Tom Crawford, Dyson, Head of Product Development, Environmental Control by Alvin Soon
Tom Crawford, Dyson, Head of Product Development, Environmental Control by Alvin Soon
How did the idea for the Supersonic hairdryer come about?
Since the 1960s, manufacturers have been satisfied to give us the same old technology, just wrapped up differently. As a result, we are left with problems like imbalanced design, unbearable noise, and heat damage due to unregulated heating.
It was high time to reinvent the hair dryer, and to come up with a solution to rid us all of the problems.
What was James Dyson’s first reaction to hearing you guys were working on a hairdryer? James has been there right from the beginning – you could say he is one of the key minds behind the Dyson Supersonic. As with new projects and new ideas, we all got very excited.
How in the world did you get four years and almost 50 million pounds to R&D a hairdryer? At Dyson we don’t believe in releasing a new piece of technology until we genuinely think that it is ready. That is the wonderful thing about working at Dyson. It’s also the reason why we’re still a privately-owned company. This means that we are afforded the freedom to invest heavily in RDD (research design and development) – up to £3 million a week to be precise!
