Okay, I’m going to give this a shot.
For those who don’t know me (because why would you?), my name is Trey Richardson and I am an Industry Rat. We all know the proverbial ‘Shop Rat’ to be that sort of young vagabond who shows up at a shop out of nowhere and won’t leave. If a Shop Rat’s potential outweighs their annoyance, official shop employees eventually take advantage by assigning a task here & there. In exchange, the Shop Rat becomes the student and begins to learn the ropes… just before the eternal trap of the Bicycle Industry springs shut. Their mindset gets twisted around as an illogical substitution of priorities begins to unfold and they are forever stuck in this wonderful place we call the Bike Industry. That’s how I got my start almost 35 years ago and today, I have been honored… sometimes cursed, to have gained a perfectly-timed collection of experiences all over our beloved Bicycle Industry.
Like the Hotel California, an Industry Rat is someone who just won’t leave regardless of how things look. However, in recent years, it’s become more difficult to justify doing so because of how the marketplace has strayed away from everything we committed to. The marketplace, especially ours, has shifted more in the last 15 years than in the 75 years before that… but that’s not a bad thing so as long as we understand it better and specifically, what our customers truly value.
What is Industry Grease? It’s not the news or a bunch of statistics as we already have some great resources for those. It’s also not an advertising or selling platform for someone to sling their goods. Industry Grease is an all-inclusive community & communication hub for the entire Bicycle Industry designed to seek solutions around better serving our consumers.
I have always said, that 3 shops working together are more effective than 5 that don’t, but that was back in the day when most shops weren’t too different from each other (pre-eCommerce). Once eCommerce grew & everyone scattered, shops & suppliers started independently evolving away from what was an easy-to-manage distribution flow and what was once known as a ‘traditional bike shop’. In recent years, it has become harder for shops & suppliers to work together because each shop within a community is in too different of a position to (effectively) work together. From these situations, suppliers have had to depend on an ever-growing number of variables to stay competitive using methods like D2C, expanded distribution & online marketplaces, and other means that often exclude the retail channels they once depended on.
However, there are countless shops across the country who do have a similar enough collection of challenges & solutions others can associate with & benefit from. Imagine a group of retailers sharing what has & hasn’t worked for them so others can use those insights, IN REAL TIME, to increase their chance of success while reducing risks. Not only does this level of communication help retailers, suppliers need a more reliable & uniform system of feedback from the retail channel so they themselves can better plan & provide the kind of support retailers need.
What does it take to join? – This is a massive undertaking that I’ve determined is important enough to make my full-time job. Since this is a platform designed for professionals in the Bicycle Industry, rather than capitalize from advertising or other intrusive data-sharing means, I’ve decided to put my entire worth in your hands. To gain access to everything listed below (check it out, it’s a lot), there will be a comically cheap individual membership fee that depends on what segment of the Bicycle Industry you belong to. So yeah, if I suck, I don’t get paid.
Retail Individual Memberships – $36/year (yeah, like a $3/month average)
Suppliers, Service Providers, & Media Individuals – $50/year
Non-profits – I’ve decided to comp their individual $50/year membership fee as a thanks to them for everything they do. Besides, consult with your tax person as in most cases, memberships are probably considered a tax write-off.
I have already been criticized for not charging enough and not advertising, but I wanted to accomplish two key things by setting prices where they are. I wanted every single person to easily be able to afford their membership. No matter who you are or how many memberships you want to purchase for your business, I didn’t want anyone to have any reason to negotiate or have an advantage over another. Everyone pays the same price. Secondly, quantity. I don’t think we’ll get far with a bunch of management-level members thinking from a mountaintop. Participation is key here. Look at it this way, A manager calling a meeting to talk about something they want to share simply isn’t effective as they think it is. However, if each member in that meeting is tasked with spending a little time researching the subject matter prior to the meeting, you suddenly have a level of participation based on them actually valuing the discussion because they feel you value their opinion. Add to that, the ideas & feedback will often exceed what was being considered, increasing the chances of success. Lastly, regardless of whose plan you go with, the people you depend on will value the plan much more and be more likely to see it through.
Are we there yet? I originally planned on launching this over a year ago… then 6 months ago… and finally, it’s Spring 2025 and I’m just about there. At first, despite what I really believed in, I was just going to write a blog and advertise because that was an easy way to launch fast. However, it went against everything that motivated me to do this in the first place. I also strongly believe that one person speaking to an entire industry is as arrogant as it is dangerous. Practically every delay in creating this platform was related to establishing a working system involving multiple avenues of EFFECTIVE, SOLUTION-BASED discussions & communications in our industry.
Below is a breakdown of what makes Industry Grease and how you can benefit from it:
The Bolg – On the surface, is written content. There, we’ll cover all kinds of subject matter on what the Bicycle Industry has, is, and will face with the goal of sparking discussions full of feedback & ideas in the comments below each article. Every single blog article is based on seeking real-time solutions through the discussions which follow. From there, I’ll wrap everything up together in a tidy little podcast that involves you having to look & listen to me.
