Company History

 

Jake and Ashley Yates

 

YPM is owned and operated in Southwestern Pennsylvania by Jake and Ashley Yates. Our company was founded in June of 2017 and began as a contract manufacturing shop. We began making safety razors by accident!

"My dad brought me a safety razor in the fall of 2018 and asked if I thought I could make one. The first thing I did was Google "What is a safety razor?". But, it looked like an interesting product, so I decided to get to work designing one, with the initial intent of making a few for friends and family. As I started posting about it on social media it began to gain interest, so I opened up a pre-order for our Model 921-M razor, and never really looked back. We get a lot of questions about where the 921 comes from. Both of our sons, Landon and Lincoln, were born on September 21st, two years apart!"

Jake is a Mechanical Engineer who has worked both in the Aerospace and Medical industries, gaining valuable manufacturing experience.  Therefore, we are very familiar with material selection, fixture design, holding tight tolerances, and lean manufacturing.  We have worked with the full spectrum of materials, from standard metals like aluminum and mild-carbon steel, to aerospace and medical grade metals like Inconel and Titanium.

Ashley has a degree in Business Administration and has worked at Cornell University prior to becoming a mother. She now has the most challenging and rewarding job on the planet; taking care of two young boys. She also handles a lot of the business and marketing aspects of our company, keeps machines running, and does all of our product photography.