Advocate Cycles Makes Buying a Bike a Charitable Act
At the core of most companies’ business models is the drive to make a profit. Bike manufacturer Advocate Cycles’ is no different—outside of the fact that the company plans to give away everything it earns. The brand, which finally launched after months of crowdfunding, will offer three bike models (dirt, gravel, and commuting) from which 100 percent of sales will go to bike-oriented advocacy efforts like People for Bikes and the International Mountain Bicycling Association (IMBA).
Advocate Cycles’ bikes will be available in steel and titanium, as frames only or as full bikes. Two of the bikes have already been revealed: The Hayduke is a hardtail mountain bike that can utilize 27.5-inch or 29-inch wheels and be set up as a single-speed or geared bike; the Watchman is an all-season, all-surface fat bike. The Lorax bike will premier at Interbike, and founder Tim Krueger says he’s very excited about the reveal.
The bikes will start shipping after Interbike in mid-September. Meanwhile, we sat down with Krueger to find out what led to the founding of Advocate Cycles, and where he sees things going.
BICYCLING: What prompted you to start Advocate Cycles?
Krueger: I have been developing bikes for a long time, and have seen that some of the simplest bikes (like hardtails) are also the most profitable. Additionally, I’ve also been promoting races locally for a long time, and putting all proceeds back to building bike trails. I am a big fan of what other benefit corporations do in other industries, so I wanted to give it a go for the bike industry, which is extremely reliant on advocacy efforts to continue forward.
Where did you come up with the names for the bikes?
All the names are from characters, people, and cultural things that are protectors of wild spaces. Hayduke is a character from the classic novel The Monkey Wrench Gang; Watchman is in reference to the Haida tribe’s Watchman, the figure at top of the totem pole that looks out for people; and the Lorax comes from the classic Dr. Seuss story about needless consumption.
How has the public response been so far?
Excellent. The idea with a benefit corporation is that our customers are people whose values align with our mission. That being said, I have no false ideals that we will have every cyclist looking towards us. But if I can grab the attention of just one percent of cyclists, I can make a very positive impact on the industry—and if I can grab the attention of other bicycle companies, we can work together to expand what the industry can do for worldwide efforts to make cycling better.
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This might be personal, but any idea what projected donations will look like for 2015?
This year’s donations will be low, as we are just starting up. Our donations are after-tax, so just like any corporation, we have to consider all other costs of operation first. As with any startup, we may not be profitable in the first year. However, we still run some efforts that happen regardless of profitability. So far this year, we have put about $22,000 into various things, and will probably be rounding out the year’s profits closer to $40,000. The corporation will probably end the year somewhere between $20,000 in the hole, to hopefully breaking even, because some of the events and other items that we do allow us to continue to give, even if we are not necessarily profitable.
What sort of advocacy projects are you planning with the other 50 percent of profits?
I want to make sure our mission is more than just giving money. In the near future, we will be working toward starting a local Bikes for Humanity chapter; running Advocacy Cycles racing events; and putting together bike programs where need is greatest. All of our employees (there are just three of us right now) are putting 10 percent of their time toward doing anything they want that will make cycling better, and we will be taking our demo bike fleet on the road in 2016 to be personally present and support various advocacy summits around the US and Canada. Odia, our director of giving, is also a teacher, and is very motivated to work with programs that find ways to bring different populations into cycling, as there are many socioeconomic and cultural factors that make it hard for many people to enjoy cycling. We want to help remove some of those barriers. And I am very interested in working with the National Interscholastic Cycling Association (NICA) on ways to improve access to mountain biking for students who may not be able to afford getting into this relatively expensive sport.
Why choose IMBA and People For Bikes as the charities you'll donate to?
We will be working with a lot more than just these two, although they, along with Adventure Cycling Association, will be our primary dontation recipients. I am working with these organizations because I see them as multipliers. They are all very effective in their fields, so they can take our money and do even more with it. For instance, we could give $10,000 to a trails organization to build a bit of trail. Or, we could give $10,000 to IMBA, who will use that money to lobby, apply for grants, and turn that into a much larger impact via the channels they know best.
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When your bikes launch in September, will they only be available online?
Ideally, no. I believe the best advocates for cycling in any community are local bike shops. Not only are they epicenters of cycling enthusiasts, but they also have very vested interests in making cycling better in their areas. Because of this, we will be concentrating on creating a dealer-based sales channel, and offering dealers a stronger-than-industry-average margin, so that they can stay in business and hopefully have a little extra money to do good work in their community. We will be selling our products at MSRP on our website, but only as a way to offer our products to consumers in areas without a dealer. If a consumer orders a bike in a dealer territory, we will immediately push that sale to the dealer, as purchasing a high-end bike—regardless of what the industry thinks, even a $2,000 bike is high-end to most consumers—is an experience best had in person, at a dealer, where the buyer can get the best service, and continue to get service in the future. We are also in the stages of building out a program that will alert bike shops in a territory with no dealers where a consumer-direct order has come in, and strongly incentivize them to take that sale, and become a dealer.
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