Would like to thank Dan for his forward thinking about breaking out a bike count for the women at Kona. Great idea! And very intersting information. However, this was/is/has-been known for some time - that woman are making up a larger and larger percentage of triathlon race fields, and year over year, represent where the REAL growth is happening in the sport. There are some powerful and important messages there in this knowledge, and the data from Dan’s Kona numbers for women, but the real question is - Will bike shops get it? I am sure some will. However, historically LBS’s don’t have the best track record when it comes to dealing with women customers. Are things changing out there?
Fleck, we have had several tris now in Ottawa where there have been more women then men. LBS’s typically have a really low stock in the 51 down to 47 sizes. I know cause I am usually down in the 51/52/53 range, and even those can be hard to come by.
On the apparel front, though the LBS’ get it. They know that the ladies will buy out 7 different outfits to train 7 days a week (maybe they need, 14 for the double up workout schedule…perhaps the ladies can comment). You can barely get any men’s clothing. Its all ladies stuff!!!
Me, I get by with 2 pairs of bike shorts and one pair of running shorts, plus 20 years of jerseys and singlets. I think I am averaging 1 pair of new cycling shorts every 2-3 years.
Great to hear that bike shops are getting it with women’s apparel. Many certainly were NOT when I was working at Sugoi back in the late 90’s. It was like pulling teeth with bike shops to buy the right stuff, in the right quantities, in the right colours, in the right size ranges and then mechandize and disiplay the clothing in an appealing way and finally to sell it properly to the woman customer AND give them great change rooms to try the stuff on. We tried and tried with bike shops back then and were often met with this blank look of, “We have to do all that!” Yes you do, because buying the same small order of black cycling shorts and shoving them in a dark, back corner of your store on a circular hanging rack that you have had for 30 years, with no change rooms is not going to cut it!
I dont think the question can be addressed so much to the bike shop owners and retailers so much so as addressing the manufacturers. Case in point. AustinTriCyclist (Don) tries to carry smaller bikes knowing that YES there is a market for these things… but, hell, he hasnt even been able to get his hands on a P3SL for his wife Missy and now she is waiting on a 48 cm P3C. ETA… who knows?
I believe that it is the manufacturers that in some cases may need to supply more than it is the retailers who would be demanding more.
I agree about the clothing thing… any store I go in has hardly any selection in men’s stuff, and a whole boatload of womens stuff. The Running Room is a great example… the women’s section has tons of different stuff.
I personally think its a great thing… especially if it helps get my girlfriend interested
Women’s bikes on the other hand, seem to be under represented… but I suppose that’ll come in time.
When you ask if shops ‘get it’ you should consider what bikes shops have left over at the end of the season because no one purchased them(many women’s specific bicycles) . Shops would love to have 5 of every model under the sun to offer customers, but have to guess on what bicycles will sell, end up with a higher quantity of bikes in the middle sizes.
Agreed that it is a cart and horse relationship between the dealer and the manufacturer. Like any working relationship it is BEST when there is a high degree of communication, understanding and trust between the two parties. However, historically, many bike shops have been slow to react to trends in the marketplace despite well intended suggestions from their key suppliers AND also and perhaps more importantly independant industry analysis, say in Bicycle Retailer and Industry News.
My sister in law is the perfect example of catering to women. Whatever sport she does, it is all about the shopping. She plays golf every year, and she gets all the Anika gear…last season tennis and she has all the Venus gear…this season running and she has pretty well the whole Sugoi catelog. She’s the perfect customer. Doing a sport is all about being decked out in the flashiest gear and looking cool. More power to her.
She was shocked when I told her that I had done a 120K week of running on pair of running shorts, handwashing the same pair before the post run shower each day :-). Hey, if I can save on 50 pairs of running shorts over the next 20 years, that puts me $3000 closer to retiring and training full time :-)…its the whole wealthy barber thing…
dont think the question can be addressed so much to the bike shop owners and retailers so much so as addressing the manufacturers///
I have to go with the shop owners here. Dan was talking to Gerard last week, and he said that he has a boatload of the smaller Cervelos just sitting there. I just think it is too scary to them right now to stock a full range of small bikes for the women, but that is going to change, at least for the sucessful shops…
The Womens issue was one we put a lot of thougt into at our shop.
We carry WSD bikes, all sizes, road and mountain. We now carry Kona and will be seeing how their WSD bikes go in our town. My bike is also a WSD and was used as a demo bike many times for females to try out.
We also stock a kids road bike, which I rarely, if ever see at a LBS.
