Specialized apologises and donates to gas blast cycle store over “better bike shops” flyposter

Specialized has apologised to the Seattle bike shop damaged in a major gas blast last month having flyposted a message that read “Better bikes come from better bike shops” on the wrecked storefront.

The store in question – G&O Family Cyclery, who tweeted the above pic and wrote this blog – is not a Specialized dealer.

According to the Seattle Bike Blog, Specialized’s global marketing manager Erick Marcheschi has apologised and now donated money to the shop’s fundraiser to help the dealer get back on its feet. Indeed, the fundraising page shows a $1,000 donation to the pot and carries this message from Specialized:

“Hello G&O Family Cyclery, we hope you accept our donation to rebuild, and continue to make a positive impact on families and cyclists in your community. We are deeply sorry for the regrettably placed poster on your shop earlier this week. As you are aware at this point, our team had worked with an outside agency to put up posters on vacant buildings and by a stroke of bad luck and an uninformed street team, the poster was placed. We want to reinforce that this was in no way intentional or malicious, and instead an honest mistake. We are taking the appropriate actions to have it removed immediately. We very much respect and stand strong with local bike shops such as yours, as owners like you are what keep the bicycle culture thriving. Regardless of bike, brand, or location, we want to see local bike shops succeed and continue to serve their communities. – The Team at Specialized”

“I feel bad about it, it was 100% not intentional,” Marcheschi told the blog.

Specialized said that it contracts a street advertising company in Seattle, among other cities, to put up its advertising.

“They’re looking to opportunities where there are plywood surfaces they can put these wheatpastings on, It’s really unfortunate that this was one of those surfaces,” added Marcheschi.

For updates on the shop’s fundraiser, which is just shy of its target at the time of writing, follow G&O here.