Uncover the hidden truths of the car care industry that brands prefer to keep under wraps. This episode dives into the prevalence of private labeling, where most detailing brands simply repackage stock formulas rather than creating unique products. The host shares insights from years in the industry, revealing how marketing often overshadows genuine product development. With a focus on transparency, the discussion highlights the challenges of creating effective detailing solutions and the importance of chemistry over gimmicks. Listeners will gain a deeper understanding of what really goes into the products they use.
Most car care brands do not want you watching this. Today I'm breaking down the real truth about how detailing products are made, how private labeling works, and why so many brands rely on marketing instead of real chemistry.
I've been behind the scenes for years—fulfilling products, private labeling, working with manufacturers, and now developing my own formulas with a chemist. I've seen how this industry really operates, and very few people talk about it honestly.
In this episode, I cover:
• The truth about private label products • Why most brands don't make their own formulas • How easy it is to white-label average or poor products • Why packaging often sells more than actual chemistry • The real margins and how they drive decisions • Why many influencers recommend certain products • How detailing products are actually made behind the scenes • What cheap formulas skip and why performance suffers • How my own development process works • Why I'm trying to build Jimbo's Detailing differently
I also share what goes into products like Picture Perfect Polish, The Super Soaper, Gloss Boss, and more—how they're tested, developed, and refined. Building products the right way is slower and harder, and it takes time to show people the difference. But this episode explains exactly why I'm doing it this way.
If you want honest, transparent insight into the detailing world, this podcast will be valuable.
"...a quick detail spray. But he just was messing around with the quick detail spray one day and realized that it worked really good as a bug remover..."
A quick detail spray is a product that helps clean your car's surface quickly without needing to wash it with water. It's great for making your car look shiny and clean in a short amount of time.
A quick detail spray is a type of automotive product used to clean and shine a vehicle's surface without the need for water. It's often used for light cleaning between washes and can enhance the appearance of the paint.
"...the difference between a waterless wash, a quick detail spray, and a spray wax. They're so similar in the formulations..."
A waterless wash is a special cleaner for cars that lets you clean them without using any water. It helps remove dirt and grime while keeping the car's surface safe.
A waterless wash is a cleaning product designed to clean a vehicle's exterior without the use of water. It typically contains lubricants and cleaning agents that lift dirt away from the surface, allowing it to be wiped off with a microfiber cloth.
"...the difference between a waterless wash, a quick detail spray, and a spray wax. They're so similar in the formulations..."
Spray wax is a product you can spray on your car to make it shiny and protect the paint. It's easy to use and helps keep your car looking good.
Spray wax is a convenient product used to provide a protective layer on a vehicle's paint. It typically contains carnauba wax or synthetic polymers that enhance shine and protect against environmental contaminants.
"...so common, you know, ceramic infused. Again, and here's the problem with these is that you're not paying for the actual chemistry..."
Ceramic infused means that a product has tiny ceramic particles in it, which help protect your car's surface better. It makes it harder for dirt and water to stick, so your car stays cleaner for longer.
Ceramic infused products contain ceramic particles that provide enhanced protection and durability for automotive surfaces. These products can create a hydrophobic layer that repels water and dirt, making cleaning easier and providing long-lasting shine.
"...that may take months and months and months. Why? Because I don't want just an APC that foams good and browns the tire. There's a few other things..."
APC means All-Purpose Cleaner, which is a type of cleaner you can use for many different surfaces, like tires and wheels. It's good for getting rid of dirt and stains.
APC stands for All-Purpose Cleaner, a versatile cleaning solution that can be used on various surfaces, including tires and wheels. It's designed to break down dirt and grime effectively.
"...that I think would make a tire and wheel cleaner maybe different, right? Yeah, it'll be alkaline based, not acidic. I already..."
Alkaline based means the cleaner has a higher pH level, which helps it clean better, especially for tough dirt and grease. It's often used in products for cleaning tires.
Alkaline-based cleaners have a higher pH level, making them effective for breaking down organic materials and grease. They are often used in cleaning products for tires and wheels to remove tough grime.
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Today, I'm going to share and tell you a few secrets that the car care industry
never talks about. No brand talks about and definitely no in-flure brands talk about.
And it's the stuff that they, it's really not their fault that they don't tell you.
They just literally don't know. And I kind of wish I didn't know either.
But this is the stuff that brands definitely don't want you to know.
Because if you did, a lot of them would lose sales overnight.
And I think it's important to note that a lot of this stuff is actually
coming to light. The more people are willing to talk about it,
the more people find out about it, whether it's the influencer led brands or not.
And because a lot of the brands that don't have these things to hide aren't afraid anymore
to talk about it because there's actually, it becomes more of a rallying cry than anything.
And it becomes a big differentiator. And the hard part for brands that know these truths
is to explain how and what they are without sounding like they're just bashing other people.
