Mar
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In another of my non-original posts here, I’m going to reference and plug another’s work again here in scooping this story. This article is right up our alley here at Interbike since it’s a great bike industry B2B story that is playing in the national non-endemic media. If there’s any way we can help promote or facilitate more of that for our industry members, we’re all over it. This is a little late - I was hoping to get this out last Friday when I first heard about it, but well, sometimes life just gets in the way of blogging. Still worth mentioning, though, in case our little site reaches some corner of the world that Bike Biz UK’s does not…
The article that appears on Business Week’s website is titled: “SRAM - A Bike Parts Tour de Force.” Stan Day, the co-founder of SRAM along with his brother and a friend, is the focus of the piece. Obviously written from a non-endemic point of view, there is still plenty of interesting background information about the company (I finally know where the name SRAM came from).
Not to call anyone out here, but there is an intriguing quote from a product manager at one of the major bike manufacturers about SRAM’s place in the OEM market:
“They are not really credible yet.”
While I understand that, from a sales standpoint, Shimano still dwarfs them, I don’t see how SRAM could not be considered a credible player at this point. Now I’m just a marketing guy and have no experience wearing a product manager’s shoes, but I’ve seen plenty of great brands spec’d by people I know and have great respect for with SRAM OEM componentry. [Shimano: I still love my Dura Ace pedals and shoes 
] Plus, they’ve got a beer vending machine in the office! Instant cred right there.
By the way, we’re big fans of BikeBiz UK here. Carlton Reid - a great friend of the industry, and burgeoning internet cycling media mogul - got wind of this Business Week article about SRAM’s emergence as a player in the bicycle components game. Definitely worth the read. Check it out here.
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SRAM — founders initials, right? (checked the article) Yep! Good article.
As a former product manager in the bike industry, I have to say that SRAM is very credible as a parts supplier in both the OE and after-markets. I would bet that there is more to that quote by Joe V that didn’t get printed. After all, SRAM is a huge component in the Trek road marketing campaign that is Astana.
Maybe it is in reference to being credible on sub-$1000 road bikes???
As someone who has seen SRAM start from the days when FK came into the shop to drill road bars for Grip Shift installation, I can say that SRAM has done an inredible job and deserves a better quote from the industry that has supported them and who supports the industry. Go SRAM!
Blimey, Rich, I’m blushing!
I thought the Business Week article was great, so newsflashed it to the BikeBiz email list on Saturday.
I was less impressed with the comment from Trek. SRAM not credible as player? That’s such an amazingly wrong comment. If it’s a true reflection on Joe V’s views, that is. It might not be.
Anyway, size isn’t everything…but the way that SRAM is growing it’s getting bigger all the time.
whoever said Sram isn’t credible must not be paying any attention to Swobo and Sky Yaeger. She’s using their new internally geared hubs on the Swobo bikes.
another insightful article. thanks for sharing!
binny bin
Mike -
I agree on the Trek comment. There must have been more to it and it was taken out of context for impact. I didn’t get a chance to look though Trek’s lineup for SRAM spec, but forgot about the Astana angle. Good catch.