German mountain bike startup YT Industries has quickly become one of the hottest brands in the sport. During COVID, when demand for bikes was at an all-time high, YT brought on a former Amazon executive to scale the brand, and it became one of more than 100 bike companies to make a big private equity deal (the global investment firm Ardian bought a majority stake of YT in 2021). By the looks of it, YT seemed to be riding the COVID-induced outdoor gear wave better than just about anyone, with splashy marketing campaigns and new showrooms where people can take out their bikes on trails for free and then come back and drink free beer.
In the last year, e-bike company Podbike and cargo bike company Butchers & Bicycles declared bankruptcy. Revel Bikes, which had been purchased by a private equity firm in 2021, ceased operations earlier this year, though its founder then turned around and bought back the operation to bring it back to life.
In YT’s case, you could have a lot of things at play with its insolvency. For one, I know I’ve sure gotten my money’s worth of free beer and bike demos. (YT, Flossman, and Ardion haven’t yet responded to the requests for comment I sent them yesterday.) Flossman said in his YouTube video that, in addition to tariffs and natural disasters in the U.S. which he said stymied demand, there was also a “key supplier” that had quality issues and delivery delays.
In YT’s case, I really hope they can turn things around. Their bikes are sick, and I sure like their free beer!
See you tomorrow,
