Leverage Events to Grow Retail Sales Great Retailers

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Leverage Events to Grow Retail Sales: Listen in on a great conversation with Pat Hus, former Interbike show director, and Todd Sadow, Founder and President of Epic Rides, as they discuss how retailers can leverage large events to grow retail sales. If your foot traffic is down and the race event participation is up… How can we use these large events to drive demand in our retail locations?

About Todd Sadow

Fresh out of college in 1999, Sadow was on the corporate fast track in Silicon Valley. But his passion for mountain biking was simply too strong, and after only a year in the rat race, he moved to Tucson for the full-time role of Epic Rides, a company he had started with two partners the year before. With one partner out of the picture and the other ready to move on, Sadow returned to run the show on his own. Naturally, his parents were concerned with him leaving a solid opportunity for the unknown risk of Epic Rides. But Sadow was committed to his passion and demonstrated almost immediate success with the Old Pueblo and the Tour of the White Mountains. Since then, his family has been unwavering in their support for Epic Rides and a steadfast pillar of the company.

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Pat Hus+ Todd Sadow

Thu, 8/20 11:43 AM • 37:04

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

events, trails, bike, local bike shop, people, gravel, mountain biking, community, mountain bike, bicycle, grand junction, road, Bentonville, customers, ride, retailer, big, building, cycling, micro-niche

SPEAKERS

Rod Judd, Todd Sadow, Pat Hus, Kent Cranford

Rod Judd 00:10

You are listening to Bicycle Retail Radio brought to you by the National Bicycle Dealers Association.

Pat Hus 00:17

Good morning. Welcome to bicycle retail radio presented by the National bicycle dealer Association. My name is Pat hosts, and I have a long-standing member in the bicycle industry been in it for about 40 years. Shocking to say that, and currently, I am playing host. And today we’ll be chatting with Todd Sado who is the founder and president of epic rides. So welcome, Todd.

Todd Sadow 00:45

Thanks, Peter.

Pat Hus 00:46

So Todd, why don’t you introduce yourself a little bit to our audience, which, by the way, is mostly made up of a lot of retailers and their teams and your staff. So tell us a little bit about yourself and your background in the bike industry.

Todd Sadow 00:59

As you mentioned, my name is Todd Seto. I’ve founded epic rides about 20 plus years ago, 21 years ago. We organize mountain bike events. We’ve been accused of throwing parties that happen to have mountain bike events nearby. Our events are the 24 hours in the old Pueblo, the whiskey off-road in Prescott, Arizona, the Grand Junction off-road in Colorado, the Carson City off-road in Nevada. The oz trails off-road in Bentonville, Arkansas, and the tour of the White Mountains in Pinetop Lakeside Arizona.

Pat Hus 01:36

Wow, you got a lot of balls in the air my friend.

Todd Sadow 01:39

Yeah, six of them.

Pat Hus 01:41

Yeah, uh, any new ones planned for 2020 are you pretty well set with the slate that you have today?

Todd Sadow 01:49

We do we have. We have a new one that we are in the contract phase on right now. So with a little bit of luck, we’ll announce it this winter and it will launch for We’re late summer, it’ll be late summer of 2020 be its first year it’ll be in the Midwest. And then our goal with the off-road events is to have a national series. So we set out about a decade or more ago to sort of rebirth mountain biking, backcountry, mountain biking in America, and all predicated on just being true to our roots and producing events with courses that are, you know, a curated set of trails that anybody as a mountain biker would want to go ride, whether it’s a, you know, evening ride with their friends, or on a weekend to go big with their buddies, but, you know, a very authentic experience where it’s, you know, good trails, rugged backcountry, challenging, technical fun, everything that we oftentimes get into the sport for. So yeah, we’ll launch in the Midwest in 2020. And then we’re looking at the East Coast in 2021. And at that point, we should be built out nationally, we might go to the northwest at some point, but we’re still on the fence with that, that region.

