Bike fitting has been around as long as the bicycle itself really gaining prominence in the last 5 years and can closely be paralleled to a “gold rush” or “wild west” as certifications are subjective and easy to obtain from the shop’s leading manufacturer. Riding the coattails of increased fit awareness, anyone can call themselves a fit expert and many do. Not driven by the bike industry itself but by manufacturers looking to differentiate and validate their brands it is an interdependent win for manufacturers and retailers alike. Benefitting from the marketing push of the manufacturer, the retailer’s focus is to drive sales through bike fit. Thus most fit professionals have approximately 3-7 days of industry training and rely on product commission as a large portion of their salaries.
Whereas bike fit itself is the marriage of bike and body, genuine fit professionals possess years of experience and training and were fitting before a studio housed anything but expensive art. Now the part-time sales associate turned kinesiology expert can charge hundreds of dollars after a week-long manufacturer-certified class. Couple this certification with the manufacturer’s financed equipment and you’ve got yourself what I like to call the McStudio Model.
While I am a proponent of fit first and think everyone who rides a bike, regardless of their level, should have a proper bike fit, I am not an advocate of high volume retail stores marketing under a guise of “wellness”. Yes I have worked for a few, but where there’s smoke there’s fire and fit is not the main sustaining component of those businesses… its product sales in every capacity. A few years back I jumped into the abyss of self-employment (giving up perfectly sound health insurance and handsome commissions) and sought out to offer what I truly believe in; a genuine knowledge of the human body as it relates to cycling in a service oriented environment.
More recently I was asked by a trade publication for comments about the impending impact on bike fit independents such as myself amidst all the Retul/Specialized and Guru/Dorel (parent company of Cannondale) announcements. I think I speak for most independent fitters when I say: I am in an arms race with manufacturers, and their corresponding fit schools, that spend more money on marketing in a month than I make in a year. Being an independent entity I gain the ability to do as I please but loose the economy of scale and allegiant support from those major manufacturers; however it’s my ability to hit curve balls in a league where fast balls are commonplace that secures my place as heavy hitter amongst the bike fit community. After a year or two of market saturation from new fit systems, people will figure out there is no substitution for experience. Remember, there is a difference between owning a car that can go 200 mph and knowing how to properly drive a car at 200 mph. The ever-changing cycling industry is certainly not creating Formula 1 drivers these days.
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