Why Men Need to Advocate for More Women in the Cycling Industry

Written by Bruce Tretter, Owner of Breitz! “Be Bright, Be Seen” Performance Sportswear

As laid out in an Inc. July 2019 article, “Women drive 70-80 percent of all consumer purchasing, through a combination of their buying power and influence.” That number hits 85% in a Forbes 2019 assessment.

From a pure business point of view, those numbers don’t just indicate a majority of purchasing power in favor of women. They define dominance.

Then let those figures come to life in a very real bike shop experience. A man/woman couple walk into your bike shop, and the bike is for the guy. Whose heads do the guy and salesperson turn to for final buying approval?

That’s real power.

The only problem: that power hasn’t transferred to the shop side of life where men, by far, outnumber women as shop professionals. And now we’re in a Covid-fueled bike feeding frenzy. To maximize the terrific boost of momentum these odd times have graced on the cycling industry, that shop men to women ratio has to change.

The NBDA is addressing the problem head-on under the new, forward-looking leadership of Heather Mason, the association’s second woman president, and it is doing it most notably through its monthly “Women of the Bicycle Industry” Zoom meeting event that has met twice to date with an almost quadruple increase in attendance from March to April.

I’m a guy through and through who makes cycling/performance sportswear. I was first inspired to help get more women into the cycling business after seeing and hearing killer pro mountain biker and cycling movie maker, Rebecca Rusch, boldly identify the problem during an Interbike 2016 panel discussion. I then talked with her briefly before her premiere of “Blood Road” at Interbike 2017 and mentioned how I’d heard and believed in her message. Her response, “Yah, where are you with that?”

Exactly. Not very far.

My point here; Yes, women need to advocate for themselves collectively, coherently, and persistently. And they’re doing that through the NBDA and beyond.

The real issue: this is a guy problem. Nothing’s going to change with any significance until we men join the effort by first realizing how much women and their influence can improve the cycling business across the board and then by working with our fellow men and women already on board to bring more women into the industry.

Yes, the challenge for us men is real. It’s a paradigm/culture shift with grit. But there’s no doubt in my mind that taking on that challenge one measurable positive step forward at a time, which will be the subject of the next related article right here, will improve our business and the cycling world – and make us better, stronger men.

Ride on!

Bruce Tretter
Breitz!
(508) 446-7790
bruce@breitzwear.com

Update: Our First Manly Measurable Step Toward Bringing More Women into the Cycling Business

Like I mentioned above, if only for bottom-line reasons, increasing women’s presence in the cycling industry makes solid business sense. That’s just looking at hard numbers, specifically that women make up at least 70% of consumers. So, yes, as a guy in the cycling business – or any business – if increasing bottom-line profit is my or your primary driver, increasing women presence in my or your business makes pure business sense.

The above paragraph is real. The problem: recognizing and resolving the problem it outlines barely exists. So, what are we guys gonna’ do about it? And, I’m talking about real steps with “rubber on road” traction that correspond with measurable accountability.

As the guy writing this article, I’d like to suggest that interested guys get our heads together in a talk sometime very soon. My Zoom Meeting ID: 801 779 4999 Password: 451884. My contact info is listed below.

Please pop me an email, text, or call, and we’ll nail down a time to get our heads together.

Thanks,

Bruce
508-446-7790
bruce@breitzwear.com