That Time At SIDI Press Camp

November 14, 2011

I’m sure you’ve noticed that I’m more about the outdoor industry than the cycling industry, in large part because the cycling industry is pretty lame or so it seems from a recreationalist’s standpoint. The cycling industry and the outdoor industry are different, and men and women are different, and nothing is highlighting these two points for me better than reading the other SIDI Press Camp writeups that have made it to the blogosphere. Over and over again I click on my fellow attendees’ links with gleeful anticipation of a recap only to find a long dissertation on the various merits of SIDI cycling shoes and zero disclosure of the press trip highlights such as the sushi marathon, 100-beer-tap restaurant, shivering post-ride in the dark parking lot as the moon rose and the police cars circled (waiting to close the trailhead; California is weird) with our van driver AWOL, the fireside discussion about Japanese tentacle porn, the way that Matt McNamara could tell me EXACTLY how much I weigh just by looking at me (thanks Matt, I think), and the lunch-table reveal of Bruce Hildenbrand’s post-crash surgery scars. With all that going down, am I really expected to just write about the shoes? And are there people who would rather just read about the shoes? If there are, I suppose this isn’t the site for them.

Kim Kircher once mentioned (in a comment on this site, I believe) that men and women shop for gear much differently, and this was reiterated to me by Al Budris, President of SIDI America, in a long and involved discussion during dinner. More on that in a minute, but I agree with Kim and Al and sometimes I wonder why I care more about how the press trip went than about the technical specs of the gear. I care whether the gear is good, naturally, but I think I go on these press trips to find out more about the company itself than about the specifics of its current line. I like getting to know the people behind the company, and get a feeling for why they’ve made the gear production decisions they have. So far, press trips have revealed that no one really sets out to make bad gear, and they really do want to make everyone happy. It’s easy to forget that behind every company there are actual, real people who are just like you and me and are eager to hear how they can improve.

The press trip was populated by journalists from publications like Bicycling, DirtRag, and ROAD, Road Bike Action, and others I’m sure (see below about business cards). MTBR.com sent a sizeable contingent, which was interesting because MTBR.com forums are really annoying to me. I can’t stand the people who use those forums, just based on what they write. They just seem to embody the spirit of douchebag that pervades the mountain biking industry and I guess I associated that kind of thing with MTBR as a whole. Therefore I was utterly and completely surprised to find that the people who actually run MTBR are just absolutely kick-ass humans. The force of good nature known as Forrest Arakawa (click here and scroll down) was in attendance as were a bunch of others who FORGOT TO GIVE ME THEIR BUSINESS CARDS so that I only know them by their first names now (Francis and Kamran and I think a few others were from MTBR but because of the business card issue I am not sure who). You know this was a rad and low-key press trip when no one (other than me) ran around throwing their business cards at people.

The first night of the press trip, we all headed out to dinner at a low-key local joint. At dinner the conversation came up about me being the only woman on this press trip (even though last year it was a total estrogen fest, which is worth mentioning of course. Women weren’t purposefully excluded from this trip; it’s just that none of the ones invited could attend besides me and Paige Dunn who showed up on day 2) and from there we talked about why the cycling industry sucks so bad at including women. The men at my table started talking about what cyclists are like, and one of them stated bluntly “cyclists are assholes.” Each of the men had at least one story about an encounter with a cyclist taking himself too seriously. My favorite story was from Garrett Lai, in which a bunch of amateur cyclists had shut him out of their “closed” paceline, only to be soundly shut down as he rode them off his wheel, availing himself of the super cycling powers lent by anger. It was gratifying to know that others, even those in the industry, have noticed bad cyclist behavior. We couldn’t help but think that it’s that bad attitude that keeps the cycling industry so small.

