The Truth About Team Maxxis 2004
Pinkbike: Chance, care to dispell the rumours?
Chance: A week or so ago, rumours began popping up around the various message boards on the web that Maxxis was pulling out of racing, that we were dropping our team for next season and would disappear That's just garbage, it's just not true at all! We're actually looking to upgrade our team for next year. Currently, we have April, John and Colin on the DH and 4X side, Kashi doing XC and we have a mechanic, but we don't have a Team Manager, or a soigneur, those things that make the team more professional. Those are the first things we want to do. We want to add a full time road manager, somebody who's going to be out there, making it easier for our riders to win; so they're not having to worry about hotels, getting to and from the airport and all that crap! Another thing is we wanted to increase our cross-country presence. We're pretty well represented on the DH and 4X market, but we wanted consumers to know there's more to Maxxis than going downhill. A lot of people don't know that the last 2 women's world XC champions were riding Maxxis tires, and barring an craziness, it looks like this year will make it 3 in a row. We really wanted to add another XC rider to the team. What most people don't realize is that manufacturers like Trek, Rocky Mountain, Haro and Cannondale turn to their suppliers, like us and SRAM, and say "Look we're going to spec your product, but you're going to help sponsor our race team." We get that from a lot of teams, we sponsor teams like Rocky, Haro you name it going down the list, we give them cash to help support their teams because of the OE (original equipment) relationship we have.
Pinkbike: I didn't realize that.
Chance: It's very common, companies like Trek, Cannondale and Specialized can go to SRAM and say "give us $100,000 to sponsor our team, or we're going to spec Suntour or Shimano cassettes on this line of bikes." If you don't, you know that's going to cost you 10% of your business. It's a little bit of a blackball situation, but it's all part of doing business. Everybody understands it and operates inside those boundaries.
We don't have that luxury! We can't go to a manufacturer and say "sponsor our team or we're not going to sell you our tires." Because of that, we have traditionally filled the entire bill to sponsor our pro team. Every single penny has come from our company budget. That's a pretty heavy chunk of change. Most people don't realize what kind of money is spent sponsoring these race teams. A shoe-string budget team is looking at at lest $150,000 to compete, and I'd hate to speculate what a team like Trek spends a year on racing. I'd guess it to be at least $750,000 or more. Maxxis falls somewhere in between those, and that's a lot of money to come out of a small company's team budget. So, in order to accomplish those things I spoke about earlier (team expansion), we started looking for partners. It began when we were talking to Giant about some OE stuff, which lead to talking about a road team deal and in the course of this discussion it came down to them saying, "hey, how would you guys like to acquire our mountain bike team?" We started looking at it, and what was involved. Now, keep in mind this is still in discussion, it's probably about 75% done. What we should see for 2004 is the Maxxis/Giant Mountain Bike Team. Colors will be orange with blue trim and we'll use all the component companies they've brought across which helps subsidize the cost of the team. This includes their relationship with Pearl Izumi who have been on board with Giant since last year. It would see us join their entire squad with our entire squad!
Pinkbike: Wow, Kircaldie, Adams, Rando, Bailey, Llanes and Lawyer on one gravity team. That would be something!
Chance: It also gives us one aditional XC rider in Adam Creig, who we actually tried to sign , but just missed when he went to Giant last year. That give us Kashi and Adam on one side as well as having argueably the two hottest girls in the sport (in April and Tara). Both on one poster, can you imagine? We're still working on details but the plan is, Giant would market their side as they wanted to and we would market our side as we wanted to. A lot of people were concerned if we made this deal we would become more corporate and Maxxis wouldn't have that same feel. we will continue to support the DH/4X side as we always have, we'll stay true and core to the sport. We kept it pretty hush-hush until Steve Westover (Giant USA) had a meeting with his people and I guess it leaked out. From our side, we didn't want Turner (current bike sponsor) to be upset that we would be going somewhere else. they've been very helpful, they've provided great bikes. The team has loved the bikes, and Turner's been a great partner throughout. Likewise, Giant wanted to keep it hush because they've had a great relationship with Michelin too. No one wants to burn any bridges.
At the same time, Turner doesn't sell complete bikes, so they don't buy any OE from us and they can't afford to subsidize a team with the cash we need to upgrade adding another Xc rider, adding a full time Team Manager and soigneur. Then you have the whole issue of Kashi not being able to get a Turner XC bike so he has go out and get one from another manufacturer. It doesn't give you a lot of uniformity across the team, so that's why the relationship with Giant really fits the bill. They obviously make competitive bikes because theon of the top DH teams in the world is riding them (Maxxis/MSC).
Pinkbike: That's where the business side has to come in.
Chance: Exactly, but at the same time we want to be good for the sport. We see sponsors bailing left and right. Realistically as a marketing person, if I sit down and look at the numbers, I can spend X number of dollars on the grassroots side and get a lot more in return than I can by sponsoring a team in the NORBA series. But we feel an obligation to back the sport and the industry in which we sell our product. So we have to balance being true to the sport and being true to our corporate bottom line and I think this kind of meets both of them. If it all comes together, we'll have an 8 or 9 man roster with 2 trucks painted in similar colors so that we can put the XC boys in one, and the DH crew in another. That way, if we need to split venues, we can. I think as a whole, it's going to be a really good opportunity for us and Giant. Giant has always been known as having a bike for everyone, but not necessarily for the "hard core" crowd. They've worked really hard to change that through their R&D program and through racer feedback, just like we've used our race program to develop and design our tires. That's why they work! Giant knows we use riders in our program who are committed to that and understand the necessity for racing development. As it stands now, the team will be run by Maxxis out of our office. We're pretty psyched, but like I've said, we're only 75% of the way there but we hope to have it done by Interbike.
Pinkbike: Thanks for the interview Chance, good luck with the team's development and in the 2004 season.
Chance: My pleasure, I figured we had to dispell the rumours that we were going away, and Pinkbike is a well respected source for accurate information on the web. Thanks for your time!
