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The CC - Caution: Freeriders Ahead!
Caution: Freeriders Ahead! Back in the '90s, the mountain bike scene was very serious: With cross country and downhill racers dueling for top World Cup honors; it was all about lycra and lap times. Michael Carroll and Scott Schneider were marketing the Rocky Mountain race teams in those years. A couple weeks back, Scott and I were reliving the birth of Freeriding; when a few snowboard, ski and bike riders just wanted to get out and have a little too much fun. Nobody had yet figured out what to call guys sliding down 45 degree gravel scree slopes and launching off rock outcrops. They were doing stupid, unserious things that broke bikes and bodies. Scott remembered, “How cool it was that Michael, my fearless and stressed-out marketing manager, told me that we’re putting together the world’s first freeride bike team.” This was long before “freeride*” had even begun to be in the mountain bike lexicon. Freeride had belonged to the snowboard scene. But for mountain biking? It was unheard of. Scott worked up a magazine ad: A large yellow “caution” diamond used for rockfall warnings. It was titled: “Caution: Freeriders Ahead.” No explanation. No bike specs. Just riders names, and the warning: These guys were about to come flying down over your head. And that ad caught the attention of lots of people, including our competitors. Michael got the official letter from the Cannondale lawyers who told us to “cease and desist”. They had actually trademarked the word “freeride” around bikes. Scott chuckled as he recalled the conversation, “Yeah, we were surprised! I remember thinking, ‘This big U.S. bike company thinks they can trademark “freeride”? That’s like trying to trademark “fun”! And that got me thinking…” . “Which is how most of your questionable creative decisions began….” I quipped back at him. Scott took the jab, “Ha! Right! Anyway, I proposed to you and Mike that we should have some fun with this. But I remember you were kinda scared, because around this time, you were preparing to sell the company.” Scott’s next ad is looking down on a desktop – supposedly mine. It has Cannondale’s “cease-and-desist” letter partially covered by a fake response letter from Rocky Mountain. The letter asks Cannondale’s for permission, “...since we can’t use freeriders; how about FroRiders?” Yeah, I was scared – it was a very risky move, because it’s not the conservative Canadian way to do it. But after I checked with our lawyer to make sure no one was going to jail, I gave Scott and Mike the green light. “So we ran it. In the same magazines.” Scott recalled, “I was like, what if this bombs?” But it didn't bomb. The ad was so good and it got so much traction, it was in every magazine, all bike magazines in Germany, Spain and Italy were running this ad. It made its way to Singapore, Japan and New Zealand. Everywhere around the world because it was so ridiculous. But we didn’t stop there. There was a third ad in the series. The FroRiders, Wade Simmons, Karys Evans, Damien Skelton, Brett Tippie, and Richie Schley took on their role very unseriously at the Sea Otter Classic. The Cannondale folks came up to me at the big event party and said, “Yeah – we regret sending you that letter.” I laughed, and gave them some wigs to wear. When I approved that ad, I guess I was taking a risk, especially while I was neck-deep in negotiations to sell the company. But I’ve chosen to live a life with whimsy and passion, where actions have taken precedence over too much planning. It was our FroRiders who helped to launch the sport of freeriding*. So thank you, Cannondale, for trying to stop us freeriding. *If any of my readers don’t know what Freeriding is all about, come up and join us this August at www.crankworx.com/whistler I would love to connect with you on LinkedIn, Facebook, or Instagram See you next week, Grayson Did someone forward you this email? Get weekly reflections straight to your inbox by subscribing to The Compassionate Competitor. Want to share this issue via text, social media, or email? Just copy and paste this link: [ARCHIVE URL GOES HERE] |
Grayson Bain
Join us if you're yearning for business insights peppered with adventure, humanity, and a dash of humility. It’s more than success; it’s about significance.
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