I was chatting about this with a few of the other writers when Al interjected his wisdom on the subject. He said that the cycling industry has been stagnant for forty years because it’s run by people who are dedicated to keeping others out of their “club” which is really stupid if your “club” has a for-profit aspect. Al also stated that he felt that the cycling industry doesn’t seem to want to grow. He asked us all when was the last time we’d had a great experience in a bike shop and no one raised their hand. We discussed the way the outdoor industry has expanded to embrace more and more consumers, and how there are so many good examples of inclusive marketing in the outdoor industry as opposed to the ski industry and the cycling industry. The cycling industry comes in a distant third when you rank those three groups based on inclusiveness.

We also delved into how men and women look for different information when they buy gear. It was almost universally agreed upon that men like to talk about gear, think about gear, touch and play with gear, and read about gear; while women just want to find gear they can use to go do the sport they want to do. Men want to obsess over the details of cycling shoes, women just want to wear the shoes while cycling. I’m sure there is some sort of cosmic implication of this gender role turnaround. I do agree that it is the case; I usually say that men like to talk about riding bikes and women like to actually ride bikes. Garrett said that he thinks women look for gear that is “good enough” which, in my experience, is pretty logical and probably true. I don’t know many women who obsess over the newest and greatest of every little item. We usually just want to find something that works and stick with it so that we can go have fun. Garrett said that “good enough” actually sucks, and we should aim for perfection, which could be true I suppose. We had a difference of opinion on this because I think that what sucks is actually things that suck, and that “good enough” is mostly okay even though perfection is better. Guess which one of us was wearing the better outfits each day. Mine were good enough though.

The men on this press trip were utter superstar representatives of the male species, by the way, and all you other guys out there would benefit from taking lessons from them. They were sweet, kind, polite, funny, intelligent, witty, inclusive, and entertaining. It made for a really fun time. The women from SIDI are relaxed and knowledgeable and are full of subtle sarcasm and irony, which means I’m their slave for life. Jeff from Osprey wins major points for mellowness for riding behind me for a few miles while I spun my way up the ascent, not mentioning that he was singlespeeding and needed to go in front until there was a wide patch of trail on which he could pass. I was so impressed by this group that it was all over too soon and it was hard to say goodbye. I’m hoping it’s more like a “see you later” because this counts for the single best experience I have ever had involving the cycling industry.

Oh, and I will write about the shoes, don’t worry.

Mixed Feelings

November 11, 2011

Wrapping up SIDI Press Camp. More writeups later but I wanted to share this photo taken by Adam Newman from DirtRag. I demo’ed a BMC full suspension 29er and I got that weird mix of elation and disappointment you experience when you like your demo bike more than the bikes you have at home.

Mid-SIDI Press Camp

November 10, 2011

It’s cold in Monterey, California, which is my only complaint about SIDI Press Camp so far. I’m an Alaskan so when someone flies me south I reflexively bring dresses, shorts, and flip flops. Something nagged at me while I was packing so I threw in a few more items which is lucky because it’s too cold here for flip flops, but also means I’m stuck wearing jeans and a T-shirt that reads “The mountain is my dog park” for industry events if I don’t want to shiver my way through everything. But if that’s as bad as it gets I’m already coming out way ahead.

If you followed my tweets from last night you’ll know that I’m the only female writer here, in a herd of road cyclists and mountain bikers. Being surrounded by fit, attractive maleness is definitely helping the positive impression I have of all things SIDI at the moment, but what’s really doing it for me is the SIDI crew themselves, who are all highly intelligent, focused, and passionate individuals comprising a team that must be the envy of the industry. Their jokes and smart remarks throughout the product presentation today pretty much did my job for me so I don’t have to strain my brain thinking of funny things to write; instead I just copied down what they said and I’ll find a way to work it into the product write up (but I’ll give them credit for the wit, natch).

So far we’ve just been through the first day’s arrivals, shoe fittings, reception, and dinner; and we just wrapped up the shoe talk for the day (tomorrow’s is backpacks). We’re about to have lunch and then depart for our bike rides.

[I had to pause just now because someone knocked on my door and offered to restock my minibar. This trip is great.]

That’s all I have time to write right now but later on I’ll tell you about the most excellent conversation we had at dinner last night which stands out as the single most truthful conversation about the bike industry I’ve ever had with people who are actually in the bike industry. Back later.