Episodes
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Stefan Reisinger is the Managing Director of FAIRNAMIC GmbH, which is the company that runs the EUROBIKE fair. I reached out to Stephen because I wanted to give the listeners a better look inside the largest bicycle specific trade show in the world.
We dive into the reasoning behind the move from Friedrichshafen to Frankfurt and why the trade show is important, the evolution of the trade show, their goals and how to best leverage the show for both brands and visitors.
This was a great opportunity to kind of see behind the curtain of EUROBIKE.
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When I started the Business of Cycling podcast there was definitely one person that I had in mind that I was hoping to interview, and it was Simon Mottram. I've worked in cycling for over 10 years. And what Rapha did in the cycling business is nothing short of incredible. They truly disrupted the industry, and found totally new ways to look at products like cycling clothing.
His story is incredible. What you can take away from it is how he was able to take his really unique blend of experience, and focus his energy on what became Rapha. To this day Rapha is still among the most important cycling brands on the market.
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Joshua Riddle is originally from North Carolina and and has been working in the cycling industry in Italy for 15 years. He started his career at Trek Italy 2010 which recently closed their doors due to consolidation of their European offices to Madrid.
Joshua has worked in Marketing for Trek, Pinarello, Campagnolo, Basso Bikes, and is currently the Global Marketing Manager at Hayes Bicycles.
I spoke with Joshua about the current state of the industry and the evolution of the bicycle market in recent years. We also discussed what he sees as unique about Italian cycling brands that the brands themselves often have a hard time recognizing.
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This conversation was recorded at a live panel at the 2024 cycling world event in Dusseldorf on March 15th. The topic of the panel was COVID overstocks and the state of the industry and the aftermath.
My guests were ROSE Bikes Anatol Sostmann, Old Man Mountain Products Erik Fenner Schicke Mütze Carsten Wien and provided three unique viewpoints on the causes and lessons learned from the overstocks caused by the COVID pandemic aftermath.
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Jayu Yang is one of the most experienced entrepreneurs in the Taiwanese bike industry. Her grandfather started Kenda tire in 1962. And she carried on the family tradition by taking over her father's business Kendstone In 2001. Kendstone is among the top premium bicycle assemblers in Taiwan.
In Taiwanese culture, women were not typically considered for running a family business. Therefore her path to running Kendstone was unexpected as her father was in need of a trusted manager during a time of crisis. She grew the company substantially throughout the two thousands and sold the company in 2019 and stayed on as the CEO until 2021.
This conversation aims to give you a look inside the workings of the cycling industry from a Taiwanese perspective.
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David Trimble is best known for founding the Red Hook Criterium fixed gear championship series. David also founded the Midnight Half, both internationally renowned sporting competitions.
The Red Hook Crit grew to become such an important cultural event that it was archived at the Smithsonian's national museum of American history.
It this episode you'll hear the story of the Red Hook Crit and David's incredible journey. You'll hear how his passion and unique skillset, was able to create a cultural phenomenon.
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Claudio Marra is the General Manager of the European division at FSA Full Speed Ahead Vision. Claudio started working in the cycling industry at the age of 14 when for Milan based bicycle builder Rosin, where he learned frame building and welding. during his time at Rossin and then eventually Columbus, he witnessed the transition from steel to aluminum frames in the 1990s.
Claudio Marra is among the most experienced managers in the cycling industry. He has an unrivaled understanding of the cycling industry and its evolution. He played a key role in promoting and supporting brands like Columbus, Rossin, and he went on to start the FSA Vision European division, which has grown into one of the most important component brands in the cycling industry today.
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UK native Matt Stevens had an extensive road cycling career starting in the late eighties through the nineties and into the two thousands. He holds the title of 1998 UK national road race champion.
Matthew is most well known for his work at the global cycling network, as he was part of the core team that started the channel in 2015. in 2018, he left GCN to focus on commentary work, live events, as well as presenting and consulting for brands and retailers.
Matthew's dynamic personality, engaging style is second to none. In our conversation
we dive into his origin story from early amateur racing. And how he spent over 10 years with the police department before getting back into cycling industry in the 2000s and 2010s.
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Guy Kesteven is a professional bike tester and journalist in the cycling industry. He's been testing bikes and kit for over 25 years for UK magazines and global websites.
Guy came on my radar when i read his piece on BikePerfect.com titled 'The Mountain Bike industry is Dying, Long Live Mountain Biking. You can read it here.
His take on the cycling industry, and the business of cycling is candid, refreshing and no holds barred. I really enjoyed being able to hang out with Guy, and I'm looking forward to having more conversations with Guy, hopefully in the very near future.
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Martin Banke is the Managing Director of Ceramic Speed. Ceramic Speed is a manufacturer of high-performance bearing technology. They also produce high-performance bottom brackets, pulley systems, pulley wheels, and headsets.
