Specialized 289
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SPECIALIZED 289 In 1976, Specialized sold its first self-made product, a tyre designed for the touring market. A young Mike Sinyard them dry. Penniless and carless, he then built the and only a handful of his most dedicated dealers “I wanted to have a with a Specialized parts into bikes that he rode around local cycle were willing to sell his stock. However, the connection to that Touring Tyre, which outperformed imported dealers to pitch for sales. “In Italy the artisans feedback was positive, and the tyre outperformed European passion models. who craft lugs, frames, and tubing are considered the imported models from Europe. Suddenly and quality.” specialists,” Sinyard said in 2008. “I named the Sinyard was on to another winner, and the tyre Released in 1981, company Specialized Bicycle Components after was a breakthrough for his company’s brand. Full MIKE SINYARD the Stumpjumper was the first mass-produced them because I wanted to have a connection to bikes would come some time later. mountain bike in the that European passion and quality, something Some people have credited Sinyard and world. that would distinguish my products from the Specialized with the first ever mountain bike, but mainstream bikes popular at the time.” that distinction is the subject of long-running Business boomed. Banks that months earlier debate. One thing is certain: a small troupe had scoffed at his business plan now agreed of biking bohemians were using Sinyard’s to loan him thousands of dollars. Sinyard also components to build bikes that could handle began to branch out. Still relying on his own bike the rugged trails of Marin County in Northern for transport, he noticed that even the tyres California years before anyone coined the term that he was importing from Italy left much to “mountain biking.” Or, indeed, before Sinyard be desired. Together with his friend, the frame- studied these home-fashioned, heavy-duty hybrids builder Jim Merz, he began experimenting with and launched the Specialized Stumpjumper, the Specialized rubber compounds of his own. Around one year first mass-produced mountain bike, in 1981. and forty prototypes later, Specialized Bicycle “It turned out to be a niche-oriented product,” Components launched its first product: the Sinyard said. “Only about five or six of our stores Mike Sinyard took his love for handcrafted European bicycle components and brought Specialized Touring Tyre. wanted anything to do with it. The rest asked us, it to California. Starting out as an importer of parts that were difficult to source, he soon It was a slow burner, with few bike shops ‘What are you doing with this big kid’s BMX bike?’ founded his own company, which today supplies some of cycling’s greatest riders. willing to take a chance on Sinyard’s first creation, Customers will get hurt on that thing.” To look at him now, a slender, grey-haired man into the tour, after riding from Amsterdam to with the means of a millionaire, you would Milan, I met a Swiss woman at a hostel and never guess that Mike Sinyard was once cycling’s started talking to her about biking,” Sinyard equivalent of a scrap metal merchant. Having recalled in an interview with CNN in 2008. “She started out as an aviation major, who then quit knew a few Italian cyclists and said she would help and transferred to business school, Sinyard me land a meeting with key staff at Campagnolo shunned the lure of Silicon Valley and Wall Street and Cinelli, two big Italian bicycle manufacturers. and instead decided to make a living importing the Up to that point, I had been travelling in a pair of European-crafted frames and components that jeans and a sweater I hadn’t washed in a couple made the US bike enthusiasts drool. As a student of months, so I spent some of my remaining at San Jose University, he had already dabbled in money on a suit so I wouldn’t look like a bum.” the bike trade, having bought bikes at flea markets Through a combination of persuasiveness and sold them off through ads in a local paper. and half-truths about his connections on the To celebrate his graduation, Sinyard set off US bike scene, Sinyard convinced Cito Cinelli on a cycling trip to the Old Continent with the to sell him US $1,200 worth of handlebars and US $1,500 he had earned from the sale of his old components. When he arrived back in the United VW. It was the summer of 1972. “Three months States he stored them under a trailer to keep SPECIALIZED 291 Acqua e Sapone’s In fact, those initial reservations proved to This changed in 2000 when Specialized signed