Intense has restructured its business for the third time in four years. The new name is Intense LLC, and it brings together both assistance and investments from like-minded individuals in the motorcycle business. Jeff Steber will remain in control as CEO. It's no secret that Steber has been searching for the right mix of corporate savvy and grass-roots support in an effort to grow the brand internationally without losing their connection to the loyal, hard-core riders who were responsible for their initial success.
“We hired a management team and a new CEO
back in 2014 to help us take Intense to the next level,” said Steber. “And, for the first two years, everything went pretty well. After that, things became a little more contentious and I started to see that Intense was moving away from our core values. The moment when I realized how far it had gone happened after we developed the aluminum M29 prototypes. I wanted to get our racers on them right away, but our sales guys argued to hold back on the M29 because releasing it would kill sales of the 27.5-inch M16s we had in stock.”
The aluminum M29 prototype precipitated big changes in Intense's management team. Intense photo
Steber couldn’t conceive of such thoughts. He held his ground and Intense Factory Racing scored a second place at Fort William with Australian Jack Moir aboard the 29er prototype. Months later, he
retook the reins of Intense as the CEO and vowed to refocus the brand on racing development.
That’s what Steber knows best and it seemed to be working out. Moir, along with Charlie Harrison and Dean Lucas were posting top ten World Cup results, while at home, Steber collaborated with Cerro Designs’
Cesar Rojo to launch a succession of stunning, technically astute production race bikes, including the Carbon M29 that the Intense Factory team is campaigning with today.
| Walk the same path and you are sure to arrive at the same place.—Anonymous |
Taking a step back to realign Intense with its passion for racing turned out to be a positive move for the brand - at least for the short term. That said, Steber and company are well established as innovators with a passion for racing. What they have yet to figure out is how to follow that path without ending up in the same place.
“Win on Sunday, sell on Monday?” Translating podiums to purchases is not that simple. Nobody is making bank selling downhill bikes these days. If you had access to the numbers, you’d be surprised to discover how few DH bikes are sold annually compared to the millions spent on downhill racing. Race teams are advertising businesses, pure and simple. Winning is the job, but the purpose is to elevate brand awareness. For a bike sponsor, a World Cup DH team pays the bills by selling trail bikes – lots of them.
| I grew up with it. My father was a professional motorcycle racer. I saw how amazing the peaks and valleys were. Racing is a powerful drug. It's so easy to become addicted. I could tell you stories about many who lost fortunes. It doesn't happen often, but when it goes right, there is nothing like that feeling.—Jon-Erik Burleson |
Jon Erik “Jeb” Burleson and Christy LaCurelle get that. Jeb’s father was a professional motorcycle racer. He joined KTM North America’s motorcycle division right out of college and was president for a good part of his 15 years there. Christy put in almost a much time there in motorsports marketing, much of which was working with race teams. She also put together and ran KTM’s youth half-time Supercross racing program. They later formed the Two Wheel Group, a consulting agency which would soon become an integral part of Intense’s future.
A chance meeting a number of years ago brought Jeb and Jeff Steber together. Jeb, an avid mountain bike rider, was on the way to KTM, which was also in Temecula, when a passenger suggested that they roll by Intense. Jeb was impressed by the factory and wanted to become involved right away, but the timing was not right. Steber and Burleson remained in contact, however, and eventually, Jeb joined the board of directors at Intense in January 2018, where Steber came to appreciate his frank assessments of their mountain bike business, and more so, that Burleson understood the importance of the brand’s racing heritage.
“Originally, Jeff asked me to do some consulting work,” said Jeb. “Then later I joined the board, where I basically worked to restructure the finances to give us a runway forwards. Now, it’s been almost exactly one year since we have been working on this project [Intense LLC].”
So, are there big changes in the works? Surprisingly not, which was refreshing to hear. Steber says that they are on a more conservative path that begins by executing their day to day business more efficiently and more importantly, focusing more sharply on Intense’s core customers. To begin with, they are rolling out “Intense Podium Payback" - a contingency plan to reward pro and amateur race winners at selected local and national race venues. Jennifer Gabrielli, who runs that program, tells us that Pro riders receive cash, while amateurs get vouchers for products redeemable on the Intense Rider Direct web store, and as the plan matures, at Intense retailers. The Podium Payback plan was launched locally at the Fontana, California, winter DH series and predictably, it’s a hit.
| I was there when we launched the contingency program at Fontana. When we saw this Intense rider standing on the podium and handed him his check, he had no idea at first, and then he was ecstatic. He said he actually needed the money.—Jennifer Gabrielli, Rider Experience Officer |
On the business side, Jeb says that the traditional sales model has flipped. Originally, the relationship between the bike brand, and its retailers was that the brand marketed its overarching message, while the retailer was responsible to generate the sales.
“Now, all of a sudden, that is changing and we have to make that sale,” says Burleson. “Making the brand seem cool and having people recognize us isn’t enough. Now we have to go one step further and get them to buy – whether that is a click or a door-swing. We call that performance marketing – where we don’t just deliver a message, if it’s social media or whatever, we provide a click-through or an immediate opportunity for that person to make a purchase.”
