MAY 30 - Sorta Cutting Edge News
May 30, 2003
Got news? Send it to vernonfelton@hotmail.com.
Ritchey Design remains steadfast in its commitment to race sponsorships—why are they pledging allegiance to a cause that so many other companies have abandoned? Ritchey’s marketing man, Jed Spangler, gives his company’s side of the story. What else? Eggbeater pedals are poised to catch the limelight in a major museum exhibition, unlimited trail maps are just a store away, we strongly recommend you visit a certain website and there’s even an Angela Lansbury sexual comment buried in there somewhere.
A Passion for the Sport
Ritchey is expanding their race sponsorships just when other companies are backing out. Why?
With all the talk of sponsors pulling out of the NORBA National Championship Series and dwindling crowd attendance (both of which are true), you might get the impression that all the bike and component companies have packed up their tents and called it a day on the whole pro-racing sponsorship thang. In truth, quite a few companies have scaled down their pro squads and the convoys of big rigs are following in the footpaths of Mr. Brontosauras, but a few companies are digging their heels in and staying committed to the old formula. Ritchey Design is one such company.
This year, Ritchey actually expanded their racing sponsorships. On the pro mountain side of things, Ritchey sponsors Luna Chix, Cannondale/Sobe and Ritchey/K2 over here in the states. Across the Atlantic, Ritchey sponsors no fewer than five pro mountain teams. The sponsorship web grows even larger when you consider the company’s investment in grassroots teams—over 100 mountain, road, cross, tri and BMX squads receive some level of assistance and support from Tom.
With the race season just getting under way, I decided to probe Ritchey Marketing Director Jed Spangler for reasons why his company is ramping up their racing sponsorships, when much of the bike industry feels that now is precisely the right time to exit the race world.
Vernon Felton: First off, the Yahoo/Team Ritchey squad that most people remember is a thing of the past, but you guys are still sponsoring a lot of teams. What happened to the old squad and what exactly is Ritchey trying to do with its sponsorship program today?
Jed Spangler: Everyone knows that Team Ritchey—as a stand alone race team with Thomas Frischknecht—is no more. We were trying to compete on the level of a bicycle manufacturer. We had a team and support staff on the level of much larger companies, like Trek and GT, and we eventually realized that as a component manufacturer, it wasn’t feasible for us to do that. It was hard to disband the Ritchey Yahoo Team since there was such a great, long history with it. We sponsored Thomas, alone, for 12 years. But the big truck and trailer approach to sponsorship was undeniably a huge cash drain on the company.
The challenge was that we wanted to stay in racing. Tom got his start as a junior racer, after all, and racing is still a very big part of our product development process. So we started looking into ways that we could stay involved in all facets of racing, and the answer was to do it on the level of a components manufacturer. The frame sponsorship is not an issue for us.
VF: Well, I suppose it doesn’t make a lot of sense, in retrospect, to sponsor people with Ritchey frames when the bulk of your company’s sales are components such as bars, stems and wheelsets.
JS: Right. We really wanted to tie sponsorship in with marketing. The parts we sponsor are the parts we sell. Pretty simple. But it goes beyond that. A lot of sponsors look at their sponsorship program as simply, ‘Well, you sponsor some people and they win races.’ They don’t connect the dots—you don’t give parts away for the sake of giving parts away. You sponsor athletes so that their efforts and your product reach out and make an impression on other customers. I’m really less concerned with whether our sponsored riders win races, than I am with whether or not they are a cool person and a good representative of our brand.
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