Mario Cipollini wins the be justified; sales were slow until mountain biking a deal with the Festina team. It was two years first stage of the Giro d’Italia in Germany in finally took off in the mid-1980s. When it did, after a Tour de France doping scandal and the 2002. Specialized quickly captured a sizeable chunk of team was almost unrecognizable from the squad the market. The Stumpjumper remains, for many, that was ejected from the 1998 Tour. However, the iconic mountain bike. unlike Trek’s alliance with Lance Armstrong’s US The company that had started off with Postal Service team or Giant’s relationship with a founder who had next to no funds, no Laurent Jalabert and ONCE, Festina lacked a rider car, not even a second set of clean clothes, of true star quality. now had an operation with more than one “We had a placing with professional teams hundred employees. However, the good times before,” said Specialized’s former marketing did not last for long, and Specialized was close manager Nic Sims. “We’d been there in the past to bankruptcy within a few years. As Sinyard with helmets but we realized that we needed to struggled to get to grips with the growth he had get back in there and legitimize ourselves with created, he brought in three executives charged bikes. The deal with Festina was just us dipping with leading the company onwards. our toes in the water there, a far cry from the One of their initiatives saw the launch of amount of time we spent with teams after that the Full Force range in 1995. The sub-brand on developing our technology.” was aimed at the lower end of the market and In 2002 Specialized signed a breakthrough was distributed in Costco. The launch angered contract with the Italian team Acqua e Sapone, a number of Specialized’s long-standing dealers, who although small in terms of budget had and it has been reported that Sinyard lost up to managed to sign one of the sport’s biggest 30 percent of his client base. A year later Full names—Mario Cippolini. The flamboyant Force was pulled. sprinter had helped Cannondale break into Over time the company regained its footing the market in the late 1990s when riding for in the market but the episode had a huge effect Saeco, but 2002 proved to be the pinnacle of on both Sinyard and the brand. On the advice his career, with a Milan–San Remo win and a of a new executive—the previous three left—he world title in Zolder, both of which were ridden wrote a small document detailing Specialized’s on an S-Works E5 frame with a zebra paint job. mission: its DNA when it came to ideas and It mattered little that the deal was struck after manufacturing. It became synonymous with the the Italian’s agent contacted the company because company’s heritage and future development he had seen Festina riders use them at the 2001 “Mario Cipollini was as it moved from strength to strength. At the Tour de France. one who was really time, the company was producing just one road Cipollini’s signing earned the brand far more critical and gave bike, the Allez, but lacked a presence in the elite kudos than the years with Festina could ever us a lot of fantastic peloton. Moreover, Cannondale, Giant, and Trek muster, and the Italian’s proactive nature in feedback.” had moved into the arena and were sponsoring a providing valuable feedback became pivotal in number of professional outfits. the bike’s development. “Mario Cipollini was MIKE SINYARD 1974 1975 1981 1983 2001 2002 2011 2012 Sinyard founds Specialized with Sales quadruple in the brand’s first The Stumpjumper is introduced. It Specialized creates the first Specialized sign a multi-year deal with Mario Cipollini has his most successful Mark Cavendish wins the Worlds in Tom Boonen caps a perfect spring for the message: “To offer everyone year. Sinyard makes Specialized’s first is the first mountain bike made and professional mountain biking team. the Festina team. It marks Specialized’s season, riding his Specialized to Copenhagen on a Specialized bike. his Omega-Pharma Quick Step team, the best bicycle of their lives.” catalogue by hand. sold to the general public. first venture into sponsoring a major victories in Milan–San Remo, Ghent– Matt Goss finishes second, also on a sealing a second Tour of Flanders and European road team. Wevelgem, six stages at the Giro Specialized. Paris–Roubaix double. d’Italia, and the Worlds. SPECIALIZED 293 Mark Cavendish one who was really critical and gave us a lot of (centre) powers fantastic feedback,” Sinyard says. through to win stage five of the 2011 Tour More teams lined up over the coming seasons, de France in Cap Fréhel.