Just added another Blog entry about the Tri Business and where we are at. Interbike is this week and the start of a new business cycle for most in the business, so I thought it was timely.
Link to blog is below.
As usual comments are welcome here or at the Tri This Blog.
Where Are We At??? Your English teacher would cringe in horror if he/she read that.
Fleck, you of all people.
srs
the correct usage is
“Where we at?”
.
Noted. Thank you.
Changes made.
Fleck…I hate it when people write about how good things are going in any industry…I almost feel that it will jinx things. I hope for everyone that revenues and profits keep going up up up. Good luck for 2010!
My theory is because alot of people are entering the sport, sales are up. The problem is when this cycle evens out and wetsuit and bike manufacturers aren’t going to be able to sustain those sales. There were alot of people who bought bikes every year, and that’s toned down but the new blood in the sport has kept it level. It will be interesting next year to see how things go.
The other problem is gear prices are through the roof, prior to the recession everything was going up 9% a year, now most items have dropped back down, but Tri gear hasn’t. Entry level bikes have almost doubled in price since 2003. They’ve dropped some but not much. I don’t think anyone is anticipating what’s going to happen but a major manufacturer could drop prices signifigantly or the customer base could rebel and sales will drop.
I think we are another year from getting out of this recession, and I hope manufacturers don’t have a false sense of stability and raise prices; that’s only going to be bad for everyone. I’m still scratching my head from move they made last year (or was it 2 years ago) raising prices because of high gas cost; hello Trek (hits the noggin), commuters with gas problems dont buy 2,000 dollar bikes!
I would not be surprised if triathlon participation doubled in the next 10 years. Why not. There are not that many triathletes out there. Plenty of room for more. I don’t see an end in sight, especially as the economy improves.
In the apology thrtead age grouper realized that they were being fleeced by gimmick products. Sales are doomed.
the specialized transition frameset is down 18%, i wonder if that will help them out
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As I see it two factors will be the main indicators of the future of triathlon:
I wonder who has the magic formula that answers this question once and for all. Whoever they are I would like them to also advise me on stock market investments.
Our company, Epix Gear, makes tri & cycling apparel. We just got into triathlon last year because our cycling business was not growing…we are a small company, so we cannot afford big-name sponsorship, and for us its not really about taking market share away from the big brands, rather getting a slice of a growing pie…and that is what triathlon is right now.
I think the two sports are fundamentally different, in that cycling has more commercial appeal to sponsors (it’s a more interesting sport to watch on TV…attacks, sprints, etc). Triathlon just doesn’t have that, but it has something else that cycling doesn’t- accessibility. Pros and non-pros compete in the same space, athletes of all ages and abilities, men, women, and increasingly kids. Furthermore, you don’t need a team working for you to win a race or to get to Kona…its all about individual effort. It’s also a safer, less “in-crowd” sport than cycling. So triathlon will grow as long as more people join the races, and judging from the participant numbers, triathlon will grow for a long time, though I don’t ever see it reaching the commercial level of cycling. Still, for us, triathlon is the best bet.
A question on pricing- do you also feel the trend of prices being too high/going up every season applies to tri apparel? I mean tri tops/shorts & tri suits, not wetsuits.
“I would not be surprised if triathlon participation doubled in the next 10 years.”
You’re definately an optimist. We’ll have to wait and see. I remember people saying the same about scuba diving in the 80’s and it never happened.
“I would not be surprised if triathlon participation doubled in the next 10 years.”
You’re definately an optimist. We’ll have to wait and see. I remember people saying the same about scuba diving in the 80’s and it never happened.
Triathlon is infinitely more accessible than scuba diving.
Yes and no. Fitting yourself out for basic scuba gear with regulator, wetsuit, mask, fins etc is about the same cost as tri with bike, wetsuit, shoes, etc. If you dive locally then it’s not that expensive but when you take destination dive trips to exotic locations it gets expensive. Sort of like doing local area tris vs destination IM. However, my local Great Lake wreck dives were much more difficult than my warm water tropical reef dives with cold water, lower visability, etc. with the exception of seeing big sharks on a few warm water dives
Scuba is definately much more involved if you get serious about it, particularly with technical mixed gas diving.
Scuba diving never died since the 80’s. There are as many divers now as then but the expected growth just never materialized. My guess is that this will also happen with triathlon.
After the last ‘ST’ thread you started I had to read your blog. Great to hear you are optimistic about the triathlon business at present.
I am going to stick to my philosophy that triathlon should remain accessible to everyone on a cost basis. It was only a 2 years that our local triathlon entry fee jumped from $10 to $45 for an individual. So they m,anaged to keep there price down after the ITU worlds in 2003.
Like everything it will be the average guy on the street you need to keep happy. The high end customers will just be the bonus.
“I would not be surprised if triathlon participation doubled in the next 10 years.”
Same. It’s doubled in the past 4 - 5 years, according to the numbers I have seen. So even if it slows down a bit in 10 years, it could double again.