The rise of Knobs

An interview with surf wax founder, Bradley Aubergine.

In Australia, we like to recycle. We turn broken down racehorses into meat pies, unwanted wetsuits into stubby holders and discarded coat hangers into car aerials. We’re an ingenious lot, full of bright ideas and drunken reasoning, with a knack of making something out of nothing.

In this great tradition, a brand new surf wax had been born… 100% recycled and quite literally full of Aussie blood, sweat and tears.

Bradley Aubergine began dreaming of Knobs one Thursday in February, wandering through Sydney’s world-renowned Oxford Street. As a highly awarded, well respected male personal groomer, Bradley was feeling uncomfortable with the excess waste being generated from his body waxing service. His Hyundai hatchback was jammed with an amazing 27 hessian sacks of used wax and body hair, not accepted by any of Sydney’s City Council waste management facilities.

Necessity, was as they say, the mother of invention.

“What was a boy to do?” reflects Bradley, emerald eyes ablaze while taking generous sips from his strawberry mojito, “there was obviously an opportunity to on-sell my waste products. The problem was finding my niche, but as far as I was concerned, I was sitting on a pile of hairy gold. As they drummed into us at Brazilian waxing school, we should concentrate on all things ‘outside the box’”.

“if you’re going to put Knobs in your mouth, please promise me you won’t swallow.”

In a business master stroke, Bradley took his hessian sacks to the local senior citizens association and struck a lucrative long-term contract seeing these proud elders of ours remove all excess body follicles from the wax. A somewhat delicate and arduous task, known in the industry as ‘de-pubing’.

“The seniors have been a godsend”, muses Bradley as he gazes across the harbour from the well-appointed penthouse he calls home, “the best part is that they get to keep 100% of the salvaged hair to knit mittens for the less fortunate”.

Special blends of gluten free, macrobiotic super foods are infused into the hair free wax compound, adding their own alluring scents and textures. The result is a finished product that smells good enough to eat.