New Belgium-Detroit Bikes

This video follows the story of the Detroit Bikes project with New Belgium Brewing for their 25th anniversary Fat Tire bike. The biggest order for American made bikes in decades.

This is the Detroit bikes Factory it’s been open and running for about 2 years now going into year two got this great deal with New Belgium so we’re just ramping up production getting ready to put those bikes out into the World as I started to think a little bit about production and about making things Detroit was really the the best place to look Detroit has a rich history of production a lot of that’s with the Auto industry and certainly Detroit bikes has benefited greatly from that there are

People who got their skills working in the Auto industry who then were looking for work so we’ve been able to find some incredibly skilled people uh and a lot of machines you know and this Factory space a lot of this is a result of being in an industrial center the reception

For this company and and for what we’ve done has been part of why we’re able to exist is just the enthusiasm of people in Detroit It’s also just such a such an interesting city to live in I mean there’s so much happening right now it’s a city that is in a huge transition it’s a city that’s been through a lot of huge transitions I think there’s just a lot a lot going on and a lot to

Do so when I first moved to Detroit there wasn’t a lot of bike culture here there wasn’t a lot of cycling um and over the last 4 years it’s it’s really picked up a lot of that has to do with group rides the Slow Roll is massive

It’s attracted all kinds of people from the suburbs and from Detroit itself people who just want to find a way to get together and enjoy each other’s company while exploring the city of Detroit in a way that’s safe and Fun There’s also a very strong Belgian Connection in Detroit itself and a lot of that is based out of the kaju cafe so the kaju cafe Prides itself on being the only place in America where people feather Bowl at the clubhouse when rly B beer came out everyone was blown away wondering

How a beer was being made with you know our weird sport on the label so many people who work here featherbow and then New Belgium also has a similar you know sport taking place in the brewery it’s it’s a great Connection the partnership with New Belgium happened after a night of having a few uh New Belgium beers I was uh drinking a fat tire and looking at the label and I knew the story of New Belgium and I knew that it was a small company that had

Strong values and just kind of tried to do things the right way right from the beginning and I thought that the people at New Belgium might be really interested in what we were doing with Detroit bikes not just because it’s happening in Detroit and because it’s relating to bikes but also because of

How we’re running this company I sent an email just to info@ newbelgium.com or something just like the base email address from the website and about 3 months later I just I got an email back from somebody saying no yeah this is interesting in the United States every

Year there’s 16 million bikes that are sold of the 16 million only 50,000 are made in the US so it’s a tiny little fraction so this one building that we’re in can double the country’s output of bikes New Belgium for something like 15 years has been producing bikes they give

Them to their employees on the anniversary their first anniversary with the company they they also give them to some of their key accounts this is the first time that New Belgium will be ordering bikes that are mass produced in the US in fact it’s probably the biggest order of americanmade bikes in

Decades in our first year we sold 1,000 bikes and the New Belgium order is for just under 2500 bikes so it’s over double uh what we did in our first year so it’s hugely exciting it’s a big shift in the industry and amazing show of support from New Belgium to this company

And to the American bike manufacturing industry and it certainly gives us some credibility and some authenticity in the marketplace that that’s going to give us our first foot forward really