Stolen Goat: Shared brand and retail partner success

Cycling Industry News’ staffer Simon Cox recently sat down with Jim Hart, Sales Manager at Stolen Goat, for a conversation about brand, customer engagement, retail, and how pulling the brand from the biggest online retailer was the best decision the business has made.

Simon

OK, Jim, so for Stolen Goat it’s a direct relationship you have with retailers; there’s no distributor.

I’m interested to know what kind of attitudes you come across in shops, where it seems cycling retail doesn’t have much love for clothing.

Jim

Thanks Simon, Yes, it’s funny. As you said, the attitude is very common that clothing doesn’t sell.
Clothing takes up a lot of floor space. There are shops who’ll tell you, they don’t do well from it.

We’ve kind of bucked the trend. The retailers we work with find that clothing does sell in shops.

I think it’s just about being clever, about being different. We take pride in working to build value-based partnerships which provide shops with a positive opportunity. I think we’re very fortunate that Stolen Goat has got a lot of personality in it, therefore does stand out from the crowd. We offer something that’s a little bit different. I guess we’re a Marmite brand. But we see this as an advantage.

We do very well from standing out. It’s bringing in colour through personality. Stolen Goat riders are visible on the road, as a brand, and as a road user. I think that’s where we’re doing particularly well.

Another thing which really helped us, when it came to approaching retailers was winning the 2020 “Women’s Cycling Clothing Brand Of The Year” award. As a brand we’ve got a huge female following.

Social Media plays a big part here. We’ve a Facebook group that we call ‘The Herd’, which we’ve found helps a lot. Simple example: We get a lot of personal recommendations from The Herd, directed initially to people’s local bike shops. People do want to support their local bike shops. Many actively approach us to try and engage their local shops, providing us with a personal intro.

Simon

The power of having a Marmite kind of brand; you’ve got brand evangelists. You’ve got people who are vocal fans. You don’t have casual Stolen Goat interest. You have people who are enthused already, and hoping to find good commercial relationships, because they already loved what the brand is about.

Jim

Absolutely. And we work very closely with our wholesale relationships, and I expect the same from my retailers. We expect certain standards of them, but I have a personal relationship with every single retailer across the country.

Now we do some very different things to try and support that.

This year, for Autumn / Winter 22, we’ve introduced a range of wholesale exclusives. Now that’s a whole range of clothing exclusively available at a Stolen Goat retailer, developed specifically to drive customers to partner retailers. We won’t even launch these pieces on our own website. The feedback we’re getting says having an exclusively available in-store range is valuable for partner retailers, driving custom from us, direct to them.

Using our social media channels, and our web content, we drive our customers to their independent bike shop to really support the relationship between Stolen Goat and our retailers. That’s probably the best example I can give of the 2-way relationship, where the value is there for us both.

Simon

I think I’d tie one other element you’ve already mentioned in here Jim. What I see is that businesses who are winning a Women’s specific Award are already sending a clear signal to customers. For the Cycling Industry, generally what we see is and older, male, white customer base. The challenge we face, as an industry, is that established markets don’t see strong growth. That the customer base is struggling to expand beyond that segment. It’s a somewhat saturated market. Where there is real scope for strong growth is in emerging markets – women’s cycling as one example. Making the sport more accessible for different body shapes, another example.

Jim

Yeah, absolutely. And it’s certainly what we’re finding. We sell a lot of clothing to women, and our plus sizing is popular with both male and female riders. It’s one thing that we’ve really been working on as a brand; be as inclusive as we can. A great example of walking the walk, not just talking the talk: Our recent marketing campaigns use actual customers in the images that promote the brand. This really does show and publicise, what we’re all about.

We talked earlier about the fact our customers have come to be known as ‘The Herd’, our brand evangelists, our fans, those who promote and support us. For the majority of The Herd, it’s not about racing, and it’s not about KOMs. It’s about inclusivity and it’s about getting people to ‘Find their freedom through sport and exercise’.

Simon

It’s really important where riders aren’t the advertising or marketing stereotype of a cyclist’s physique. You’ve got Emily Chappell, an absolute legend, and a powerhouse on a bike (well worth a Google if you’re not familiar) who’s openly discussed, at some length, the challenges she’s had with body self-image, despite being an exceptional rider. Our industry has a responsibility, and a real role to play, in showing all body shapes and sizes in promotional material. Enabling people with kit that’s tailored for all body sizes and shapes.

Jim

Absolutely. In terms of clothing, our size curves will always run a broad range. It’s important to cater for as many sizes as possible. Otherwise, you alienate people and that’s not our ethos

Simon

Talking of kit sizes and ranges; Stolen Goat road kit is based on Bioracer produced garments? 

Jim

Bioracer is our main supplier for our road cycling kit yes. But we use a mix of suppliers in other categories such as MTB, Swim and gravel. In the old days we were purely white labelling items, but we innovate in house these days where possible.

On the road cycling kit front, most retailers in the UK know Bioracer as the Ineos kit sponsor, so it stands us in very good stead. Mix that with our in-house design, service, support and personality has done us really well.

