Goodbye Aspen...And Walmart and Cycling

Good morning…

I am headed back to Coronado from Aspen. I will save you the ‘what a hard life’ ….by saying it myself. My life is good.

If you are lucky enough to live in Aspen, well done. It is really a special place to spend some outdoor time.

Back to the ‘real world’ of Coronado which is a fantastic consolation prize.

This morning I got out for one last ride and caught a beautiful early morning warm sunny day to climb Maroon Bells. It is a 10 mile climb with 2,000 feet of vertical which is not terribly difficult but for the altitude.

Here I am at the top…

From a macro perspective I am more bullish on cycling than ever. The current global cycling market is $65 billion and growing.

The world is getting warmer which means more time to cycle and more cycling investment as land is eventually repurposed. Those Alps and Rockies are for riding. The technology of disc brakes, gravel and e-bikes along with the Apple watch, Strava and the many new apps to help us make sense fo all the data to enjoy the sport more is accelerating the TAM (total addressable market).

If you go to SOHO in New York city today you can see an LULU, Vuori and ALO store on 3 of 4 corners. I can see the same thing eventually happening for the cycling industry as ‘off bike’ clothing takes off.

Rapha was the first cycling brand/store in SOHO and they did the hard work laying the foundation for a next wave of cycling fashion brands. I was a Rapha fanatic for a long while. But, after the Walmart heirs purchased the brand, I went on the hunt for other brands which also led to our investment in DSTNC. The Walton family loving cycling is GREAT from a macro perspective as they will be huge investors in the sector. A reader of the blog Jeff Hawes who lives in NWA (North West Arkansas) had this to say:

Living in NWA (Northwest Arkansas) I can tell you the Walton boys are huge cycling fans and because of them we have high quality mountain bike trails criss-crossing NWA and visitors coming in to ride them from across the country.

One Idea I keep sharing with Sharon and Nave at DSTNC is open a pop up store right next to Rapha with curated DSTNC selections from the top technical/fashion brands from around the world…

Speaking of the warmer earth and land repurposing, a quick note about golf specifically, Par 3 championship golf and Grass Clippings.

Pete Wilson, a Grass Clippings co-founder, who runs marketing and the social channels for Grass Clippings shared this awesome aerial photo of the par 3 course this morning…

This course will be 'lit’ no pun intended. There are 117 lighted golf courses in South Korea and just 19 in the USA (including our Grass Clippings course). A ‘bigly’ trend is underway.

Have a great Friday.