Jeb believes that the role of the new retail dealer is to be the confidant who provides knowledge, support and service. “Buying a new mountain bike – talking about it, comparing, geeking out on components, having it worked on – it should be super fun,” he says. “If we can shape purchasing our bikes into that positive experience, then it doesn’t matter whether they buy it from us through Rider Direct, or if they buy it from a retailer, we’ve done our jobs.” Arguably, a significant portion of the Intense experience is buying into an ideal that is larger than life, which brings us back to World Cup racing.
| We have to be in it to win it.—Jon-Erik Burleson |
Two of Intense LLC’s investors, four-time Supercross champion Ryan Dungey and Team Geico Honda Co-owner Jeff Majkrzak, have lived that dream. Given their exemplary track records, it
is doubtful that either would invest substantial sums to subsidize Intense’s desire to go World Cup DH racing without an ironclad business plan that included athletes who could deliver top-step performances.
Ryan Dungey understands the business of professional racing. He earned four Supercross titles and is a three-time outdoor Motocross champion. Simon Cudby photo
“The number one thing that we had to do with this restructuring was to become extremely relevant in World Cup downhill,” states Jeb. Easier said than done. If racing was their true north, once Intense LLC committed to that path, anything less than a successful World Cup Team would be suicide. Expensive? You bet. Reportedly the deal required nine months of back and forth between investors, athletes, and Intense. The team announcement posts tomorrow morning.
| The moment you stop moving forward and start talking about what you’ve done, you are no longer relevant.—Jon-Erik Burleson |
It’s certain that Intense fans will applaud a triumphant return to their racing roots, but will it be enough? Most of the brand’s storied history took place before millennials and Gen-X riders bought their first mountain bikes. Once again, Jeb puts it bluntly: “You are only as good as your last win. It’s the same for racing, business, or life. The moment you stop moving forward and start talking about what you’ve done, you are no longer relevant.” The new Intense team has a good track record with both generations and they’re betting that a successful show at the World Cups will engage younger riders, new to the brand.
Providing most goes as planned, what will Intense LLC become five years from now? Well, it turns out that Jennifer Gabrielli and Christy LaCurelle are already at work curating the brand’s future. Jennifer, by reaching out with the Podium Payback program to support racing at the local level and to reward weekend-warriors who paid for their Intenses and live to race. Christy, based upon the enviable success of her KTM youth racing program, is working out a future racing venue designed to bring younger riders into the fold from the day they learn to ride.
Both programs come at a good time. The average age of a Pinkbike member is now thirty-something and a lot of us have kids. If the new race team gets the job done, a lot of riders are going to become first-time customers. Founder Jeff Steber’s first motto was “Intense for Life.” Podium Payback and an upcoming youth racing series could be the best insurance for the brand that this new crop of riders are exactly that.
3rd restructure in 4 years...sure, these are interesting times, but that shows a lack of awareness and poor strategy for the current marketplace. They moved on or "evolved" before fully executing their prior stated direction. Poor strategy from the start or just the standard old performance brand trying to navigate a chaotic marketplace and getting reactionary?
Cool brand and good bikes= all good there.
However, having a retailer dealer base with no effective pricing controls and retailers in the mix who were always offering deals and advertising products on sale results in the average unit retail being well below MSRP. If dealers can't be profitable, that conduit to the customer will erode.
Enter the quasi direct to consumer approach- sounded sort of OK in the PR release, but it provided an additional hurdle for retailers. Sure, DTC can work very well and it may be the future, but there needs to be a transition strategy and weaning period. Cold turkey is rough. Marketing and consumer communication did not match or support the move to direct sales.
Never known anyone to pay full MSRP for an Intense in years.
May be time to adjust sales expectations and balance the business with retail realities?
Or, may be time to charge ahead with tons of marketing, best in class direct to consumer communication, and best in class warranty service.
Good brand with lots of history. Good bikes.
However, lots of other brands and bikes also stack up.
Intense does not appear like they have captured the younger emerging consumer. Seems like they have some connection to "racers" getting a deal and older affluent customers(who are also often getting a deal).
Very common hurdle for older performance brands= you only get the young/new customer by slinging deals and your older core customer only buys from you infrequently.
It appears as if Intense is rapidly losing retail relevancy and a connection to customers even though they appear to be making improvements in products.
I wonder if they have a 5 year plan or if they are just reacting season to season, production run to production run?
When I see investors marketed in a PR piece it is often a red flag. Are the investors going to push things forward and see a reward or just serve to goose things for a bit by providing assurance that there is money and vision?
Intense really needs to make a connection with customers-both old and new. The customer connection and clear benefit to the customer for choosing Intense is what really seems to be lacking.
The bikes look cool, the bikes perform well and a bunch of fast riders are on them...just like any other premium bike brand.
Did Gwinn make YT or did YT make themselves by providing people a higher level of parts at a much lower price while being on top of trends.
