Maybe it’s the state of the economy but the cool thing at the moment seems to be temporary shops and bars. Last year American super-series Friends had a pop-up café in Soho where you could be served your coffee in Central Perk for a few weeks (or more likely get bored in the queue for several months), and there have been endless temporary restaurants serving a fixed daily menu and emphasising the idea that good food doesn’t have to be from an established premises.
Cycling hasn’t escaped form this trend. There are the Rapha cycling clubs in London and New York which we’ve mentioned before, just there for the summer and all the cooler through their fleetingness. Shops as well are buying into the pop-up model. As the Tokio bike company currently has a shop in Spitalfields for just a few weeks.
This places the bike company firmly in the fashion sector – something which is supported by the style of the bikes they’re selling, For my money I’d go with an established brand, with a strong presence over a distinctly fly-by-night set-up. Let’s face it, a week after buying a cup of coffee or a meal you’re not going to care if the place you bought it has gone, but having spent several hundred pounds on a bike, you might like to feel that you have somewhere to go back to if it all goes horribly wrong.
I guess the hook for the brand is all about he cachet of having something that’s not readily available – a one-off if you will – and that makes the bikes aimed at people looking for the right looking bike rather than the right one for them. I’m sure the bikes the company produce are excellent and I’m sure they have a solid after sales service, I just don’t like the idea of bikes as fashion. Ride one because you love it – not because it matches your skinny jeans and expensive haircut.
A
No comments:
Post a Comment