BikeBiz Bicycle and cycling retail news
Why do brands attend Bike PressCamp? “Aside from this beautiful setting and amazing riding? quipped Bill Rudell of the flexible body-protection brand G-Form.
Rudell has attended every PressCamp to date, including the first one in Sun Valley, Idaho. He stuck with the concept when it moved to Deer Valley in Utah. Previously he was the media man for GT and Cannondale. Last year he attended PressCamp with G-Form.
“I believe in this 45 minutes of one on one interaction,” said Rudell.
“I can share success stories on how we’re doing, and what goes into the development of new products. At shows like Interbike the media have other things to do, big bike brands to see.
Getting undivided attention from editors is a key draw, he said.
“From year last year, from Instagram and video feeds and new stories we had twelve examples of coverage – that’s a lot for a non-bike brand. And getting to meet the editors means we also get asked to provide gear for photo shoots. We’ve had tech stories done on us that resulted from being here.
“We’ll only come if we have a new story to tell. This year we have a new elite line, a new ‘slide’ line of pads which has a slippery covering that won’t stick to skate ramps, and we have the next evolution of our bib short to show.
“Last year, not every editor knew who G-form was; this year the editors already knew who we are. That’s huge.
While Rudell has been to every PressCamp, the 2017 event is Ara Hagan’s first. She was here representing Bag Balm of Vermont, an all-round salve first made in 1899 to reduce cow udder chafing – “bag” is an American farmer’s term for udder.
“We’ve been able to explain our back-story in a really amazing setting,” Hagan told BikeBiz.
“We’ve been able to explain our back-story in a really amazing setting. Half of the editors already knew about the heritage of Bag Balm, but only two or three knew it had a use in cycling. Bag Balm works great as a chamois cream but it’s also really effective for treating ‘road rash’. We’re hoping to extend our reach and get some editorial in places we couldn’t otherwise reach.
The company has just ten workers, half of them blending Bag Balm to a traditional and simple recipe – including petrolatum and lanolin.
Hagan was joined at PressCamp by former Olympic cyclist Sky Christopherson, seen above with a tin of the looking-for-a-UK-distributor salve. He told editors that the US cycling team had long used Bag Balm for racing and training.
Bike PressCamp is run in tandem with Outdoor PressCamp.
