Spokes People
“In the past you’d define yourself by your car – now it’s by your bike”. Meet the retailers, brands, and communities keeping pace with the latest trends in a fast-moving market.
With the world of fitness becoming an increasingly luxurious marketplace, it should come as no surprise that LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton acquired Italian bike brand Pinarello, whose handmade bicycles have remained top of the range but have been typically appreciated only among cycling enthusiasts. LVMH believes that high-end bike demands are now as likely to come from an aspirational athletic market with disposable wealth as from the pros.
Cycling apparel brand Rapha aims to do with bike culture what other brands have done with surfing: turning a niche sport into a lucrative platform for a global lifestyle brand. On another note, electric bikes are also a growing market – they now account for 60% of revenue for bike-sellers in the Netherlands and are now responsible for virtually all the growth in the overall bike market in Europe, pointing to huge potential for future adoption in the US.
Also explore: Strava’s Interactive Global Heat Map (running + cycling activities across the world)
Source: Monacle (Issue 104) | Image: Laura Pittaccio