To borrow a line from other cash intensive industries “the best way to make a million dollars is to start with five million”. Hope Dunge and the FC guy know what they are doing. I’m sure they love riding bikes but do they love bikes enough to blow a ton of money on the questionable promise of a payoff years down the road?
TL R: intense seems to be throwing it all up against the wall and hoping it sticks.
Stuff is changing so fast now, I'm surprised anyone can stick to a 2 year plan.
they are competing in a rapidly changing market. are already left behind by the other competitors for years and are now stating they want to take a conservative approach... they got to be kidding.
has anyone seen their website? it looks like its from the 90s.. and they try to sell bikes through that thing. it seems that they just dont have any plan what they are dooing what so ever.
the whole brand and even more the managament staff seem so outdated and stuck in the industrial age thtat it hurts.. i really cant see a any chance for a successfull turnaround here..
Man, I’d love to speak with these guys to sort their D2C model out (Europe). It feels like it’s 80% done, but they haven’t quite finished it. Plus they need to sort out the lack of multilingual set up on the Shopify front end.
I hope Intense not only takes World Cup racing this seriously, but also look into getting a strong team together eventually for the Enduro World Series too.
It’s all a business. Donate to charities you find worthy and don’t think for a second that Gwinn (or the Pon people for that matter) give a flying fcuk about you personally.
Santa Cruz has a reputation for great reliability and customer support. Intense... not so much.
Another example is all carbon rims. YOU NEED A STELLAR WARRANTY SERVICE, because pretty expensive products will fail. They will.
I remember people saying Yeti would lose some credibility by not having a DH bike or team, but in the end they still have a cult-like following backed up by arguably very good (if expensive) bikes and probably saved a ton of money by cutting the DH product (loss leader usually) and the uber-expensive WC team.
SC on the other hand have absolutely milked the sponsorship-related marketing and it worked for them but they had corporate cash to afford it and some of the most distinct personalities on their bikes.
Intense got stuck somewhere in the middle with no idea where they were going and maybe less standout bikes or, IDK, not enough focus on markets outside US?
The likelihood of me buying an intense went from zero to negative. I am impressed with Steber's ability to sell a vision. Intense ownership is looking like the timeshares of the cycling business.
Now AG is moving into a company that already sells a lot of bikes, But can he help sell more? I guess we will find out.
But one thing is for certain, He definitely helped YT sell a crap load of bikes.
I think Jebs got some awesome business chops and I know Christy has been around all the race teams and marketing for a long time. This might be pretty cool, we will see...
Looking from the outside, the bottom line at Intense could be argued to be something like the following over the past few years...
'To grow the brand Jeff has to step sway from (X, Y and Z) to have more time doing (A, B and C), and we have this great new (plan / CEO / sales model ) that's going to be great for the consumer, dealer and everyone'
Yet that has proved to be only until Jeff steps back in again because at the end of the day, it's his baby, and if he doesn't like what he sees, he (as he has every right to), steps in and takes back control.
What this does to consumer confidence in each subsequent version of the message is... well, yet to be seen.
Good luck to them all; I hope it all works out.
#Crackerlivesmatter
—meaning eliminate brick and mortar channels, and offshore the brand production. Another “American” brand only not really. Long live small framebuilders.
Not saying to stop producing carbon, but US make aluminum bikes would allow much more flexibility to stay on top of trends. Want to push the long geometry trend? No problem. Want to resize the CS length based on the size of the bike? Done! Want to do full custom geometry with custom paint? What is your CC number?
They could continue to produce carbon in the more standard geometries/sizing, but really push the limits with aluminum. Otherwise they are a zombie company, already dead but still walking...
Very astute.
Fox suspension
e*Thirteen
Renthal
ODI
TRP Brakes
Gwins sponsors.
If you think you have the right answer...you are likely wrong. I say this because if you did have the answer you would likely be one of the highest paid executives in the industry now that is full of highly educated and experienced people that don't have the answer...they have a best assumption. This is not unique to the cycling industry as many other industries have have had to change/adapt to new ways of doing business and some good brands falter due to lack of funding/leadership/outside perspective.
Now for Intense Cycles. This is a company in flux with everyone else. I have heard it from insiders at other brands including the top five. The difference is that Jeff knows his audience and is willing to put himself out there to the naysayers and say we are making changes, these are the people you should be excited about, this is why, these were the matters we look to past, and have learned what did/didn't work, and we are forging ahead to provide industry leading products to existing/new customers. Other brands put out a stale five to seven sentence press release saying we made a change.
Intense/Jeff has not only changed the high end bike market but has changed the culture. I believe surrounding himself with others with a history of success from other industries will help with perspective during this bicycle industry changing period of time.
My suggestion to Jeff is to not let the sales group lead the innovation of the company. You have you have created this brand because somehow you have your hand and the pulse of what the industry needs to have built this brand to what it has become. Top down is the success of the sales staff when they are empowered with marketable knowledge of the products/business/competitors/industry and when their data/feedback is taken into consideration for future products. You have done more that many have, its time to lead them...they will follow.