Overnight Success

It’s been said that Kona is 'The Smallest Biggest Bike Company in the World'. They’re best known as the quintessential North Shore bike brand, yet their global head office is just down over the border in Ferndale, Washington. The quirky company stood out with outrageous bike model names such as the Stinky Dee-Lux , Sex One, Sex Too, and, Jackshit, which placed them well and truly as the "alternati...

In our final episode of this limited series, we turn the floor over to member questions. Thank you to everyone who became members throughout this series. Every single one of you helps make us produce more content like this. If you're not a member, you can join here: https://escapecollective.com/join/ You can listen another podcast you'll enjoy about 'Why are modern bikes so expensive' podcast here...

In EP3, we heard about what much of the bike industry experienced during that dramatic slowdown of bike sales, and what resulted. In this episode, EP4, we'll hear about some of the learnings and takeaways from the past three years, and put forward some tough questions for the bike industry to ask itself.

This is the third episode in our series that takes a deep dive into what the bike industry experienced during the covid boom and how it got into the trouble it’s in now. In Episode 2, we heard from various industry professionals about the early warning signals that told them that this bubble was about to burst, and some of the reckless behaviour and pressure that was being put onto various parts o...

In episode one we heard about the unexpected windfall that the cycling industry saw at the start of the pandemic and how many needed to react.  Of course that didn’t last forever, and in this episode I’ve titled ‘the storm clouds’ we talk about the early signs that this new demand was coming to an abrupt halt, and the types of behaviour that was happening and the causes of that behaviour that led...

In this 4 part series, I wanted to explore the events that took place that led the bike industry to the troubling point it’s at now. I spoke to over a dozen industry professionals from all parts of the supply chain. From well run bike shops, forecasting analysts, distributors, the biggest bike brands in the world, and manufacturers.  It’s well known that the bicycle industry went through an unprec...

There’s an undeniable truth that an overnight success takes about 10 years, not a single night. Almost no one comes up with a winning business idea all at once. And if you’re not Peter and Tom Marchment or those around them who created the aftermarket wheel brand Hunt, you might be mistaken that they came out of nowhere.  Tom and Peter are brothers who grew up riding in a small fishing village on...

DeFeet is mostly thought about as a sock brand, and that’s largely the case, even though they also make arm warmers, gloves and base layers. After 31 years of being in the trade, they’re the longest-standing business dedicated to socks in the cycling market that I’m aware of.  Back in the 90’s socks may have been the least interesting, and most neglected piece of apparel in a cyclist's wardrobe, o...

Bowhead is a business that’s only about 5 years old, but it’s been twenty years in the making. It’s a brand many of you probably haven’t heard of before, and despite this I truly hope that you do listen to this episode, because this one is one of the most inspiring stories that I’ve come across while making this podcast.  Christian Bagg has been a lifelong adrenaline junkie who loved mountain biki...

Over the past decade, MAAP has risen to become one of the most successful and highly regarded apparel brands in the market. Born in the age of Instagram brands in 2014, there was an explosion of these micro-brands with a design-led ethos popping up all over the place. Cycling apparel was going through a big change at this time. People were loving untraditional and playful kits and they were beginn...

This month we’ve got a different episode for you. For a long time now I've been asked to share the origin story of CyclingTips in this podcast, but I always knew there was more to come in this journey. But now that the story is complete, I figured this is a good time to tell it. Instead of this being a monologue, I asked Mitch Docker (from the Life in the Peloton podcast) to host this episode. Mit...

The story of an unassuming American who brought Castelli back from the grave. You’ll be hard-pressed to find a more iconic brand in cycling than Castelli. The company dates back to the late 1800s, to around the time of the first-ever documented bike race.  Castelli is an Italian brand with a long, complicated history, but much of its recent success is due to an American by the name of Steve Smith,...

In this episode of From the Top, I speak to The Sufferfest founder David McQuillen about how he went from working in the Swiss Banking industry, to creating one of the largest indoor training platforms in his spare time and later selling the business to Wahoo Fitness. I first met David back in 2010 at the Road World Championships in Geelong and we became good friends thereafter. We were both in si...

So many of the businesses we’ve discovered in this show have been ‘happy accidents’ so to speak, and Scratch Labs embodies that very same organic build and hustling spirit. Founded by two longtime friends, Allan Lim and Ian McGregor as both were sidelined from the sport, they both described themselves as initially too ‘lazy’ to actually sell their ‘secret drink mix’ they were making for pro cyclin...

In this episode we speak to the three co-founders of apparel brand, 7mesh. Getting into the cycling apparel business could now be one of the lowest barrier-to-entry segments in the industry. Anyone with an Instagram account and some design ability can source directly from factories in Italy or China and create a clothing ‘brand’ these days. That’s not to say some don’t break through and create leg...

Apidura is a brand you may not be familiar with if you haven’t ventured into the world of bikpacking, touring or adventure racing. They are pioneers in rackless bike bags category, and support the community of ultra cyclists and bike packers. They’re a brand at the heart of this rapidly growing community and are enabling a whole new wave of this type of cycling. Tori Fahey is the founder of Apidur...

Zipp is an indisputable icon in the wheel and component business and they have a long history of innovation. They were one of the very first brands who thought about wheels differently and pushed the envelope to bring performance wheels where they are today. An engineer by the name of Leigh Sargent is the founder of Zipp way back in the late 80’s, and it’s a gentleman by the name of Andy Ording wh...

Rocket Espresso is not a cycling brand per se, but it’s arguably the best-known coffee brand within the orbit of our own little cycling world.  Most cyclists have an appreciation for the sort of beautiful, mechanical, craftsmanship that Rocket does so wonderfully. It’s easy to see why the brand connects so strongly with cyclists. New Zealander Andrew Meo is the co-founder of Rocket Espresso and it...

SRAM is credited with having three co-founders, but Stan Day is the man who planted the seed. And you could very well argue he is the man where the brand’s culture and values stem from. At least that’s what I got out of speaking with him in this episode while listening to his polite, humble and understated approach when sharing his story. SRAM all started with Stan taking on a triathlon challenge...

Josh Poertner isn’t your typical cycling industry personality. In fact, he’s not ‘typical’ of much at all. He’s one of those people that when you meet him, you’re taken back by a man who is filled with enthusiasm, curiosity, positive energy, and intelligence that really makes him stand out from most human beings. These days, you may associate Josh’s name as the man who reinvented Silca, the Italia...

The story of how a humble man played a major part in disrupting the cycling industry. Not only is Tom Ritchey one of the founding fathers of mountain biking, but he’s also a master frame and component builder, innovator, and entrepreneur. Researching this episode and trying to put a timeline together to extract the major business milestones that Tom has been through was a bit of a daunting task. T...

Most businesses we’ve spoken to in this podcast have had a relatively straightforward journey, but Wahoo Fitness does not fit that mould. Chip Hawkins is the company’s founder and believe it or not, the Wahoo business started off in boat docks. That’s right, floating boat docks. But it was a good business with interesting problems that Chip loved to solve. Chip is an engineer, an entrepreneur, a t...

Escape Collective is entirely member-funded. If you like this podcast please consider supporting us by becoming a member: https://escapecollective.com/member/ --- Strava has become ubiquitous in the lives of over 50 million athletes and is arguably the most relevant social network to anyone who loves to sweat. The co-founders of Strava, Michael Horvath and Mark Gainey, have been lifelong friends a...