Pat Hus 02:59

Fantastic. I’ve had the good fortune of experiencing a couple of your events. I attended the whiskey 50 I think you remember several years back and also visited 24 hours, Volk level which is just sort of an amazing event in itself, and it kind of you’ve created something there. That’s like an entity I think that takes on a life of its own right. It’s almost like you build out a city out there outside of Tucson.

Todd Sadow 03:24

Yeah, the maybe infamous 24-hour town. We back in the day, we used to get compared to Woodstock. And these days we had compared to Burning Man. And it’s funny we obviously there’s a healthy tilt to it, right because it’s mountain biking at the end of the day, but apparently some burners got wind of the 24 hours no Pablo and thought, you know, we live in southern Arizona and so this sounds like it’s our bag. We’re gonna go out there and they shut up and full burner regalia like you know, g strings and tassels and all kinds of interesting stuff and they hung out The whole weekend we’ve extended the course but it was like, you know, this is undeniable, there’s a party happening out here. And there’s 4000 of us out in the desert completely remote for a weekend and it’s our little world 24-hour town, but we’re not quite like burning down a 150-foot tall burning structure or anything, you know. And these guys are just lingering all weekend. You know, they’re sparkles on everything. It was pretty funny. They added to the character. But yeah, that that whole that event, the vibe of it sort of transcends it, everybody hears about it, and they hear about how positive it is and welcoming and so forth. And I think that that that sort of is that’s what established us That was our first event for 24 hours. No Pablo, and then all of the other events are modeled in a similar fashion as far as our inclusiveness to everyone that we want to be able to show up and whether they’re coming to an off-road event for the writing as a beginner, or as a seasoned amateur that is just looking for a challenge to give themselves a goal or the pros. We have the biggest cash person that world for the pro mountain bikers, as well as just people that are curious. We got huge industry experts. We’ve got three live music with nationally touring headliners and so forth. So the idea that for all of our events is just to be inclusive, you know, and that’s what 25 our town embodies, I guess.

Pat Hus 05:12

So Todd, looking at this, how have you guys gone about selecting locations? What’s been the driver? I mean, you’re in Carson City, you’re outside of Tucson. You’re in Bentonville, Arkansas, you’re in some unique locales. And I’m just curious, what led you to those locations in your selection process?

Todd Sadow 05:32

Well, I mean, mountain biking, first and foremost, like so there was a ton of mountain biking when we were just getting started back in 1999. That I think a lot of the competitive mountain biking environment had evolved a lot. And a lot of the trails that were being offered and courses that people could sign up and do events on were sort of deviating from what may be the roots of the sport, a lot of multiple lab stuff and a lot of pure, you know, like maybe trails that were suited for. All types of people not just mountain bikers and maybe they got a little bit too, too easy. So what we are looking for in a venue is just honest to goodness like high-quality mountain bike trails. So Carson City of all places, right, that’s just 30 minutes south of Reno on the way to South Lake Tahoe. A lot of people don’t realize Carson City, it’s the capital of Nevada. But you know, more notably, a lot of people think it’s next to Vegas, they’re in southern. It’s this amazing town that has this vibrant mountain bike culture that is really anchored by the Nikah movement, they’ve got a really successful and build a robust High School bound bike teams that are based there, and they started building trails, basically illegally, which, to be honest, is kind of part of our roots, you know, and but we found out at the time that they were, they were building trails illegally in the community, the municipality has found out about those trails, and instead of abolishing or doing away with the trails, they said, Hey, this is an asset and we’ve got to find a way to leverage it and so you know, that we got wind of that particular behavior that they discovered they had mountain bike trails illegal they’re not and said that there’s value here. And we want to, we want to put these on a bigger map right and help to leverage for our community for the health of the community and to draw more people into the community for tourism. And so that’s how Carson City became right? Right. It’s those trails that were built by passionate trail building people in the community are what we’re looking for. We’re looking for high-quality stuff. So you know, I think forever people have known like Fruita and Moab which are right next to Grand Junction, and there’s really high-quality trails and Grand Junction the lunch loops which is a big portion of our Grand Junction off-road course selection is legendary in its own right among the core mountain bike community. And so we’ve really taken it upon ourselves in our relationship with Grand Junction Sports Commission to proliferate awareness, right that you know, to get outside of that core mountain bike community that is driving over from the Front Range to get away during the thought spring fall and you know, get their attention to stop and Grand Junction as well as

