Editor's note: For a feature in Bicycle Retailer & Industry News, Retail Editor Ray Keener spoke with 14 leaders on the supplier side of the industry. Ray spoke with leaders of major bike brands, component suppliers, e-bike startups, accessory makers and more. We will be running sections of that article online this month.
BOULDER, Colo. (BRAIN) — It’s been a hectic and unprecedented several months for our industry and many others. Fortunately for our companies and retailers, hectic has meant managing demand rather than fighting for survival.
Now that the season is waning, inventories are catching up (in some cases) and suppliers are catching their collective breaths, we reached out to a cross-section of suppliers and service providers to get their take on the future.
Tyler Jordan, CEO, 7mesh
We've experienced strong in-season demand through August and are expecting it to continue through fall. We need a crystal ball to forecast 2021, but our spring bookings are solidly up so it seems like our dealers share our cautiously bullish sentiment.
Our existing dealers are confident and committed, but it's a bit tougher to reach and onboard new dealers in the current circumstances. We think this is a great time to add fresh products and brands that will help bring customers to their stores.
Other than the usual digital and virtual moves, we're working to ramp up internal and dealer communication to coordinate more carefully. We've also implemented frequent supply chain monitoring, as well as inventory reviews to react as quickly as possible to increases in demand.
Our supply chain is solid but did experience early disruption on the raw materials side. Lead times for technical textiles and apparel are long, and there's a lot of coordination between vendors required to get everything to the right place at the right time.
