Bike Industry Crisis in 2024: Why I'm not surprised
My video that went viral...
Back in September, I posted a video on YouTube to share my thoughts on the current state of the bike industry. The video went viral in the grand scheme of my niche bike transportation content. So viral that I turned off all notifications from YouTube and Instagram. It also kicked off multiple messages from bike shops wanting marketing help, which was nice to hear but unexpected!
The industry recovers from overflowing inventory, increases in shipping, and fewer “interested” customers banging on their doors. I would love for you to watch the video and let me know your thoughts!
Hi Arleigh! I'm a bit late to this game, but I just discovered your Substack, because I wrote a post on mine on a related topic, and someone linked to you. I've been in the industry even longer than you have, and I share many of your feelings about what's not working and why. As a retailer, currently running with extremely lean staff, one of the things I constantly run up against is time shortage. Organizing events seems to be *the* way to build community, and we've done as much as we can on our end. However, at the end of the day (and I mean, the literal end of the day), we may simply be exhausted from all that is required to run the shop. We've scaled it down to what I call "events lite" built around key categories in our shop.
I also share some of your thoughts about the "generalist" bike shop, and I wonder if that is even a feasible (or financially viable) thing to be in the current climate.
More thoughts on this are in my recent post, and I hope you jump over. I'm not here to self-market, but I do think we should have more conversations about this within our industry, and I hope I am opening the door for that to happen. Cheers!
I loved this video, thank you so much for making it, and it's great to see you here!