Pat Hus 08:02

No, I think that’s smart. I know the Bentonville thing was influenced largely because that community has just gone crazy in terms of trail building, and I’ve heard nothing but amazing stories of the quality of writing Bentonville, Arkansas of all places. But I think that’s a reflection of the Walmart in the Walton family, right, putting in a lot of investment into the tutorial systems there.

Todd Sadow 08:23

Oh, yeah. Yeah, I think that’s probably the maybe the most exemplary venue for trills in general in America. Right. They, you know, The Waltons, Tom, and Stewart in particular, the whole family has a passion for two wheels for pedal-powered two-wheel activities. So they’ve been a cyclist on a generational level for many, many years. Tom and Stewart obviously have a vision for Northwest Arkansas. And a big part of their vision is for their economy to embrace the outdoors the Ozarks, the Ozark Mountains, and the outdoors. opportunities they offer. And so now they’re in a position to approach it in a very strategic way that really puts the maybe nature’s best foot forward and really with a huge bias towards mountain biking. So that’s been a pretty fun event for us to collaborate with them on and visit Bentonville and Bella Vista, the neighboring town that also has oodles and oodles of trails. Yeah. And to draw an audience into that community art or events, you know, cert, for instance, the whiskey awkward and Prescot, which is the OG off-road event for us, that event will be 90% of the people participating will not be free press kit, and 30 to 40% will not be from Arizona. And so there’s this huge economic impact that comes with these events that you know, this is your marketing component that puts the community and the event on the map. And then it culminates each event weekend each year with people in their community experiencing it having a really good time. Maybe suffering a little bit but also having a really good time before and after the ride. And in Bengals case, that’s again, it’s an exemplary venue over 90% of the event is not even from Arkansas. It’s that’s how many people are traveling from outside of the community and just outside the state to come and check out Northwest Arkansas trails.

Pat Hus 10:19

That’s great. And you know, you kind of nice segue, actually because that was one of my next questions is kind of getting into the meat and potatoes here. We you’ve got a retailer audience here. And so they’re probably some of us may be scratching their heads like, why are we having this conversation on a podcast? What? What does this have to do with me as an independent bike shop retailer? How do these types of events impact my business? And so if you could speak a little bit more in terms of the economic impact that you have in adjacent communities, and where it’s impacting how far those distances are, and just maybe even a couple of examples of where you partnered with retailers too, you know, collaborate and promote the events.

