Nicholas Azar believes in turning the other cheek.
A Memphian, Azar, 27, is the founder of Cheeks Towel Co. He created a new towel design for people who are finicky about the way they dry off after they take a bath or shower. One side of the towel is designated as the side to be used for facial cheeks and the other side is “for your other cheeks,” Azar says. “Your butt cheeks.”
This is a holiday gift idea for those men and women who, literally, have everything. “It’s a perfect gift for anyone in college, anyone with a sense of humor, or anyone needing the perfect white elephant or Dirty Santa gift.”
Or, as his grandmother, Ellie Dooner, puts it, “It’s a towel with a sense of humor.”
Azar got the idea when he was at Notre Dame University, where he majored in industrial design and marketing. “A bunch of us were living in the same dorm. A buddy of mine, Kevin, came out of the shower. And he was wrapped up in a towel. I guess we were all watching something on TV. And he asked if any of us had ever wondered when we go to grab our towel to dry our face, do we every wonder what part of the towel we dried our butt with before we dried our face?
“What was interesting is we all said, ‘Yes.’ We all wondered.”
So, Azar went to work. “I ended up doing a survey with about 550 people. And what I learned is that women think the same thing. But a lot of times they end up using two different towels: one for their hair and their face and the other for their body.”
Azar sort of put the towel idea on hold for a couple of years. But in 2019, the idea came back to him while he was working in the agriculture and textile industry in Uzbekistan. “I guess I’ve always wanted to start a company and just learn about the whole process from the idea to sourcing to manufacturing to inventory management and advertising.”
Cheeks Towel Co. was born.
Azar spent six or seven months designing the towel. “The reason that it took forever is I needed a towel that has two distinct sides.”
Figuring out how to designate which side was for what wasn’t easy. “I guess if you were to put a smiley face on one side, you couldn’t put a butt on the other.”
He decided to have the designation woven into the two sides of the towel instead of using ink, which doesn’t last long. Now, he says, “When you look at the towel one way, the face cheek is on the right side. And when you turn it over, the butt cheek is on the other side. And those different sides obviously correspond with which side you use for your face and which side you use for your butt.”
Azar conducted a survey to “understand what color was the most popular.” He discovered “sand” and “moss” were the most popular towel colors. So, he ordered 5,000 towels. The 56-by-28-inch bath towels come in sand, peach, moss, and stone. “They’re 100 percent cotton.”
And, he says, they have 640 GSMs (grams per square meter), which is better than an average hotel quality towel, which has 550 GSMs. Azar says this makes his towels more absorbent and gives them a heavier feel.
To promote the towels, Azar hired Dallas, Texas-based photographer Hannah Dimmitt to take photographs. He hired two women models and one man to demonstrate how to use the towels correctly.
Azar currently is working on “inventory management fulfillment and marketing. Social media. Stuff like that.”
He brought his towels to the recent Mistletoe Marketplace in Jackson, Mississippi. “We did great. It was a successful show, for sure.”
To buy the towels online go to cheekstowelco.com. “We’re running a big discount right now. If they buy a set of four towels it’s 10 percent off. And if they buy a set of eight it is 15 percent off.”
So, what reaction does Azar get when he tells people about his reversible face/butt cheek towels?
“Every time I tell them about it they laugh.”
But, he adds, “They laugh and admit they’ve had this issue. It’s definitely a fun thing to bring up. Everybody thinks it’s funny.”