The Podcast – I’m getting completely out of my comfort zone with this but couldn’t think of a better way to package the articles & comments together along with some of the things going on in the general marketplace. Every one to two weeks I will produce a podcast summarizing the blog articles. I feel for many, this will be an efficient way to digest everything and drive more people to participate. (and I am certain my deep, late-night jazz radio voice will help those having trouble falling asleep). As things progress, I would like to expand this by including guests both in & outside our industry. Since articles & podcasts get buried over time, every article will cross-post as a topic in the community The Industry Hub sub-forum Podcasts & Blogs cont. so everyone can easily keep the conversations going, even years later should the topic become relevant again.
The Industry Forums – The Industry Hub is made up of several key sub-forums designed to be a valuable resource to everyone! Here, every individual… no matter their position or where they work, can start & participate in the discussions they want to talk about. While most sub-forums are discussion-based like Data & Forecasting & D2C, it’s not you, it’s us, there are some useful & fun areas as well. I Need a Part makes the entire industry your warehouse, Share Your Photos to show everyone the people & places we’re a part of, and even a Surveys forum where anyone can easily create surveys for others to participate in.
Private Retail & Supplier Forums – Retail Chatter & Supplier Row are only accessible by members associated with those specific industry channels.
Retail Chatter is a retailer-only forum that contains sub-forums like Forecasting, D2C, Education & Training, and Supply Channel Discussions that will certainly get some much-needed conversations going. Service Dept Operations & Service Tech Discussions will be a place where solutions happen fast and will be a good example for the rest of us to follow as it’s one of the few places in the Bicycle Industry that has adapted to & accepted formal training & education as a part of their culture.
Supplier Row is a place for manufacturers, distributors, and service providers associated with the Bicycle Industry. No matter the size & shape or how established a company is, there is a lot to be found here. Subforms like Retail Education & Training, D2C, Import / Export Challenges (tariffs anyone?), and Domestic Shipping & Supply will be an asset to finding solutions sooner rather than later and perhaps, nurture some relationships so that you can work with others to combat challenges that may seem impossible to manage on your own.
Dear Bicycle Industry –
Have questions you want to ask but don’t want anyone to know who’s asking? DBI will be as informative as it is hilarious.
Here, I and special industry guests will attempt to answer the questions you’re afraid to ask. Have some Industry Concerns? Need some relationship or parenting advice? Perhaps you or ‘a friend’ is a triathlete but deep inside, you… err, they are conflicted about desiring mountain bikes, baggies, and oversize burritos.
Private Messaging – Just like it sounds, I felt it was important to have as many useful means of communication within a formal platform that focuses on the Bicycle Industry. I want everyone to have as many resources as possible, and I consider the most important ones… YOU. I am big on how privacy works, hence why you can’t see each other’s emails unless they choose to list it because the last thing I want is some over-zealous supplier harassing retailers with their products.
Profile Pages – Here, members can list as much or as little information as they want and we only require that you provide your name, company, position, and a profile pic so others can identify you. Of course, you’ll want to probably list more as your profile page is an easy way for others to get to know you. Industry Grease is all about people networking and that first impression always counts!
WHY do I think my fellow Bicycle Industry would be interested in what I am doing? This isn’t my first attempt at trying to find a way to share my experiences, hoping it would help others. My mistake & realization was that one person couldn’t do much more than help one person or business at a time (effectively). Admittingly, I feel that no single human has the bandwidth or knowledge it takes to help such a broad range of businesses & careers, much less an entire industry’s health. So what if I create an active place for suppliers & retailers to gather and have formal discussions over an endless array of subject matter? At the very least, I recognize enough of the things the Bicycle Industry does well along with what’s s missing or not being used to its full potential, to get those conversations going. Most importantly, I feel by truly working together, we can provide a better & more meaningful value to our consumers… especially the ones we don’t yet know about.
WHO THE HELL AM I? I’ve been a part of our beloved Bicycle Industry since 1889, starting out as your average unpaid Shop Rat. I officially became a part of the retail side of our industry starting in 1990 and went on to work in every position within a wide range of bike shops before, during, and after the internet & eCommerce came about. I later spent time on the supply side of our industry as a brand manager for a large manufacturer supplying retailers, distributors, & OEMs, and later became an outside rep for a major distributor. In more recent years, have worked in both online & print media, writing everything from tech reviews to storytelling, & even a few articles criticizing what was happening in our industry. I have also worked as a marketing director for a large manufacturer in another industry where I swam in digital marketing and got to experience firsthand how shorthanded the Bicycle Industry is of educational resources. I have attended Bicycle Industry tradeshows all over the world as a retailer, manufacturer, distributor, & media slime. I have also attended several tradeshows outside of our industry (including those owned by the same company that owned the one we lost) and got to experience what I knew ours was missing for years. Aside from that, I am a study and collector of early American & European tool industries and by doing so, accidentally learned more about what’s going on in our industry than I anticipated. Today I ride mostly mountain bikes with a touch of gravel but love to ride pretty much anything with two wheels. My entire family rides and my wife & I coach our middle & high school mountain bike teams, which our daughters ride on. In the end, I am someone who cares for as much as I believe in, what the Bicycle Industry is capable of.