Todd Sadow 11:02

Sure. So see you’re on a local level for the local bike shops in our host communities, it’s not uncommon for them to have sales, record-setting sales. On our event weekends, our participants will arrive in town, you know, the vast majority show up on Friday and leave on Sunday. But there’s, there’s a huge percentage like I say, the vast majority, it’s probably 51% because there’s 49% that are consistent the pros and the friends and family that show up together days early, to rewrite the course and to just make a vacation out of it. So there’s a tremendous percentage of people that will show up to our host communities three, four days ahead of time, up to a week at a time. And so those local bike shops see just tremendous traffic the moment that you get within a week of the event. So there are lots of opportunities to leverage the events. In that regard for the local bike shops. Now, we don’t make a habit of going to a local bike shop. And looking for major sponsorship deals. We look at this very much like we’re all in this together. And we understand who we are. And this isn’t the cost containment game, it’s not a high volume game. And so we really want to create a platform for all the local bike shops in our communities to get the ball to do it in a really low price point if any, and to capitalize on the traffic, the event braids and the awareness the event brings to the community from out of town guests as well as the local cycling community now, because there are so many people from out of town using Prescot as an example and the whiskey offered again, it’s reasonable to expect a big portion of the state people to come from Tucson Phoenix, and so bike shops really statewide. If they’re in a state where one of our events happens, then they should reach out we do outreach to with flyers and posters and so forth to all the shops in the region at each of the events. So we’ll do a mailing of T to 300 posters and flyers to get to two or 300 different shops in each region. So there are considerations for them in those mailers, but they should also look to, to target their, their customers and who they think is a good candidate to come to the events because the moment someone has signed up for one of our events are really any cycling event, they’ve established a goal for themselves. And if the shop can play an active role in helping them achieve that goal, it leads to sales like just at the end of the day, like not to sound too capitalistic here, but it should, it should, you know, hey, you’re gonna blow through tires because you’re riding more because you’re training more frequently and call it training or just getting out with your buddies more frequently because you have a goal. But cyclists then use products and use equipment more because of that. And so that’s the engagement opportunity for any bike shop around any event, whether it’s ours or you know, any other great events out there. We like I said, we sent out flyers and posters in that mailing as a maybe a courtesy we offer half-off To entries to all the shops, whether they put up the posters or not. So again, that’s an opportunity to say hey, you’ve been a really good customer and us we want to give you half off on these epic rides events, right? And or for a shop owner or manager and say, hey, you’ve been a great employee, take a weekend off, here’s half off on an entry go ride this epic rides event and have a good time. Right? So there are lots of ways to engage with the events and to leverage them for the benefit of the bike shop. But I think maybe the most important message and it’s not unique to us is that there’s a big opportunity for every local bike shop, to get involved with cycling events, and to drive that message into their customer because it gives their customer it gives them a stickiness for that customer to keep on wanting to come back and whether it’s seeking advice or seeking products that help them get to that goal. It’s amazing how much a customer can justify when they have a goal, right. You know, they’re just trading day in and day out and it’s easy to stick to the routine and the gloves. They’ve been wearing. might smell a little bit funny, but they get the job done. But you know, when they have a goal, they say I want to be ready on Friday, I want to feel like I’m ready on Friday. And so you know, extra stands no tubes, sealing in their tires, fresh set of gloves, you know, whatever it might be clean jersey didn’t smell so bad. All those things become justified. So

Pat Hus 15:20

now I think it’s a great point. I think you know, today retail is, is not getting any easier. It’s getting more and more difficult. And retailers have to be thinking of untraditional ways of getting out into the market and connecting with their customers developing new customers and I think your events, yeah, if I’m a shop in that region, I’m going to get involved in some capacity. I’m going to reach out to my customers, I’m going to encourage them to come and participate. And if I had the opportunity, I definitely would consider an expo space. Do you allow retailers to bring products and actually sell products at the expo or is that That’s something that’s, you know, forbidden? It’s different by state or how is that set up? Where you guys?

Todd Sadow 16:06

We do? Absolutely. There are local tax requirements, whether it’s local to the community or the state that we’re in if there’s a retailer traveling from a different state or something that will help with them facilitating and processing all the paperwork, and then they’ve got to follow up and pay whatever taxes are appropriate. But outside of that, yeah, we weren’t, you know, we would encourage not necessarily a shop from the Midwest coming to 24 hours, no problem itself, you know, random, random accessories. We’ve got local shops in Tucson that we work with, like bicycle ranch that fulfills that that sort of role in the event. But if there’s a shop that has a team, and they want to come and sit up in our tech zone and support their team, and conduct themselves as well, while they’re there, then that that seems like a good way to leverage that platform. So they can say, hey, we’ve rounded up 1020 people that shop at our store, and Want to be there on the red weekend and support them. And so then we’ve got a heavily discounted tech space for, for teams, so they can show up and be there on site. And that way the idea of the team has a place to congregate, they’ve got all their, you know, nutrition and so forth in one place before and after the event. And it helps build morale for the shop, right? I mean, you’ve got employees, they’re there to run support, you’ve got valued customers that are there or customers are evaluating you more because you’re there that have this experience together, and it just builds community board. I think that’s maybe the number one most important thing for any local bike shop these days is to have a community and to play a role in it.