Store wise, we’re in some great places. Our retailer relationships include specialist one store, owner run, businesses, and the likes of multi store group Tiso Alpine. In Scotland we’re in all their stores. Going into the Tiso stores, you open the doors and you see Stolen Goat alongside Patagonia and these huge brands; something we’re very proud off. Considering 3 and a half years ago we weren’t in retail spaces like this.

I’ve travelled all of Scotland, which I do 2 or 3 times a year, visiting each and every store, regardless of their size, as part of visiting Stolen Goat retailers right across the UK, sometimes driving 1400 miles in a week. It’s important to mention here; genuine, personal, relationships are hugely important. They’re something we develop, regardless of the size of the opportunity. One of our smallest relationships, a little store and café in Coleford in Devon, is an old filling station. They pick up a lot of tourists. Traffic between Lyme Regis and Honiton, basically. They’re a perfect example of building relationships of mutual value, irrespective of size.

Simon

You have brand fans who are asking retailers to stock this product, and you have fans within retail who want to sell the product. The dynamic is very different from that of many cycle retail situations, where clothing is not positively viewed.

Jim

Indeed. We find that Stolen Goat works really well in store if we shape it correctly. It’s why Stolen Goat in-store exclusive designs are such a strong concept. It drives customers to our retail partners. Add to that, whilst people are in-store there’s potential to book a bike serviced or pick up sports nutrition – things which build deeper relationships.

Getting people in the bike shops ‘on brand’ is important. I’m actually blown away with some of our retailer relationships, with how much they are all over their social channels with Stolen Goat. It’s a genuine want to showcase the brand. In our experience, the dealers that embrace social media and shout about the brands they stock tend to perform the best.

With shop staff, we try and get everyone wearing the brand, offering strong staff purchase rates – better than normal trade pricing – because it’s hugely important that someone who’s selling the brand is also wearing it. They’re a lot more passionate and knowledgeable about the kit.

This, mixed with staff training, is crucial, encouraging people to live the brand. That also works for things like shop events, shows, and races, irrespective of event size. We’ll try and support them as much as we can with personal attendance, and giveaways, because it demonstrates that relationship, and gets everyone onboard. The bond this forms makes a difference in-store, when staff show customers clothing options.

Simon

Yeah, I think when you mentioned training, I guess naturally enough, some of that is product focused, fabric technologies, crash replacement policy, repair services etc. Do you also then dip into things like retail clothing management, where you’re looking at things like managing stock rotations, thinking about size curves, managing broken size ranges, identifying what doesn’t move and how you manage that out; things which improve retail performance?

Jim

Yeah, 100%. That’s all done by me personally, helping with merchandising a shop ensuring the clothing is displayed in a way that generates sales.

We dip into how best to lay out the store to optimize bike and clothing sales working in tandem.

It’s hugely important that any product is merchandising and showcased properly. We also coach stock management, encouraging people to make sure that if they are mid-season and they’ve run out of all their triple XL’s, you know to pick up the phone and top up, because without it you’re not going to make those sales.

Simon

Where you work exclusively with Stolen Goat, that’s the major difference. Other reps, they’ve got a product portfolio and there’s only going to be so much love and so much commitment that you can spread around with a portfolio.

Jim

Yeah. The other thing: When I first accepted the job with Stolen Goat I wanted to be sure that I wasn’t financially incentivised based on size of order. This way, it makes no difference to me whether a shop places a £500 or £50,000 order. As a business that’s really strong. You’re clearly enabling shops to make the choices that work for them.

Simon

You’re incentivizing the building of strong relationships that are mutually valued as opposed to just shifting units.

Jim

100% and I think those honest conversations with stores always goes down well. It serves us well that I am pure Stolen Goat, rather than an agent for multiple brands. Those close relationships with our retailers also mean we see strong uptake on our ‘full custom’ service.

A lot of bike shops, cafes and independents have got their own shop-kit. From there a lot of staff work alongside local race teams. We’ve seen this work its way up to substantial teams.

Where shops are retailing Stolen Goat, and their local club is wearing kit we’ve delivered, then the club riders, the team riders, even the elite riders will often form a relationship with the local bike shop.

A win, win, because it’s more jerseys out on the road, and custom opportunities direct sales to shops that stock the brand.

On top of this, we offer lifetime warranty and lifetime crash replacement. When you’re talking to a bike shop, and it’s a new business opportunity, and you say ‘even on mountain bike jerseys!’ – you have a lay down in a berm at 20 miles an hour, on a black run, in Wales. That Jersey is shredded. So for us to turn around and go ‘you’ve crashed in it. D’you know what, we can’t repair that, so here’s a new one’, that sort of customer care does keep people loving the brand.

Simon

In the current climate, more than ever, lifetime crash replacement, paired with a repair service, that’s real value. That does influence decisions people make as to what brands they buy and why they bought them. There are still some of the premium brands who don’t offer a repairs service.

Jim

It’s a bitter pill to swallow if you crash in £180 set of bibs. And here it’s less about profit and more about looking after people. I think that’s what we find with The Herd, our Facebook group (Stolen Goat staff are also part of this) which we started during COVID lockdown. It’s about being able to communicate. This is something we do very well.

Prime example: There are products we’ve developed because The Herd asked for it. That’s not your typical brand / customer relationship. They’re able to communicate on a friendship level with the staff members of the brand, including the CEO.

That’s the power of The Herd.