Our womens section is well stocked and some great pieces are coming in for '06. Not just in clothes but saddles etc. We have a change room with a nice mirror (not a fat mirror either!) for them to utilize. I wear all the gear we sell and can tell any lady how it’s going to fit.
The men fare just as well in our shop. We realized we have to cater to both equally. We get many bike/run couples in and we love when they can one stop shop for both of them, as do they.
For any LBS that don’t get it, you are missing out!
Just have to chime in here. What’s frustrating to me is that, although I’m a woman, none of the female-specific bike gear fits me. I’m just shy of 6 feet tall, so all the cutesy stuff they make for women is ludicrously small.
sigh
I would absolutely love to get a pair of cycling shorts with a chamois geared to female anatomy, but the legs are always stupidly short. I just always wonder if there are other women out there who have this problem. I don’t understand it, because women are known to have proportionately longer legs and shorter torsos than men; thus, you’d think clothing manufacturers would take that into consideration.
But I’m probably the total exception because of my unusual height. Still, I get really tired of always having to wear men’s stuff. And also tired of trying to find fitness shorts that don’t bisect the fattest part of my thighs!
And when it comes to bikes…ugh, it sucks to buy a frame that’s big enough to accommodate your leg length, but stretches you out way to far across the top tube. Next bike may have to be a custom jobbie, dammit…$$$$$
Oh well, just venting. Oh, and I still say saddle manufacturers need to learn the Zen of a slightly WIDER nose instead of just piling padding onto a narrow one.
i think that’s part of it - some girls can/would be willing and able to ride a men’s bike, but no man would be willing (and few would be able) to ride a women’s bike.
i used to get the same thing at a camping shop i worked at - half the stuff the manufacturers made as ‘female specific’ was tiny and cutesy, and a lot of the girls hated it. either because it was pink or because it didn’t fit. how many gun female rock climbers have hourglass figures, anyway?
i think another question for this, fleck, might just be how many women actually work in bike shops. i think tom or someone has posted, in the past, about the typical shopping scenario in which a male salesman deals largely with a girl’s domineering boyfriend while selling her a bike. maybe selling women’s bikes to women would be easier. . .for a woman?
i know of only two girls, off hand, who work bikes here in edmonton, i’m pretty good friends with them both.
Here in Kona HP is great for women. They even started a girls night after hours and brought in speakers. This became pretty popular so they let the guys come too now, but originially it was set up to make women feel comfortable asking training questions and meeting other girls in the area.
As far as the comment someone made about women buying more apparrel- duh. Of course we do, just like in normal everyday life. I personally like the new descente stuff, very cute. “It’s not how you feel, it’s how you look- and you look MARVELOUS darling”…kj
As an example, a company may sell 10,000 road bikes at the $2000 retail price point. That same company sells 500 tri bikes at the $2000 price point. These bikes are split between men and women. That company comes out with women’s specific designs that shifter their number to 10,000 road @ 2000, 500 tri @ 2000, and 116 womens @ 2000.
Sales went from 0 to 116 which certainly shows growth and potential, but not the kind of thing investing in retooling and marketing might pay for.
I’d agree the greasy LBS doesn’t know how to sell to women effectively as that is a whole branch of retail that some don’t ever reach for.
Marketing to women gives product exposure and credibilty, but the volume needs to be there for the little guy (LBS and the manufactuer level) to jump on board.
This post was a general relative scope and in no way discloses anything I know about vendors I currently or previously worked for. It was a “big picture” example and nothing more.
I know on the apparel side of things that for many bike shops there was a huge opportunity that they missed out on, but that window opened and then closed about 5 years ago. Reason: run shops, yoga gear shops, tri specific shops, On-line womens shops and cross-over places like MEC in Canada and REI in the USA got with the apparel programs started selling bike apparel that appealed to women. It’s going to take a HUGE effort to get those women to go back to the LBS to shop for apparel now. Missed opportunity in my books.
I did a lot of research before designing my shop, and the ladies, whether they were national champion road riders, or simply rode their comfort bikes to the coffee shop, consistently told me three things:
They want better customer service.
They’re uncomfortable on their bikes.
They want a larger selection of clothing.
Women are tired of being treated as second class cycling citizens. They enjoy riding, have money to spend, and want to spend it, but they just can’t seem to get customer service.
So, I’ve created a women’s section in my shop which takes up a lot of real estate. Additionally, the typical manner in which a bike shop merchandises cycling apparel does not appeal to most women. I’ve invested in wall units and displays which are more like Nordstrom and less like the greasy bike shop on the corner. The response, despite the fact my doors haven’t opened yet, has been huge. Phone calls, emails, stopping me at the coffee shop, all asking when the shop will be open. I’ve learned a lot from my female focus groups.
