With today's problems, not to mention C-19 and what it will do to large organized events, I suspect they won't be the first or last to fail this year.

Hopefully they can reorganize and continue.

They definitely tried to cover everything, didn't always make sense to me. Winter ski apparel and snow shoes, its like they saw bike shops carrying the stuff so decided to sell it themselves

The purchase of Sugoi and Sombrio made zero sense to me, just didn't see what the angle was with those. Sure could be seen as brand extension for LG but felt more like a reach and a bad use of cash

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Boots
Fleet Feet Rochester, NY
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YellowJacket Racing, Rochester, NY

Boots,

I agree all around - the brand extension thing REALLY starts to spread you thin and you start drifting away, and spending huge resources and money on stuff that is really not your core competency. REALLY big brands - Nike, Specialized etc . . . can do this, small brands, REALLY, hard!

As for the Sugoi purchase - that was a head-scratcher. Of course I worked for Sugoi for 4 years, post start-up in the late 1990's, Sugoi was able to make an awesome transition from Cycling-only to running and triathlon apparel - in fact, they probably became BETTER known for running and triathlon than cycling. Garneau, tried to move beyond cycling apparel, but they never seemed to really get great market traction - so maybe they thought at the time - we'll just buy another apparel company that has good traction in that space - Sugoi just so happened to be up-for-sale at that time.

If Garneau is smart and they can sort this out, they should go back to JUST cycling apparel, and maybe helmets and shoes - the latter two categories, they have scored some REALLY high marks in, with Best-in-Class products. And bail on everything else.

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

Thats really too bad I have had their helmets and I have their bike and triathlon shoes....great value...dont they also sponsor LS?

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"see the world as it is not as you want it to be"

right sizing is what's needed.

I still carry some Sugoi in my store's and our race team wears LG custom.

My wife and I each own a LG cross bike, and a few members of our team bought road bikes, they're really nice bikes for the cost and no upcharge for semi-custom paint

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Boots
Fleet Feet Rochester, NY
Fleet Feet Buffalo, NY
YellowJacket Racing, Rochester, NY

That is too bad. They are one of the few companies that actually developed and tested their full-sleeve kits with aerodynamics in mind. Their P09, whether it was engineering, or luck was a helmet that tested very well on the average person. Obviously a lot more to a business than just two great products but I never like to see companies in investing in research get outsold by pure marketing. Tells you just as much about the cycling business though.

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what is the legal status of the mexico and US subsidiaries? Just distribution channels?

agreed on stretch too thin and sugoi purchase. Also curious how they were funding those activities.

Not familiar with Canadian bankruptcy law, but I'm guessing they are positioning themselves for what we would call a Chapter 11?

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That is crazy and sad, LG had a lot of great products. Still use their aero helmets in our household, very impressive designs.

Hope they can stay in business.

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I think if they divested anything that does not go on the human, then it would be great. Apparel, helmets, shoes. Bike, ski poles, snowshoes etc....leave to others in the market.

I believe custom apparel is US based. Don't quote me though.

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Jim Manton / ERO Sports

Sad to hear. Hopefully they can find way forward. I don't have a lot of LG stuff, but I love what I do have. Just bought a new pair of tri shoes...haven't even had them out of the pain cave yet!

Unfortunately I believe the only way for them to regroup is to open from another country. Like many other companies, leaving Canada to open somewhere else where they stand a chance at being competitive and staying afloat. Otherwise they have a very difficult uphill battle like many other Canadian companies that are inching towards bankruptcy daily. There has been a mass exodus of jobs and companies leaving, and it will only get worse.
I loved their clothing. I still remember when they began.

Another happy LG customer here. I've had helmets, shoes, and lots of soft goods from them over the years. Quality, customer support, and pricing have all been great.

 
this is a shame. their gear has been fantastic for me.

i thought it was a little curious when they came out with a TT bike that tested very well by all account, but which had so little promotion, other than some canadian guy riding it sort of fast now and then.

the explosion into other product categories maybe really was too fast.

i hope something recognizable as garneau rises from the ashes.

Spoke to a key Senior person at Garneau yesterday at the Toronto Bicycle Show - the plan is to try and re-group and move forward. Sales, particularly in the U.S. have been really good and growing.

If you are considering purchasing LG - apparel or whatever, please consider carrying forward with it at this time. From the sounds of it, it was business as usual.

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

Made best tri suits, awesome cycling shoes which were always good value.

Why do they have to move another country? What makes you think they couldn't competitive as a Canadian company?

Wow that sucks. Favorite bibs. Aero clothing and helmets.

Yet Rudy Project keeps chugging along...

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[quote Fleck...Sales, particularly in the U.S. have been really good and growing.[/quote]
I was wondering about the effect of Performance Bike going under. Seems like that was the only place I ever saW Garneau stuff in person.

Probably paid him to much 😂

i just received my 2020 custom bike and tri kit I designed and was really happy with the process and amazing quality of the product. I hope they are able to scale back the business and emerge from bankruptcy.

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@rhyspencer

I was wondering about the effect of Performance Bike going under. Seems like that was the only place I ever saW Garneau stuff in person.


Those retail bankruptcies in this business can really hit manufacturers hard. You have paid your supplier if you have one. Paid to have shipped the stuff all over the place. Given your retail partner 90 day terms (and then a good percentage of these retailer don't bother to pay on time and draw that whole process out!!). And then some go out of business, with your goods in their possession and you listed as a creditor that may never see any of the money owed!

I know that in the press-release I linked to there was a couple of large European Bankruptcies that Louis Garneau himself, sited as having caused them some real challenges.

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

"Too big to fail? Provincial government might help bail out Louis Garneau Sports"
https://www.bicycleretailer.com/...d-louis#.XmaPD6hKiUk

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"I'm thinking of a number between 1 and 10, and I don't know why!"

They are in this state because of poor foresight and management. Hard to say without looking at their structure and reporting but I would say LG made questionable decisions diverting resources to things like crazy competitive race bikes. The Canadian local market is a fraction of the US (say < 10%), and to compete against US/Euro/Asian brands with a decent home market is very tough. Our dollar is low and it's easy to borrow, and borrow :). I think the government does prop the cycling industry too, through "SRED" programs and other support.

I'm in a similar situation with http://www.fluidmotionsports.com The only thing that keeps FM alive is strength of the unique designs. The engineering we did was game-changing and we partnered with Intuition sports here in Vancouver for more survivability.

Had we been USA based we would be 10x the size we are now, I am pretty sure. There are no Canadian water-ski companies and very few in snow sports as well.

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