Two Surprising Things About MTBing's Newest Component Brand

When the new component brand Cast was announced last week, two things surprised me. First, the list of professional mountain bikers they are sponsoring is impressively long. They’ve signed some of the biggest names in the sport—athletes like Greg Minnaar, Danny McCaskill, Fabio Wibmer, and Danny Hart, just to name a few. Athletes of this caliber could choose any brand to work with, so I was excited to see what kind of products Cast offered to attract them.

That leads me to the second thing that surprised me: Cast currently offers only a few products, and to me, they’re uninspiring. They have an aluminum handlebar, a stem, one model of grip, and a 24” tire. That’s it. The first thing that struck me immediately is that these product categories are already heavily commoditized, and Cast’s offerings don’t seem to bring anything new to the table. So, what am I missing? Is there something about this brand that makes it exciting, or is it just an attempt to manipulate mountain bike consumers by name-dropping big-name athletes to create hype?

As we know, partnering with top athletes to sell products isn’t a bad idea. In fact, if done right, it can be a win-win for everyone involved. The concept behind Cast seems noble enough. The first line of their About Us page says, “Mountain biking and gravity sports deserve brands that truly care about the riders, the sport, and the community.” After reading this, I thought it was a great mission, and I was curious to find out how they planned to achieve it. But after digging around, it seems they aim to tackle this mission by assembling a "cast" of world-class athletes, with the goal of, in their words, "bridging the gap between product, innovation, and community."

The first potential problem that occurred to me is that I’m not sure what the “gap between product, innovation, and community” actually looks like. Moreover, why haven’t other brands—those with good products, cutting-edge innovations, and worldwide communities—figured out how to bridge this gap? Who knows what Cast has in the pipeline, but as of now, I would argue they don’t yet have any of these three things, and I couldn’t find any clear indication that they have a plan to reach this goal. I’d love to be proved wrong, but right now, what was meant to be a win-win situation—for the brand, the athletes, and the sport—feels more like an empty mission statement. It could end up being a lose-lose for the brand, the athletes, the consumers, and the industry.

I do get excited when brands try to tackle big problems in innovative ways, but when done poorly, especially at this scale, the impacts can be significant for a lot of parties. First, the athletes. Any partnership with athletes should benefit the athletes themselves. When athletes sign with a brand, they place a lot of trust in that company. The brand expects the athlete to represent them well, but there’s also a significant amount of trust that the athlete places in the brand. An athlete’s reputation is tied to the brand and its products, and it’s a big loss for them if sentiment around their sponsor turns negative. It also takes time for athletes to build relationships with brands, so if the brand doesn’t succeed, it can be a wasted effort and a lost opportunity for the athlete.

Secondly, this situation could hurt consumers. If they’re misled about the brand or its products, they could make poor purchasing decisions that they later regret. Finally, if a brand like Cast doesn’t have staying power, it can erode trust in the rest of the bike industry, especially with consumers who expect brands to deliver on their promises. This is bad for the industry as a whole.

All in all, I think it’s cool and admirable that the people behind Cast want to bring change to the bike industry. However, I question the viability of their strategy. It takes a lot of handlebar sales to cover the cost of sponsoring big-name athletes. It’s interesting to see that, even in a time when the bike industry is mostly focusing on streamlining and efficiency, there are still startups diving headfirst into the market, spending big before proving their business model. If nothing else, it shows that people are still excited and optimistic about the future of the bike industry.