Built the ultimate lifestyle brand for baby boomers chasing counterculture cool. The brand became so powerful that dentists and accountants paid premium prices to feel like rebels. Apparel and merch became a business unto itself.
Their core demographic aged out. Average buyer is now over 50, and the fastest-growing product category is tricycles for customers who can't hold up bikes. Attempts to reach younger buyers with new models and electric bikes failed due to poor execution. Meanwhile, they listened too closely to aging aficionados who demanded more features, more complexity, more expense — classic innovator's dilemma.
Empty stores in Vegas on a Saturday night. Gen X won't risk it with kids. Millennials want social experiences, not lone-wolf rides. Gen Z sees suburban dentists in leather chaps as the opposite of authenticity. The brand went from everywhere to nowhere.