And that's something that I'm hoping to, to share honestly.
And I hope it comes across that way. I hope none of this comes across as bashing.
That's not my intention. That's not my intent.
It's not my intent to tell you, you know, this is why you should support my own brand.
This is merely to put out the information because I've been behind the scenes for so many years and
I've talked about it before that I got really jaded working behind the scenes because I kind of,
when you see how the sausage is made, it makes it hard to eat the sausage, you know,
and I'm kind of finally coming out of that and coming out of it with a clear head and
seeing an opportunity really to do it differently. And so I'm kind of leaning into that a little
bit to see how it feels. But whether it's private labeling, working with chemists,
working with blend houses that don't even have a chemist, which is crazy. They've just stolen
blends and recipes, which is a big majority of people fulfilling products for other brands,
testing formulas, you know, working with turtowax on like a global scale. And so I've done a lot
of it. I've really seen how a lot of different sausages are made. And I think honestly, most
of what you think and know about detailing products is and isn't true. I think a lot of us
know that there's only a few manufacturers that make these things. Most of them are pretty much
all the same. But still, even though we think that we have an inkling about that,
it is true and it is also not true at the same time. But either way, almost no one is telling you
the truth about how the industry actually works. So today, I kind of want to share some of that.
So hopefully I can do that without bashing people or seeming like I'm bashing because that's
really not my intent at all. It's mainly just to share information. So I guess the first
thing I want to talk about is, you know, private labeling. And we already kind of know this, but
the vast majority of detailing brands don't make anything. And beyond that, they really just
buy base formulas, slap a label on it and mark it up. A vast majority, 95% of brands
use the same five to six contract manufacturers. Now, there are, you know, some nuances
in this that you could kind of bring up and talk about. But this is usually very obvious,
has become extremely obvious as of late with some influencer led brands that are tied in with other
brands. And it you just kind of get your spidey senses of like, oh, they kind of all have the
same thing, maybe different names, maybe different colors. And it's just easier to do it this
way because the formulas are tried and true. So they'll have the same base formulas, whether you
use a contract manufacturer, you know, some people say, oh, it's made to our specs, which is true.
But the vast majority of people aren't actually making their own stuff,
mainly because it's not it's not cost effective to do that. So again, it's not
even their fault. It's done usually on purpose. It's just much more efficient and cheaper to have
people doing that. Instead of having, you know, 15 different relationships with raw materials,
suppliers, they just have one contact person. It's much, much easier to just do that. It's
actually basically comes down to cost savings, right? And they those contract manufacturers
have base formulas. I call them stock formulas when I'm selling them to people and they're just
tried and true. And so it's a very safe, safe bet to get those. It's a very safe bet to, hey,
the contract manufacturer has been selling this forever. Let's just go with that. In fact,
when I started my own brand, the toughest shell it's in its original form, I did have to adjust
it a little bit, unfortunately, but its original formula was a stock formula. I created that stock
formula. But when I moved it over under the Jimbo's brand, I just changed the color on the stock
formula that I had sold hundreds of thousands of bottles with because I knew it was tried and
true. Now some things, some lies came out and some people tried to undermine my brand.
And so I made some improvements and adjustments to that base formula that I guess technically made it
my own proprietary formula for the Jimbo's brand. But its core formula is a, I say stock formula.
I created the stock formula based on another stock formula, right? So it's been improved and increased,
but at its core, it was a stock formula, right? And so you do that because it's tried and
true. I did that with Toughest Shell because I already had it labeled under a half dozen or a
dozen other brands out there and literally had sold millions and millions of dollars worth of it.
Tens of thousands of reviews on the products and I thought, well, okay, I created this.
You know, I literally created the formula with the chemist. I sold it as private label
because that's what my business was before starting my own brand. Got tired of doing that
for reasons I'll talk about today as well. And so I just sell it as my own now, right?
But you could see how that's a lot safer if whatever influencer, whatever person that has
the idea to create their own product brand, they're definitely not going to hang their
neck out on a new formula. They're definitely not going to start from scratch
because they don't even know how to start from scratch. It is so hard to do something
like I did with the Picture Perfect Polish. And even that wasn't started from scratch. It was
based off a stock formula and then improved from there. And then when I got to the end of that,
had to kind of revisit that again. But the Picture Perfect Polish was created
from an idea and then there is a stock kind of base that you start from
and then you tweak things from there. I hope that makes sense. But again, 95% of brands aren't
even going to that tweaking phase. They're taking the stock products, changing the color,
changing the scent and slapping their label on it. Why? It's much quicker. It's much faster.
And that's why you see these brands, influencer led brands or not, they either launch with a
ton of products or a bunch of SKUs or they can rapidly release new SKUs. They release a new iron
remover. They're releasing stuff very, very quickly because they're just stock formulas.
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