Pat Hus 17:38

Yeah, I couldn’t agree with you more. I think that’s really well put.

Kent Cranford 17:47

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Pat Hus 18:24

I’m gonna shift gears a little bit on you here because I have a few areas I want to make sure we cover. One of them that I think will help be helpful to retailers is, you know, what’s the makeup today and events whose let’s talk a little bit about your participants. Obviously, I think it’s pretty safe to assume the majority of your participants at events like yours are going to be enthusiasts what we would classify as enthusiasts but how are we looking in terms of age breakouts? Are we still seeing that heavily weighted to the 40 and older crowd or are we seeing the audience getting any younger which we’re all hoping that that’s the case?

Todd Sadow 18:58

So, Pat, This is gonna make me sound like a real geek. But at the risk of sounding like a geek, I’m actually excited to answer this because we’re seeing a change in the landscape. And it gets me exciting because it shows that there’s a future here, right? Yeah. And there’s, there’s a future there’s something to harness because we know what it is. And I think it’s exciting. So historically, the mountain biker forever has been a 36-year-old male mountain biker doing our events, like if we had to pinpoint the target market, one person, 36 years old now. And for the first time, we’ve seen a three year trend playing out so far, that continues to get bigger and bigger, and that’s that the 17 and under age group has doubled in the last three years. So yeah, and then and then that 30s. Let’s see, I’ve got some numbers in front of me. So like the early 30s to early 50s segment, is, is spreading out, so it’s not as heavily Based in say that 35 to 40 group anymore, the 35 to 40 age group, as a percentage has decreased at our events, and it’s displaced across going younger 20, like the 20s and early 30s, as well as there’s growth in the 55 and up the group, which means people are mountain biking longer. And that’s just testament to the products that are out there and that people can, can ride longer and into their 50s and 60s now because the technology is better. But also, I think the big youth movement and middle school and high school mountain biking from NICA are starting to show in our numbers and that we’re, we’re seeing growth in the 17 and under and we’re seeing bigger percentages on our events, participation, that 20s crowd.

Pat Hus 20:46

That’s fantastic. So talk to me a little bit about what are we seeing on the women front because obviously that’s an area that we need more women out there and I don’t know if that if you’re seeing growth in that category or is stagnant. What are you saying?

Todd Sadow 21:03

We’re seeing growth from the female category as well. Just came off of the Oscars offered. We honored the women of Oz. The women of us started less than nine months ago. And they’ve had over 600 unique women come through their program. They do a flagship ride each month. And they fill up every month. There’s women that drive from out of town to come and do their social rides. There’s in Tucson that the Beltway ride women are a group that continues to grow year on year, and then represented in our participation as well. So that this is I think it’s an exciting time for mountain biking, and it’s exciting because our demographic is evolving, right? We’re not just a bunch of mid-30s or early 40s dudes going out for rides. Now there’s a lot of women participating in the sport. And there’s also a lot of kids coming up in the sport which is a bloodline and that’s different from other disciplines in the space. You know, I’m very biased towards mountain biking but you know, road cycling doesn’t have that kind of bloodline triathlon doesn’t have that kind of bloodline mountain biking does. That’s right.

Pat Hus 22:09

Yeah. And you’re seeing growth really across almost all of your events. Are you not?

Todd Sadow 22:13

Yeah, it’s we’re going pretty strong right now. 24 hours in the old Pueblo filled up in less than an hour and 2000 riders. The whiskey offroad filled up at 2000 riders this last year, the Grand Junction off-road is pushing about 20% growth of the year. Carson City even with changing the date and having a snow year we’re still green Austria’s after I grew by 50% this year, so it’s everything’s going pretty strong and we’re, we’re having fun doing it a ton of work, but you know, what else are you gonna do with your time?

