shills for HTGAM here)

u/crumb_catcher (Hodges) (Interacts with self here)

Non-Apology
Hodges was interviewed by Forbes in Aug 2015 (Source 13). In the article he admits to some of his deceitful business practices but ultimately never apologized for them:

His public persona has confused some customers, and even created some controversy: Hodges admits to having used the fictitious persona to tout Towle’s wares in an online article – without disclosing he was affiliated with Towle – which brought attention to the couple’s brand. He also conducted an interview with Towle while assuming the Douglas Smythe character. Hodges is sheepish but ultimately doesn't feel too bad about it.

Regarding his deception, Doug/Erik posted "Best Publicity Stunt Ever," in a Facebook group that embraces him. Like most controversial posts from this vendor, this was also deleted soonafter. Thankfully, it can be found at the first link and post (second link) from The Shave Nook. (Source 14), (Source 15)

Dropped By Maggard Razors
Following the exposure that HTGAM and PPF were the same company, and that both were using deceptive marketing practices to sell products, Maggard decided to sell off any remaining HTGAM/PPF products in a sale benefiting a new Trailhead and Park. (Source 16) Maggard Razors, through dropping HTGAM/PPF, led the charge against amoral marketing. With other vendors soon following, Hodges rallied his followers to criticize/troll Maggard Razors for their decision, which appears to be a common theme in Hodges' following internet responses.

The "Shave Police"
In late 2014 into 2015, Hodges recruited some ardent supporters from shaving groups he moderated, to "troll reddit" en masse. At his direction, they would talk up HTGAM/PPF/PAA products on Reddit, and "combat the negative forces within such groups as Reddit which tends to have a specific agenda." Eventually the group split up due to arguing, Hodges' censorship in groups he moderated, and because the "The very thing that we were looking to combat [i.e. trolls], we were becoming." (Source 17)

2014
"The Padre Island Setup"
Early in Stirling Soaps' history, a lot of their business was by customer scent requests, whereby a group of shavers would contact them for a scent that they were interested in, and Rod would fulfill the custom order and sell it on Stirling's website.

Timeline of Events
Early 2014, Stirling receives emails requesting a scent creation in homage to concept of Seinfeld’s “The Beach” cologne. Rod, of Stirling Soaps, at this time would frequently fulfill customer requests such as this for release on his website. In this instance, these emails came from multiple addresses, but ultimately, one person. This person, in order to manufacture a controversy, specifically requested a soap scent, that was already known (only to him) to be in production by PAA/HTGAM. (Source 1). Stirling Soaps claims that they are able to prove via email screenshots that it was Erik Hodges/Douglas Smythe who sent the emails.

31 May 2014, PAA, flaired as “How To Grow a Mustache,” in this comment (Source 2), refers negatively to Stirling for "copying him" and further insinuates that they are a detriment to the artisan community:

“I believe it to be respect and a professional courtesy that people don't take another's concept.

We are a community here made up of vendors, artisans, shavers, bloggers, etc...it's a symbiotic relationship and should be supporting each other not aggressively competing against each other. We all play our part.”

2016
“The Sun Up Snafu”
Another "coincidence" manufactured by PAA, though PAA continues to claim that all of the events are coincidental. The introduction of Barrister and Mann’s Reserve Line, intended to recreate discontinued scents, is the beginning of PAA’s claim that, “our mission is to recreate lost scents.” Ever since this event, PAA claims that “these things [read: “coincidences”] happen when you do what we do [read: recreate lost scents].” (Source (Reddit) 1) from this post

Timeline of Events
Mid 2016, Barrister and Mann announces the debut of the “Reserve Line” of shaving products which seek to bring long-lost scents back to consumers. Will Carius, of Barrister and Mann, specifies that aftershaves will be released first, with soaps to follow a few months later

Sep 2016, Barrister and Mann releases the Reserve Line of aftershaves, with three offerings: Classic (Gillette Sun Up Recreation), Spice (Old Spice Recreation), Cool (Floyd Blue Recreation). To the best of our knowledge, a recreation of “Sun Up” did not exist anywhere on the market. A source for the exact debut date is still currently sought, but here is a review from a redditor from Sep 2016. (Source (Reddit) 2)

Dec 2016, Ruds reviews a gifted set of PAA’s Sun Down, which Ruds attests is identical to Barrister and Mann’s “Classic” scent (Source 4). Ruds states that the pre-release date is 19 Dec 2016 at the end of the video. By all appearances, this release was timed specifically so that it would preempt Barrister and Mann’s release, with zero proof to back up the PAA claim. Regarding this release, PAA still claims (as of 2021) in the scent description on their website states:

"Gillette's Sun Up ! I have been working on this scent for almost a year now with much trial and error...mostly error...but finally success, which was well worth the effort!"

Spring 2017, Barrister and Mann launches the soap offerings for the Reserve Line.

2020
By all appearances, this is another "manufactured coincidence" by PAA, where Erik Hodges claims that a "similar scent and historical recreation was already in the works."