By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
Reid McEwen and Todd Platzer met while working up a sweat playing club tennis as kids in Bowling Green.
Now the tennis buddies have launched a business selling a product they probably could have use back then – Odor Erasure, a natural deodorant. Like their friendship, the product also first started developing in Bowling Green.
Now based in Wilmington, North Carolina, their original product ZERO deodorant is making an impression in the market. The all-natural product is even sold in a shop in Budapest, Hungary.
The deodorant uses oxygenated African shea oil not just to mask body odor but to eliminate it by killing the bacteria that causes it.
Now the partners have launched a Kickstarter campaign(tinyurl.com/zerocares1) to begin marketing an expanded line of skin care products – Odor Erasure, lotions, sun block, and bug repellant.
These like the original ZERO deodorant will have a few simple ingredients, all easy to pronounce – shea butter, ozone, beeswax, essential oils, coconut butter. No baking soda, a common ingredient in other natural deodorants. And no aluminum that’s a common in traditional skin care products.
Aluminum has been linked numerous health problems, including cancer, Platzer said.
They noted that the federal Food and Drug Administration does not regulate skin care, deodorants, makeup and personal hygiene products.
The skin, McEwen noted, soaks up whatever is put on it. As much as 64 percent of what’s rubbed on the skin ends up in the blood stream. ZERO’s marketing, he said, has a large educational component about all the harmful things in skin care products.
According to McEwen: “Skin absorption should be a consideration for folks purchasing skincare products along the same lines as the regard that conscious consumers have for the chemicals and preservatives found in foods.”
The products will be produced under the brand name ZERO3.
The zero is for “zero bad stuff” and the O3 is for the ozone, a triatomic gas, that’s a key ingredient in the oxygenating process.
Platzer has been experimenting with ozone therapy for a while. Living in Nevada, he developed an oxygenated oil that he marketed. The problem was while it generally promoted skin health, he didn’t have a specific selling point.
Then one day he was talking to three young women and mentioned that the oil worked as a deodorant. They bought three bottles.
It took a few years for the product to take shape. Platzer returned to Bowling Green to get a master’s degree in public health, after studying business at Case Western Reserve. Meanwhile McEwen, a 2005 Bowling Green High School graduate, started his studies at Arizona State before transferring to the University of Charleston in West Virginia where he played tennis and went on to earn an MBA.
In the winter of 2014, a particularly cold, miserable one, they found themselves back in Bowling Green. Armed with a graduate degree in public health, Platzer now felt he had some authority to talk about the health benefits of his product.
They lived in McEwen’s family home on Larchwood Drive while his father, Scott McEwen, and stepmother, Elaine McEwen, were in Arizona.
“We were going into Kroger seeing if there’s a space for it … analyzing the business opportunity,” McEwen said. “We decided it was probably worth a shot.”
So they set about infusing ozone into liquid shea butter in the garage and basement.
Their first attempts were not successful. They tried an organic shea butter that produced an odd texture and odd odors – not what you want in a deodorant. But they did find a shea butter that worked.
The idea is that ozone, more properly trioxygen, is highly unstable. The molecule is constantly wanting to shed its third oxygen atom. When it seeks out bacteria, which thrives in low oxygen environments, on the skin, the bacteria cells burst.
“We had no way to test our products,” Platzer said, “so we were forced to put on sweatshirts and play ping pong for hours on end.”
“We’d do smell tests,” McEwen said. “We put on more ozonated shea butter and sweat it out playing ping pong.”
Business meetings convened at Stone’s Throw.
During this period McEwen traveled to Charlotte, North Carolina for a job interview. He’d been given “homework” to complete before the interview, “really menial, frustrating stuff.”
“I decided to skip the interview,” he said. Instead he visited local stores with the prototypes he and Platzer had developed in Bowling Green. One store bought some.
That led him to call Platzer: “Let’s give it a 100-percent go.”
Within a month they’d moved to Kure Beach just outside of Wilmington. “If the business did not worked out, we’d be on the beach,” McEwen said. “We wouldn’t be cold.”
Within a few months the business was making more money than it was spending. ZERO3 continued to be profitable and debt-free.
They started selling their deodorant at farmers markets, around the region. Those direct sales provided a steady source of income, and also valuable market research. The partners heard directly from customers, both happy and frustrated.
“Being able to market and sell product very early on in whatever state it’s in was very helpful for us,” Platzer said.
They now operate out of a warehouse in Wilmington, producing their product with as little waste as possible.
When they had difficulties finding affordable plastic deodorant containers, they contracted with a Chinese firm that manufactures 60,000-80,000 for them annually. ZERO3 sells some of those to other manufacturers.
“That’s developed into an unexpected side business,” Platzer said.
Most of their marketing is done online, though they do have a few shops, including the one in Budapest, that sell their products. Internet sales are their focus, since they are easier to manage.
Zoo Lily, the online retailer, has featured their products. And after a hiatus, they are back at farmers markets though now they hire interns who staff their displays.
The Kickstarter campaign is not just to raise money, but is another way to gauge the market and interest in their products.
They’ve developed a deodorant packaged for kids. There have always been stinky kids, McEwen said, but for some reason, maybe dietary, maybe hormonal, it’s more of a problem. Now after recess or gym, kids can apply the ZERO deodorant.
They are also working with a breast cancer charity to donate bottles of their product to patients, in pink packaging. “Doctors were very specific not using aluminum-containing products when undergoing radiation,” Platzer said.
McEwen said: “It’s really important to us that we feel good about what we do.”
“It’s rewarding,” Platzer said. “It’s a lifestyle.” It’s an approach to business they share with other entrepreneurs of their generation who want to do good as well as make money.
“We don’t think about marketing as manipulating our customers,” McEwen said. “It’s just about being straight and honest. It sells itself. That’s what we’re hoping.”
For more information, visit zerocares.com.