Pat Hus 22:49

Exactly. Well, you’re you got a little bit of passion for it. So I think that’s the key. But hey, just out of curiosity, have you guys ever conducted any post-event surveys with your participants, just to kind of get a sense of, I’d be, I’d be curious to see where they’re buying their bikes and where they’re buying their accessories. Are your customers these enthusiasts? Are they heavy online shoppers? Or are they local retail supporters? Just curious if you’ve ever done that, and if not, would you consider?

Todd Sadow 23:16

We have not asked where they’re buying their bikes, but we do conduct surveys regularly. And I think it’s a really relevant question. So we should work that into this next season of surveys and find out

Pat Hus 23:30

Yeah, I think it would be helpful to kind of to learn as to what you know, we need to do as an industry you have to support our retailers what they need to be doing to capitalize on these customers. Why are these customers if they are, in fact, heavily weighted to online what’s driving that? There’s some good insight into that that I think could help our retailer audience here. So if you would, I’d love to help you structure those some of those survey questions and put it out there and then be great to look at the responses at some point. Yeah, absolutely. I’m going to take another tact on you here. And I just want to talk a little bit about emerging categories in the bike space. The first one that jumps off the page to me is gravel. I am curious to hear what you’re seeing what you’re learning out there. I mean, it’s become the buzz and I and I have concerns because the industry is famous for creating these micro-niches, as I like to call them. You know, the fat Dyer, the Fat Tire thing was, you know, everybody’s got to get fat tires, and then that kind of you know, but grapple seems to be no pun intended, having pretty decent traction. And I’m curious if you’re embracing it, are you creating, you know, routes that are gravel oriented, just how you’re viewing gravel?

Todd Sadow 24:44

So I think it’s very promising. I don’t think it’s another What do you call it an industry hype trend? micro niche, micro-niche. Yeah. You know, I think our industry works well with micro-niches because we have a lot of takers and cycling but that’s the main kennix have a bike or something that attracts their appeal to them, you know. So I don’t think that those things are without their place. But I think gravel is much bigger than a micro-niche. I think that it’s a response to road cycling. And whether it’s perceived or actual danger that road cycling presents these days, you know, there’s no doubt that drivers are more distracted than they ever were before the smartphone was introduced. And so I think that the desire to get off-road and to be on dirt roads, where you can still zone out and you actually get the benefit of being, you know, more deeply into nature and legitimately in nature versus getting a workout on the pavement, which has its place too, but I think the gravel is going to be around for a long time. I think this is its first punch. So there’s a lot happening in the space. There are lots of really good events popping up. So this is like formative years for gravel. And it’s an exciting time to be a gravel writer because of that. I don’t know you know what, how long this little trend will last and then it’ll plateau before it pulls, pulls through for a second wind. But I think gravel is real, I don’t think it’s a micro-trend or anything like that. And as far as us being involved, I look forward to doing gravel events personally, but we’re not interested in producing any, we actually, we have an event that’s 24 years old that has a gravel event and always has and, you know, maybe that was a fourth date it was it was a visionary event or something. But other than that one event with that component, that’s not necessarily our core competency, right, we’ve got this audacious goal of building a national mountain bike series that represents the sport in a very authentic and meaningful way. And I think part of that is not adding gravel events and trail running events and, you know, e-bike events and everything else that’s out there, because I don’t know that that’s necessarily what mountain biking is right now.

Pat Hus 26:55

Do you know? Well, you just opened the last piece you said up, he bites, it’s they’re here, it’s in some case, it’s been the driver to help keep some retailers afloat. In Europe, it’s literally has saved the independent bicycle dealer network, they claim and it’s now over 55% of sales in many countries. So we’re seeing it here. It’s not at the same pace. But we’re seeing the mountain bikes becoming more and more prevalent. So I guess the question I have for you is, do you allow them first of all in your events, depending of course, trail access is the first hurdle. But where do you see this thing going? And how do how does it intersect with your events and events that are out there? It was a total can of worms fat. I know. You’re, you’re entitled to opinions. It’s okay.