Martin has worked in the cycling industry for over 20 years. Initially on the distributor side with EnergySport in Denmark and then on the brand side.
Martin was the first employee of the Ceramic Speed cycling division and in our conversation, we talk about his journey building the unique brand around a culture of innovation and performance.
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Alessandro Basso is the Chief Executive Officer at StarDue Group. StarDue is the parent company of the brands Basso Bikes and Lee Cougan Mountain Bikes.
Alessandro comes from a family of bike enthusiasts and entrepreneurs in the industry. Alessandro's Father and Uncle founded Basso Bikes in 1977 and his Mother's family is responsible for creating the mega motorcycle protection brand Alpine Stars.
I spoke with Alessandro about his path from professional mountain bike racer to CEO of one of Italy's last remaining family owned bike brands.
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To end the year I put together a collection of interesting moments from 2023 conversations focused around COVID and the after effects of the pandemic. I thought it would be an interesting take a look back at some of these anecdotes and experiences these cycling professionals went through to take a look closer to that moment.
In the recap provide clips from my conversations with Jonathan Sherwood of Bell Helmets, Davide Rossetti from SIDI, Samuele Bressan from Pirelli and Gaspare Licata from Crank Brothers.
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Simon Summerscales is the VP of Marketing at Canyon Bicycles. Before joining Canyon in 2018, Simon was the Head of communication strategy at the prestigious Wieden+Kennedy agency in London. Simon was also Director of communication strategy at 72andSunny in Amsterdam.
During his tenure in the agency realm, Simon was responsible for creating numerous global campaigns for both Nike and Adidas.
Simon is among the most experienced and accomplished marketing professionals in the cycling industry today.
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Marco Galli is the marketing manager for the cycling division at Kask Helmets in Italy. Marco started his career at Red Bull, where he spent time coordinating sports events, motor sports events, as well as athletes. He then worked for Scott Sports in Switzerland where he was the marketing coordinator for their motor sport division.
Marco has been the head of marketing at Kask in Italy since 2022. W spoke about his early experience at Red Bull as well as at Scott and that how he's bringing that multinational experience to fairly young Italian brand that is seeing a meteoric rise on the market in the last 20 years.
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Samuele Bressan is the head of Global Marketing of the cycling division at Pirelli tires. Samuele got his start in cycling as the product manager for Vittoria Tires. He also worked as the product manager for Bianvhi Bicycles, as well as line builder and product manager for clothing brand RH+.
In our conversation, we really explore how closely related the product teams are with marketing. And how this is quite unique to cycling because of the nature of the business.
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Jacob Dudek was until recently the VP of commercial operations at SIGNA Sports United for the USA entity.
Jacob came onto my radar recently when I saw his article on LinkedIn titled 'A Postmortem of the Collapse of SIGNA Sports United'. It's a deep look at what happened from an insider's look as a VP. I highly recommend it as it goes deep into the reasons behind the collapse. It gives a clear picture as to why the company went went bankrupt. I was lucky to get Jacob on and talk a little bit with him about the situation from his point of view.
Link to the article: A Postmortem of the Signa Sports United Collapse
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On October 27th online cycling retailer behemoth Wiggle has entered into administration due to financial turmoil at its parent company Signa Sports United.
This news sent shockwaves through the cycling industry as Wiggle is essentially the 500 pound gorilla of online cycling retail.
I spoke with industry veteran Jonathan Sherwood to try to make sense of the news.
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Rocket Espresso is a darling of the cycling world and the coffee machines could be found in every pro cycling team bus starting in the 2010s.
In the podcast I speak with Rocket Espresso founder and New Zealand native Andrew Meo about how he captured the imagination of cycling.
We also discuss Andrew's early career as an auto repair and restoration shop owner and restaurateur, how he left a profitable business in New Zealand to start Rocket Espresso in Italy together with his wife, Nicky. How they grew the brand and eventually exited in 2018.
We also dive into his latest project Box Altitude which makes high altitude simulation equipment for competitive athletes.
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Mark Hopkins is an expert in carbon fiber production and design. He spent much of his career working as a composites engineer at DuPont. In our conversation, we talk about how he came to design the three spoke bicycle wheel in 1989, which was sold by Specialized.
The wheel was a huge innovation at the time and was the first composite bicycle wheel to be commercially available. We talk about how DuPont spun off its composites business in 1995. And how he started up a factory in Spain to make bicycle wheels, which eventually became HED bicycle wheels.
Mark is currently a consultant at 3T where mark and his team are working to bring the production of their historic brand back to Italy.
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Jacob Kennison is the Communications Manager for Trek-Lidl Cycling Team. He previously held the position of press officer and had some time in the agency world for Fusion Media Services.
We dove deep into the specifics of how a pro team communicates, the technical aspects of channel strategy, social media campaigns, and an all around look at the inner workings of the marketing and communications of a cycling team.
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