The fall of Kona Bikes :(

[EB]

They set everything up at Sea Otter and then the CEO told them to pack uo and leave. With an ominous all hands meeting on the calendar next week. Doesn’t look good for Kona, with some awkwardly timed PR about a new gravel bike going out the same day.

https://www.bicycleretailer.com/indu...down-sea-otter

Credible rumors are that the brand is shutting down.

[vertr]

I heard rumors two months ago that people were calling their support lines and the reps were telling them the brand was in trouble and to tell their friends to not buy anything else from them (and no parts were being restocked). Bellingham and Seattle used to be full of Kona bikes but they have been replaced by Transition. It's sad, but the founders sold out which is a familiar story of this decade.

[AngryScientist]

Man, that is some BS. Treating employees like that is top level classlessness.

Picking a team to prepare for, travel to and set-up for a big event like sea otter, only to tell them break it down and there will be a town-hall next week is just heartless, soulless garbage.

There is a right and a wrong way to make an exit.

[prototoast]

The writing has been on the wall for months, if not years for them, but this is still a particularly awkward way to die.

[reuben]

Interesting. When I tried to buy a Kona Sutra frame last year they were selling built bikes hand over fist, and it was hard to get just a frame. Or maybe it was just a post-pandemic glut that they hadn't yet realized. At any rate, they were shipping them by the container.

After a few months the regional rep, who was great, got permission to strip a built bike and sell it to me through an LBS.

[bicycletricycle]

Bummer.

[rothwem]

I hope its just a restructure and not a total brand collapse. Kona has always been pretty innovative and influential for the industry--the Honzo popularized the short stay long travel hardtail, the Jake the Snake brought slack HTA's to gravel, and they were one of the first players in the Freeride space back in the early 2000's.

I wonder what caused their downfall, were they just worse at marketing their bikes?

[unterhausen]

I feel like selling bikes 2 for 1 might have been a clue, but I dunno, I'm not a bike industry genius.

[GonaSovereign]

Originally Posted by unterhausen

I feel like selling bikes 2 for 1 might have been a clue, but I dunno, I'm not a bike industry genius.

That was a very loud alarm bell.
The midsize company often has it hardest.
It stinks because Kona is/was so much more interesting than many.

[prototoast]

Strange, considering they just announced a new model yesterday (https://bikerumor.com/kona-ouroboros...e-dropbar-mtb/), which was their first new/updated bike model since 2019? 2020? It's been a while.

[EB]

Originally Posted by prototoast

Strange, considering they just announced a new model yesterday (https://bikerumor.com/kona-ouroboros...e-dropbar-mtb/), which was their first new/updated bike model since 2019? 2020? It's been a while.

Probably the marketing guys who lined these press drops up for Sea Otter were just as much in the dark as the people who actually went to Sea Otter.

[redir]

That is very odd, could be somethign else going on. If not then bummer. I just was in one of my LBS's yesterday and was looking at their Kona bikes. Not that I am interested in buying but still, you know. The shop owner spoke highly of them.

[steelrimbrake]

Bummed to hear - their MTBs always fit me great.

[XXtwindad]

Originally Posted by prototoast

Strange, considering they just announced a new model yesterday (https://bikerumor.com/kona-ouroboros...e-dropbar-mtb/), which was their first new/updated bike model since 2019? 2020? It's been a while.

The article claims the bike will fit a 29x2.5 tire with a rigid fork with clearance for a 48/31 crank. That’s pretty impressive.

[benb]

I really want to hear about the bike companies that didn't ring up Taiwan and order way too many bikes in the middle of the pandemic and then end up in this situation.

Is it just the companies that actually still make their own bikes who didn't fall into this?

Like when you just call Taiwan and say make us bikes it's so easy you don't think about it ahead of time whereas any manager who actually has a factory realizes they shouldn't expand the factory 4x and hire 4x the workers just cause you couldn't make enough bikes in 2020?

Are there any boutique builders or factories the size of Seven, Moots, IF, etc.. who are in trouble?