Todd Sadow 27:50

So I have a lot and in a moment, I’m gonna start by probably contradicting what I just said. But so I wrote an E-bike the other day, and I Bentonville and it was awesome. Added absolute blast. I did feel like I was dancing with the devil. Literally. I did like two pedal strokes. And I was like, oh boy, this is gonna be fun. Uh, gosh. Yeah. Yeah. So I see why people are enjoying them. And, you know, and to contradict what I said a second ago, right now, I don’t know that, you know, those big sales numbers that they’re talking about in Europe for e-bikes that have brought back the industry. I’d love to see a very detailed and honest breakdown of how much of that is a mountain bike and how much of that is commuter. And as a commuter, and with young children. I love the idea, of a utility bike to drop my kids at school and to go to work and be able to bus back for lunch, things like that, because it just makes it easier and more enjoyable. On the same note, I’m still at that point in my life where like I appreciate a good workout. And if I can sneak in a three or four-mile commute that isn’t easy bike supported, then I tend to feel better. You know, I know I feel better when I got to from A to B, as far as our events go. So I will, I guess on that point. So I think there’s a place for e-bikes in our world, I don’t know that, that we need to just, you know, turn open the flood valve and let them pour into mountain biking per se. I think that we’ve worked exceptionally hard from an advocacy standpoint for access to trails. And so to just, you know, just flip the switch and say e-bikes welcome on all trails where there are still contentious arguments about whether or not mount bike should even be there. I think it could do more damage than good sometimes. And so I think that it’s a something that needs to be sort of vetted, it needs to be easily evolved with the local communities and their access versus just a broad in a broad brushstroke that says, you know, Everyone, should I be bikes on all trails everywhere of all classes and have fun?

Pat Hus 30:04

I guess the question I have is, are you allowing them in your events? Oh, not yet.

Todd Sadow 30:09

So we used to be able to lean on the fact that the trail, the permitting agencies didn’t allow them. But the recent was, is it the Bureau of Land Management that now has a Yes, that was opened up access. So that’s one of our events is on BLM land. So, you know, we have the demand for it, then we’ll consider it and can we turn-key like our events? Do they have, you know, dirt roads and source, you know, places like that, for us to have e-bike events? They absolutely do. But is there you know, are there 150 200 people that are gonna show up to Starlin on an E-bike right now? Probably not. They’re still they’re expensive as far as mountain bikes go. And, and the world in general from a mountain bike standpoint and a core mountain bike standpoint is still not 100% on board. And so, we were the first add single speeding as a category Our 24-hour race, you know, we’ve broken down some barriers here and there, over the years with different types of bikes and so forth. You know, we were an early player and equal cash purses for men and women. I think we pride ourselves on being progressive for space and doing what we think is right. In the world of what the participants want and need. And I don’t get a whole lot of requests for e-bikes quite yet. I think we’re gonna see a bigger population of E-bikes commuting before we see him on trails.

