Is there a direct correlation between practicing a sport and consuming a sport? Is cycling to niche? This is a very interesting post by the great Andrew Petcash that provides some insightful highlights of the current state of cycling and sparked some thoughts, specially after reading some of the post comments by people that seem to be way more into the sport than I am. 🚲 Despite showing noticeable growth numbers, there's still a perception of being a very niche and fairly high-barrier entry sport, especially at a non-casual level and mostly due to expensive gear. 🚲 Although the numbers show increasing participation and significant global viewership, the feeling is of not being very democratized and being fairly elitist. Also, despite the increasing numbers, there's seems to be disconnection in the correlation between practice and viewership. 🚲 There seems to be a generalized blaming towards many brands in the space that position cycling as a very aspirational, elite & unreachable for the average Joe through their products, prices and brand messaging. Based on those perceptions that I detected, here are a few thoughts: 🚲 Usually the democratization of a sport is the responsibility and best interest of the organizations/properties that are in charge of organizing the sport like federations, associations, leagues, etc. For brands that interact with that sport in particular ways, democratization might be interesting, but not necessarily and that takes me to another point. 🚲 Specifically talking about cycling, did anyone thought that maybe some of these brands that are positioning the sport as something aspirational and elite, are not actually interested in general democratization but more into creating smaller niche communities with unique profiles and interests? Seems to me that many of these brand's strategies are to be very boutique, with not massively distributed products but yes, with very high prices to cater a very specific audience. That's their brand and product strategy. 🚲 Why wouldn't companies, especially in this kind of sport, position their brands, products and messaging as something aspirational and exclusive? Ultimately I think those are messages that a lot of folks connect with. You get into these kind of sports to get out of your comfort zone aiming to accomplish stuff that is difficult to achieve, to try something different and exciting. That's at least in the semi-professional cycling space, obviously not in the average casual cyclist around the neighborhood one. There might actually be an interesting opportunity for new brands in that segment. 🚲 Not all sports have a direct correlation between practice and viewership/engagement, that's why they are niche sports. Cycling in a semi-professional level still seems to be a niche sport and general democratization might never happen. It's not basketball or football. Probably a very very little percentage of F1 followers actually practice competitive motorsport.
Cycling seems to be a 𝘮𝘢𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘭𝘺 under-capitalized opportunity: • 47 million active cyclists in the US • $7.5 billion bike and accessories market • 565 million viewers worldwide & growing • $1B+ in yearly marketing spend by bike brands Interestingly...🚴 ❶ The Tour de France is one of the 𝘮𝘰𝘴𝘵-𝘷𝘪𝘦𝘸𝘦𝘥 sporting events of the year (with 20-30% of countries tuning in). ❷ The number of 𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘤𝘺𝘤𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘴 & 𝘢𝘯𝘯𝘶𝘢𝘭 𝘮𝘢𝘳𝘬𝘦𝘵 𝘴𝘪𝘻𝘦 are expected to continue growing at impressive rates over the next decade. ──── Viewership seems to be tough (the National Cycling League shut down its 2024 season)...But there is a ton of room for the participation side of the sport. 🚴 Having gotten into cycling last year myself, I'm 𝘣𝘶𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘩 on the space.
