Shimano scales back on cycling apparel & discontinues Milremo

Shimano Europe has announced a refocusing of its priorities, with a significant scaling back of its activities in the cycling apparel space. The inescapable ‘black hole’ impact of Covid has been listed as a factor in the move, which will include discontinuing Shimano’s custom clothing brand Milremo.

The regular Shimano apparel collection will be streamlined too, continuing to offer shoe covers, gloves and socks alongside a “limited apparel line-up”. 13 jobs are directly affected.

Shimano noted increasing competition, shifting retailer priorities and supply chain challenges, all of which were intensified by the impact of the pandemic.

The production and shipment of the Shimano Autumn-Winter 2025 collection will proceed as
planned, while Milremo customers will have the opportunity to place one final order for their
custom clothing before operations cease.

Shimano Europe said: “Unfortunately, this decision directly affects the jobs of 13 of our colleagues. We recognise that this is a challenging and uncertain time for them and their families. We are fully committed to being there for them and offering support wherever possible during this difficult period. We deeply appreciate their dedication and contributions to Shimano, and we are sincerely grateful for everything they have done.

“With this impactful and difficult decision, we remain dedicated to advancing the cycling industry with innovative and high-quality products.”

Analysis

Shimano’s reference to “shifting retailer priorities”, presumably in relation to cycling apparel, touches on a difficult point. Apparel is regularly found to be a product area that bike shops pull back on, in terms of their investment, as illustrated in recent years of CIN’s own Market Data. Yet, this bafflingly appears to be a long term trend which, if read at face value, would infer that no cycling apparel is sold in bike shops in the UK – yet we know that not to be the case. CIN examined this phenomenon in depth here, looking at some of the nuance of the topic. Stats gleaned from other sources, including Spain’s AMBE, have also noted modest drops for clothing sales in that European territory in recent years. Pundits may be drawn to the conclusion that Shimano’s move to back away from apparel is also due in part to strained trading for the cycle market for the past few years, which are naturally leading brands to refocus on core activities to release pressure on cash flow.