Pat Hus 31:32

Now, I think you’re absolutely right. I’m one of those I’m a, you know, I’m commuting on the bike, I drive to the train station, get on the train with my e-bike and then the last leg I do it by bike and it’s great. Yeah, I don’t have to get to work and shower and get changed or anything. I just go right to it. It’s great. And, and I tell you, you know, a funny story. A good friend of mine who’s a bike industry guy. He’s 58 years old like me, and he was out riding the other day and He was on his electric specialized mountain bike, and he’s behind a guy on a climb. And he did the respectful thing and just kind of flow pedaled it and kept behind the guy gave the guy his breathing room to get up the hill, and they got to the top and the guy was just gassed because it’s a serious climb. And my buddy was, yeah, he just, he was working. It wasn’t just a cakewalk, but he wasn’t gassed. And, you know, my friend complimented him on the climb, and the guy kind of noticed that he had a mountain bike and he’s started, you know, getting in his Kool-Aid about you’re a cheater, oh, you’re cheating. And my friend was laughed and said, No, no, you don’t just down here and join just the same thing you are. I’m just having a great time. And it’s a beautiful day and blah, blah, blah, and the guy wouldn’t let up. He just kind of kept beating on you’re cheating. You’re cheating. So at a point of exhaustion, he finally he says, You know what? I’m not the cheater. He goes, you’re the cheater and took the guy kind of took him by surprise. He’s like, What? What do you mean? I’m the cheater. He says, well, you’re cheating. yourself out have as good a time as I’ve had I have out here today. And maybe you should rethink your attitude. And I just thought it was a classic story of, you know, you gotta be open to new things. And, you know, when you’re 58 like me, some of those clients just aren’t in the cards anymore, but now they can be so there’s, there’s a place for him, we just have to figure out how they dovetail into the, you know, traditional mountain bike world. So I appreciate your comments, though, that you have to be careful, because you could lose your customer pretty quickly, too.

Todd Sadow 33:34

Yeah, we don’t, we don’t want to isolate anybody. But you know, I mentioned earlier as far as participation, we’ve got noted growth in that 50 and up demographic, and we’ve got you to know, enough to add categories in the 55 and demographic and, and that’s rather than lose a customer completely. If it’s more appealing to people as they get older to ride the bike to be able to enjoy trails, the way they always have. Then I’d rather than still mountain bike for sanity purposes, nothing else, right? Then walk away from the sport completely, because we’ll know what we get from riding a bike. You know, that’s, that’s why we’re all here. That’s why people have listened to this podcast. It’s you know, that’s how we get sucked into the industry is because it gives us something. And I don’t want people that turn that off all of a sudden,

Pat Hus 34:20

as they say people for bikes good things happen when people get on bikes, and I’m a believer. So just to kind of wind down, Todd, let’s talk. I mean, if you’re a retailer, and you want to give them some advice today, what would you say to a retailer in terms of events like yours? How can they capitalize on them? Do you recommend them getting into doing their own events? Or are they better off partnering, aligning with people like yourselves? What advice would you give to an independent like retailer today?

Todd Sadow 34:52

Get involved with your local cycling events? Yeah, if you want to pick one and go all in great if you want to, you know there’s always you any healthy cycling community, we’ll have a couple few different events each year, get involved. You know, it’s like life, right, any energy you’re willing to put out, usually, you can get something back out of it. And in cycling events draw together the community. And so you know, as a local bike shop, that’s yours, that’s, that’s a target-rich environment for you to go and get involved with your community, get in front of them, and to play a role. And that opens up lines of communication, it builds customer base, it shows loyalty to your customer and supports them in a place where they want to support. And that goes a long way.

Pat Hus 35:36

No, I think that’s great advice. And I hope our audience takes that to heart and considers it because I do think it’s another way of connecting and like you said, with the community. Today’s retail landscape is changing so quickly and becoming more and more challenging. And I think the stores that are thriving, and there are those stores out there that are doing well, but they’re doing it because they’re doing it now. traditional ways and events are great vehicles to drive traffic, create support, and just get involved with the community. So, Todd, I want to thank you for your time today. I wish you all the best with your events in the coming months. I’m sure our paths are gonna cross here soon. And anything else would like to add to our conversation today.

Todd Sadow 36:22

Nothing to add just Thanks for having me. This was great. And I appreciate the opportunity.

Pat Hus 36:26

Thank you, man. Have a good one. And let’s talk soon Okay. Okay.

Todd Sadow 36:32

Thanks, man.

Rod Judd 36:40

This has been Bicycle retail radio by the National Bicycle Dealers Association. For more information on membership and member benefits, join us @NBDA.com

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