What happened to Specialized Bicycles?

the big three giant Trek and specialized these companies have rolled over the cycling world for decades now specialized in particular is known for its aggressive we are the premier race brand marketing but let's take a gander at how exactly they got to where they [Music] are so I have to be completely honest before we even dive into the history of specialized and their Inception how they came to I am not a big specialized fan I have done a video on Specialized previously really just covering how many times they have sued people and what they have sued them for I try to be a little unbiased in in in my videos but you can't take rhetoric out of everything so let's jump into it let's just do a quick history of specialized bicycles the official name for specialized is specialized bicycle components and they were started in 1974 by none other than Mike senyard Mike was a cycling Enthusiast or is I guess a cycling Enthusiast who saw a gap in the market he sold his van to fund a cycling trip to Italy where he came back with chanelli components and started selling them in the US this led Mike to start importing these specialized bicycle components but by 1976 specialized started to produce their own products with a touring tire at a time when BMX was taking off like a freaking rocket specialized came out with its first two bikes a touring bicycle and of course the infamous Al road bike both in 1981 so one of my favorite components of this story is who Mike was friends with at the time you had Gary fiser Tom Richie Joe Breeze all of these forefathers and founders of the mountain bike we all know and love Mike was a road cyclist at heart but he started to see the Allure of off-road riding and by aore I mean the money you have to remember before the80s people were essentially modding beach cruisers and flying downhills on them that was mountain biking at the time this is quite literally the birth of mountain biking so you have people like Tom Richie that started making the world's first true dedicated mountain bike handbuilt custom frames Mike saw how popular these things were and well let's uh let's just let Gary fiser himself explain the situation Mike Sor good friend good guy really respect him Mike I used to buy parts from every now and again Mike would say I want a bike can you get me a bike I said sure sure Mike I can get you a bike I bring him a bike H what's Mike going to do with the Bike Mike's going to ride the bike yeah Mike's going to ride the bike Mike said I rode the bike the bike's great I love it I love it hm what's Mike going to do Mike's going to make a bike himself one of these days H yeah he will and uh Specialized Bicycles you know took one of Tom's bikes and took it over overseas in Japan and basically had a copy of it made and then brought to the show as the St jumper next thing the repack Ridge Boys knew Mike and specialized had taken their custom handbuilt frames to Japan and created the world's first mass-produced mountain bike with the stump jumper that sold for a whopping $750 this is where Mike andard started to not sit well with me the essential Inception of specialized was shady in my opinion and I I get it the guys that were doing the repack Ridge rides were essentially anti-culture hippies that loved mountain biking they didn't have a patent on these things and Mike saw an opportunity but according to them they were Mike's friends at the time and he essentially went behind their backs stole their mountain bike design and started mass-producing the product that in my opinion put specialized on the map none of this is the legal of course but it still doesn't sit well with me which is probably why I'm a terrible business person maybe this is kind of like Mike sard's word versus um all the other founders of mountain biking like all of them kind of cooperate Co cooporate or corroborate corroborate I think that's correct term there all of them corroborate this story all of them kind of corroborate this story of him taking their mountain bike design and mass producing it uh kind of without informing them that he was going to do that but we don't know what was exactly said behind closed doors Mike sard claims that the design came from Tim Nan of Lighthouse frames at the time Tim was actually designing off-road bikes based around the 700 SE wheel that was popular in Europe think cyclocross bikes now a lot of people claim that when Mike purchased that initial batch of Richie mountain bikes it was Tim's job to reverse engineer them before going to Japan but with all that said the one thing you can't deny specialized is that they were the first to mass-produce an affordable mountain bike bringing this glorious sport that I love to the masses specialized used an aggressive marketing campaign and their first batch of 250 stump jumpers sold out in just 2 weeks thanks to their marketing and their affordability this kick started the mountain bike craze of [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] the80s like I said before specialized has always been a hungry marketing machine and in 1983 they founded the world's first mountain bike Team this team would be integral in testing the product and giving specialized ideas on how to improve their bikes and well also helping them to sell bikes and in 1989 specialized introduced the second ever mass-produced carbon fiber mountain bike dubbed the Epic in 1995 specialized was was really on its way to becoming one of the biggest bicycle companies in the world but they decided to launch a brand