Well, if you had a significant overstock, it might have been a more financially prudent approach (“might” doing some heavy lifting there).
The end is nigh: Kona Bikes
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MattiThundrrr
Kona Fan
I was reading a similar thread at another more modern flavoring forum. The opinion there seemed to be that Kona hadn't innovated in years, and weren't really offering any products worthy of interest.
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Attempted Mustache
Retro Guru
I think it is entirely a matter of perspective. It seems to me that people that consider themselves to be primarily ‘mountain bikers’ are a smaller and smaller bunch these days and the predominant forms of off road cycling, at least the stuff the marketers - and this applies to all brands - have gotten behind (and presumably sales have been driven by) have been ‘gravel’ & ‘bikepacking’. Regardless of how you may feel about those terms, in those fields Kona has innovated and remained well regarded, the Sutra, Libre and Unit ranges have been well reviewed and often hard to get hold of in recent years.
I appreciate the potential for bias here - I own and regularly ride two classic era Konas, but I don’t think there was anything particularly wrong with their product or brand perception lately, it has simply been, or is likely to become, victim of an uninterested parent company / malevolent corporate entity.
I appreciate the potential for bias here - I own and regularly ride two classic era Konas, but I don’t think there was anything particularly wrong with their product or brand perception lately, it has simply been, or is likely to become, victim of an uninterested parent company / malevolent corporate entity.
Dealer messages are beginning to circulate. Verifying which are real, which are not, is a challenge.
Presumably US based:
For down-under:
Presumably US based:
For down-under:
If you're thinking, what's up with the UK, I suspect the changes to logistics and single distributor (Mount Green) are factors.
cyclingindustry.news
Although the intention, at least 4 days ago, is to continue importing whilst stocks last...
singletrackworld.com
To quote:
Kona switches to distributor model in the UK & Ireland
Kona is transitioning to a distributor model for sales in the UK and Ireland after 13 years of working direct with dealers
cyclingindustry.news
Although the intention, at least 4 days ago, is to continue importing whilst stocks last...
Kona Bicycles Winds Down: Brand For Sale: UK Distributor Continues To Import Stock
Having bought the Kona brand from the founders just two years ago, owners Kent Outdoors have announced they are abandoning the bike market altogether and have put the Kona brand...
singletrackworld.com
To quote:
I'd love to agree with this statement, but there is truth in that the brand has serious product, range and perceptional challenges, that are partly to blame for the current situation. When/if the dust settles, I'll share my view. For now, my attention and energy is on what happens next.
Cloverleaf
Old School Hero
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I think those of us with a work ethic might like to disagree with that rather sweeping and chippy shouldered generalisation!
It does seem on this forum that there is sometimes this undercurrent of 'my way is the only way', and a lack of understanding that forms of riding bikes can exist other than their chosen genre, and frequently in the history of bikes it's alsocompanies that have had this attitude and a reluctance to move with the times that have struggled. There are some forms I love and some I'm ambivalent towards, but at the end of the day it's all self propelled two wheels, and in the main for me, a bunch of grown men (and women) dicking about on bikes in the mud at weekend.
Some people get really hung up on how some things change the world and such, but at the end of the day it's all just dicking about for a bit of fun. Some bikes are better, some less. Some have a great brand image, some don't, and frequently most our good memories of times on bikes is based on nothing but nostalgia and little to do with the objective 'greatness of the bike'. A bit like some of the lines in that Baz Luhrman song. Having been on the other side in the industry numerous times, companies that exist to sell products. Some do it in a way where they're trying to create an evolutionary or revolutionary better product, and some are trying to create a product that sells better to make them more money. There's definitely a difference. But at the end of the day, unless you're buying something on the upper end of the market they're all mass produced and designed and spec'd to meet the average person's demands who are likely to be buying that bike. And yes, a bike from one manufacturer might ride a bit differently to another but that doesn't inherently make it better overall, albeit it might be better for you. Is there any objective difference between an equivalent Trek, Specialized, Kona or Marin from the early/mid nineties? I'd say not, especially if you're comparing it to where bikes have evolved to. You're talking 0.1% difference between the brand's equivalent models whereas year on year movement regardless of brand might be 5%. With suspension bikes there's definitely a difference because the frame becomes something more than just a place to hang the components and keep them spaced apart properly, but most people on here seem to be more interested in older stuff so that's less relevant.
There's also way more interest on here for the XC end of the spectrum than the DH, with the same usual tropes and disparaging remarks from some as to the DH side of things (I refer to my point that it's all dicking about on two wheels) - like saying Kona lost their way by going towards the gravity market with the Stab and Stinky. Given how the market for bikes has moved on from weight weeny xc I'd say this was a good thing and if they hadn't they'd have died out long ago. The guys who owned the company evolved and decided to change their direction, either from outside pressure or simply because it was fun riding and they wanted to do it. At the end of the day a business makes decisions for itself rather than to keep a few people happy. For me Kona lost a sense of being special somewhere in the mid '00's but was that true, or simply my nostalgia talking? Hard to know. We look back on certain eras fondly, not necessarily because they were better but because of better memories. That's all.
With the Kona situation particularly it's a shame that a company of the Vulture Capital mould has so quickly given up on things. I guess they expected the boom to carry on forever, much like all the companies did in the late nineties, and when it's slowed down they've panicked and jumped. They'll be far from the last, sadly.
Vulture capitalists typically find undervalued companies and break them up to sell the assets.
This looks more like dumb money - as you say, they assumed the boom to last. Idiots.
It's a pity that a decent business got ruined. That said, the bike industry has been trying to find ways to defy gravity for a while - lots of silly wheel sizes, reinventing XC MTBs and Tourers as Gravel bikes etc etc.
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Once again, Kona weren't the only one's to hold on, or go back to thumbies for a bit, Saracen did too and Orange certainly offered them. From memory not everyone (including MBUK) were huge fans of STI so keeping them would appeal to plenty of buyers. That was until 1993/4 when the next gen STI came out for the masses and swept everything else away.
