BITE Deodorant

Refillable aluminium deodorant casing / Source: Bite

AluminiumBeautyNorth AmericaPackagingPaper

6 MINUTE READ

Kaltrina Bylykbashi

WHAT WE SAY:

If A Plastic Planet, our sister company, awards a product with its Plastic Free Innovation of the Year Award, we know who stands head and shoulders above the rest. Bite - a deodorant revolutionising the personal care market one product category at a time.

Personal care has an inordinate impact on the planet due to its everyday application and single-use packaging. For Bite’s new deodorant, the solution is simple - why are we throwing away these packs every few weeks when we could just reuse them throughout our lifetime? Bite’s beautifully designed, permanent packaging champions the lightweight longevity of aluminium and the recyclability of paperboard, using a subscription model to ensure consumer commitment. This is system change at its best.

KEY FACTS:

Bite’s new range of deodorants are housed in a reusable and refillable Aluminium case that is meant to last a lifetime. The product is inspired by everyday objects from the 1960s, such as Zippo lighters and Braun razors, and is a classic, palm-sized rectangular shape with a mirror-like finish that’s "meant to get scratched up."
The deodorant’s refills come packaged in paperboard. They are designed to easily slip into the casing and use only friction to stay in place rather than commonly used plastic twist mechanisms.
Paperboard was chosen due to its high global recycling rates, and the company also claims that it’s home compostable over an unspecified amount of time. With no accreditations to confirm this fact, it can be assumed that it will take anywhere from two weeks to two months to decompose in a traditional garden environment, but this is highly dependant on conditions.
The deodorant is only sold as part of a subscription service, which founder Lindsay McCormick says is intentional to encourage long-term use. "The problem with offering it one-off…is that if you don’t think to reorder, you are going to go buy a plastic deodorant, and maybe we will fall off the radar."
A subscription plan costs USD 32 at the start which comes with two refills that are 59.5 grams in size, what the company considers a four month supply. Refills then cost USD 16 every four months thereafter. Consumers can opt-out at any point, but the automatic renewable subscription model is designed to keep consumers engaged with the brand and the product, helping to reduce waste in the long run.
All of Bite’s products are delivered in recyclable kraft envelopes padded with post-consumer waste shredded newspaper, as well as corrugated cardboard boxes.
To further reduce its carbon footprint, Bite only ships orders using existing postal routes, rather than offering rush two-day deliveries, as has become the norm in a post-Amazon world. Bite uses everyday postal routes that will be used no matter what, rather than adding more vehicles to the roads, waterways, and the air to get products to people quicker.
According to a study by MIT, online shopping in the US, combined with 'public transit shipping' emits just over 1.4 kilograms CO2e, compared to online shopping with rush shipping that emits almost 1.9 kilograms CO2e.

Deodorant refills in paperboard packaging / Source: Bite

Deodorant aluminium casing / Source: Bite

DIVE DEEPER:

Single-use deodorants are some of the biggest plastic polluters on our planet. Used everyday, deodorant is a regular personal care purchase for the majority of the population, and because most deodorants are packaged in ‘impossible-to-recycle,’ multi-part plastic packs, our bid to smell sweetly is choking the planet.
The deodorant and antiperspirant market has seen significant change in recent years, with consumers swapping traditional formulas for natural ones, inspired by a newfound focus on health and wellbeing. According to Statista, global deodorant revenue will hit USD 25 billion in 2022, and is expected to grow annually at a CAGR of 4.38% between 2022 and 2026.
Part of this growth can be attributed to a focus on more sustainable solutions, but few innovations have managed to eliminate plastic mechanisms entirely, until Bite. As Sian Sutherland, co-founder of A Plastic Planet and PlasticFree, and judge for the Dieline Plastic-Free Award said, "You may say there's nothing sexy about deodorant or that only niche products can benefit from good design. This innovation from Bite takes yet another everyday product and proves otherwise. It is the ultimate in design excellence, changing behaviour with zero guilt and elevating the entire experience of personal care."
Each part of Bite’s refillable deodorant packaging is plastic-free and recyclable, while its dedication to designing a pack that people will want to keep pushes the sustainable deodorant market to new heights. Where many brands choose to swap plastic tubes for cardboard, which ultimately becomes dirty and tearable over time, Bites choice of aluminium elevates the everyday to a must have.
What’s most notable, however, is how Bite attempts to encourage behaviour change in consumers through its subscription service. This has been carefully baked into the company’s business plan even though it can be less profitable. For example, McCormick so far has rejected external investment out of concern of being "pressured or even forced into growing at an unsustainable pace."
"If I was venture-backed and I had to show certain revenues or growth, then you might want to press the easy button, get as many people to buy it as possible and, if they subscribe cool or if they don’t, that’s fine. Then, we would have a bunch of cases out there, and they wouldn’t necessarily be getting refilled," she says.
Bite’s refillable deodorant concept won both the Dieline Plastic-Free Award and the Best in Show Award at the Dieline 2022 packaging awards. The brand has also launched a body balm using the same refillable design and concept.
The deodorant is available in three scents, as well as a fragrance-free option. Formulas are aluminium-free, baking-soda free and vegan and cruelty-free.

“Having a subscription base of people who love your product and want to show up every four months...has really allowed us to weather storms."

Lindsay McCormick - CEO and founder, Bite - as quoted in Beauty Independent

Key Design Considerations:

Price democracy

Currently, a single-use deodorant costs around USD 5, making Bite’s refill almost three times the price. While existing systems skew the pricing structure in favour of plastic items, an increased cost makes the product available to fewer people, and therefore reduces its impact overall. If a multinational brand like Dove took on a design like this, it would shift the needle much more quickly.

Local suppliers

McCormick has admitted that both Bite’s aluminium and card components are made in China and transported to the US by airfreight – an energy intensive process contributing to carbon emissions. This choice goes against the brand’s use of ‘public transit shipping’ to consumers, and could muddy the brand’s message overall. It also suggests that the packaging’s raw materials are sourced using higher-than-average carbon intensive processes, as China is known to produce its aluminium directly from mined ore rather than recycled materials. Given Bite’s US home, sourcing from the US, or closer to home, would make more sense for a brand dedicated to environmental progress and would increase the percentage of recycled aluminium used - something all users of aluminium should be striving for.

The smell test

While consumers are becoming more comfortable with online, D2C personal care purchasing, products that are first-and-foremost about scent are difficult to market solely online. Consider how a brand, such as Bite could raise consumer engagement through pop-up retail events, partnerships with subscription boxes, such as Birchbox and (plastic-free) sampling.