by Robert Millar
Portland, OR — Last month Richard Schwinn, president and founder of Waterford Precision Cycles and Gunnar Bicycles and great-grandson of Ignaz Schwinn, spent an evening at River City Bicycles, just days after Gary Fisher had been hanging out there. This month Calfee founder Craig Calfee will be doing a clinic at the shop. River City lures industry big names by telling them doing in-shop clinics will increase their brands’ sales, said Curt Dewees, River City’s newsletter editor.
“It’s true for two reasons: One, nobody is better able to tell the story about their bike than the person who designs and builds it. So customers can get that direct, one-on-one contact with the person who is actually designing their bike. No marketing hype, no biased salesperson — just you and the Man, whether it’s Gary Fisher or Richard Schwinn, or Rob Vandermark from Seven or whoever;’ Dewees said.
“Second, it gets our sales staff excited and knowledgeable about the product, which in turn enables them to do a much better job of selling. There is nothing like being able to say on the sales floor, ‘I was talking with Gary Fisher the other day about his bikes, and he said blah, blah, blah; It adds a lot of credibility.”