called full force with the aim of bringing a lower-end mountain bike brand to the masses sold through sporting goods stores and discount retailers such as Costco the move angered a lot of specialized dealers in 1996 specialized withdrew the full force line and Mike sard had to write you didn't have to but Mike sard wrote a letter of apology to the dealers by the end of 1996 specialized had lost 30% of its Bike Shop sales and according to senyard came within a few hundred bucks of declaring bankruptcy this is all a very important point that we will put a pen in and come back to in a little bit now I did a video of all of the mini lawsuits specialized has been involved in and you can find that video in a corner but I'm not going to go over it in depth uh but a big part of their history in my opinion is their lawsuits specializ went on a freaking lawsuit craze to the point that it's actually a heading on their wiki page they suit everyone from Robbie Gordon to a small bike shop in Canada they seem to have taken a little step back when it comes to lawsuits as of recently but I really believe this was all a part of specialized bigger effort to push their brand image not so much their product the next big change for specialized involves a big manufacturer by the name of Marita bikes in 2001 Marita bikes of Taiwan bought a minority share especially ized most sources can't really agree on the exact amount but it was anywhere from 30 to 49% with Mike senard remaining majority owner and CEO of the company which this is exactly why we don't see Marita bikes here in the states that often because they would simply be competing with specialized which in turn is competing with themselves in the time period after 2001 specialized continued to evolve into this Mammoth of a company every year they seem to get bigger and bigger until 2002 where Mike's and yard decided to step down as CEO now Mike is still employed by specialized he just isn't the head honcho anymore my personal opinion is that Mike simply wanted to take a step back I mean he is 74 years old at the time of this video and I think he made this widely successful company and finally wants to take a step back but his departure does come at an interesting time for specialized and to me specialized is a uh they sell their brand image their their marketing is topnotch their product like I I think giant track specialized if you're if you're buying a five to $10,000 mountain bike you're going to be satisfied what no matter which of those three you go with they all make good bikes but right around the time of Co that's when I think specialized is in the midst of their next big uh change in their history of specialized that is because during the co boom specialized started doing some crummy business practices four starters let's just go over the consumer direct oh yeah you've been sleeping huh yep got to get in the video huh yes here's good boy okay go lay down but bike sells were skyrocketing during Co I remember being at the bike shop having to keep the door locked go out the back door the line to get in a bicycle shop local business was wrapped around the building that isn't heard of I don't know if we'll ever see that again but specialized was capitalizing on it and whenever the government started implementing those stay-at-home orders uh specialized kind of slipped in this direct to Consumer model even though they still have a bunch of bike shops at the same time specialized started buying up local bike shops at an alarming rate and now the latest rumor is some sort of partnership with Walmart I don't know how true the Walmart partnership rumor is but there's been a couple sales reps that come in asking about it or commenting on it it's kind of up in the air which this goes back to that full force line of bikes that almost send specialized into bankruptcy if all the rumors are true it would make sense that this time specialized tries to break into the Box Store Market that they actually own a lot of small shops that only carry their premium products that way it is harder for them to lose dealers because they own them that gets you up to speed on Specialized I know this is a very broad brush stroke where I just hit the big high points in specialized history but in my opinion these are the most important moments if I missed anything like always please leave a comment and fill in the gaps I think Mike sard is essentially like the Henry Ford of the mountain bike uh he did not invent the mountain bike but by God he brought it to the masses and that is one thing you can't take away from from specialized they started really the globalization of the mountain bike craze please if you have anything to add do so down below I love doing these quicker 10 to 15 minute history style topics kind of gives you a broad brush stroke uh behind some of these companies some of the more interesting points on them um if you've stuck around this long and you got something out of the video please hit the like button subscribe all that stuff helps to support this channel so I can keep making these videos I appreciate each and every one of you see you in the next one byebye

Channel: Mossie Rides Bikes

Views: 63,345

Keywords: bicycle industry, mountain biking, mountain bike, specialized bikes 2023, specialized bikes history, specialized bikes reviews, specialized bikes in trouble, specialized bikes 2024, specialized bikes electric, specialized bikes lawsuit, specialized bicycles, history of specialized

Id: BBrtw02Vcow

Length: 11min 27sec (687 seconds)

Published: Fri May 24 2024