It has been a rough week for the bike industry with both GT Bicycles and Rocky Mountain announcing company changes due to current market conditions, leaving both brands with somewhat uncertain futures. The GT bicycles news, while surprising , didn’t catch me totally off guard as I had heard there could possibly be some change ups while they were figuring things out over the last few years. However when I heard the Rocky Mountain Bicycles announcement, the first thought that crossed my mind was that there was no way they were going out of business.
Rocky Mountain's history is too rich and they are too relevant in today's market. We are not talking about a brand that has been in limbo, trying to get by. They just spent this entire year updating their entire lineup. The new Rocky Mountain Instinct is such a versatile do everything trail bike that shreds way harder than its 140mm travel would lead you to believe. The new Altitude is a monster of an all mountain rig, pushing the boundaries of what's capable on a 160mm enduro bike. Recently, the release of the new Element XC bike most likely will dictate the future of XC bikes, slacker is the answer! And that's just pedal bikes, they also released new e-bikes, kids bikes, gravel bikes. This was an insane year of progress for Rocky Mountain.
Once again, we are not talking about a brand that needs a jumpstart. Rocky Mountain has been firing on all cylinders and their presence in BC shows that. We just spent the entire summer in Canada, and seeing all the shops whose entire rental fleets were majority Rocky Mountain bikes was rad to see, as was the amount of riders on the trails whose personal bikes were Rocky Mountain's! You don’t go from hero to zero overnight, and I truly believe that Rocky Mountain isn’t anywhere close to shutting their doors anytime soon. Once again, 5+ new bikes in one year, all full updates!
And why am I so confident? Well besides knowing how many people in BC believe in this brand and seeing how relevant they still are to mountain biking, I also have a feeling people like Chistopher Tutton won’t let this happen. Who is Chris Tutton? Chris is currently the “President-Specialty Sports Group at Fox Factory Holding Corp”. I’m not an expert at job titles, but from what I have gathered from the current role, he is pretty important over there.
A bit about Chris, he had bought Race Face a few years ago after they had closed their doors and the company had gone to auction. In an interview with Freehub Magazine, he even details how he thinks the owners of Race Face knew the company was going down, and essentially stopped putting any money into it. Chris would go on to turn things around drastically for the legendary brand before repeating this success with Easton components. Both of these brands are now under the Fox umbrella, and both owe a majority of their business success to Chris.
Now why am I bringing this up? Well one of Chris’s first jobs in the cycling industry in 1993 was at Race Face, which seemingly played a part into his desire to save that brand later on in life. Where was Race Face located in 1993? Within Rocky Mountain Bicycles as their components division.
So you are trying to tell me that someone like Chris, who had some form of emotional attachment to a dying brand in Race Face, would buy it and fully turn things around, and then repeat that success with Easton? And that same Chris is currently sitting back and looking at Rocky Mountain, where his first job was, and thinking nothing? Race Face was basically dead when he took over. Rocky Mountain is at the peak of their bike development, with an entire lineup of relevant new bikes! It sounds like the company just needs some business restructure after a chaotic and unpredictable few years for the bike industry. That seems like a walk in the canadian park for someone like Chris.
And honestly, it's not just Chris who gives me hope that this isn’t even close to the end for Rocky Mountain. It’s the fact that we are a passion based industry, where passion wins everytime. If I had to guess there are a whole lot of “Chris’s” out there that believe in Rocky Mountain right now. And what’s not to believe in? Once again we are not talking about a brand with a lineup needing an overhaul, we are talking about one of the most relevant bike brands currently with a fully updated bike line, and most likely more projects in the works.
In my opinion, Rocky Mountain isn’t going anywhere. At the end of the day, passion and hardwork always wins. Wishing Rocky Mountain and maybe Chris the best of luck. You guys got this!
-Mo Awesome
