More Secret Layoffs In The Bike Industry 

I work in a shop for a major bike brand. It's been scary watching all this happening around me and knowing my store is low volume

The Pro's Closet reminds me of GameStop in a sense of mechanics.... It is hard to try and make a decent profit while essentially flipping someone else's item. Hope the ones laid off can bounce back quickly!

Word is this "price reduction" will be 20%. Which still isn't less than before the markup... I'm tired of being finessed by the industry

Thanks for these regular updates. Sorry for those that lost their jobs, but there are probably very few people losing sleep over TPC having to drop the price of their insanely marked-up used bikes.

here in uk, the minute covid struck and bike riding grew in popularity prices for bikes,parts,service etc doubled! in some cases tripled the industry had this coming for their sheer greed.

I actually really like the daily or weekly bike new from you. This should definitely be a series

I received an email from Specialized yesterday targeted to it's Canadian customers titled "We heard you" and message boiled down to "we made the important decision to adjust the pricing structure of our bikes in your favor". I cleaned up the embedded link URL and it says "campaign=CACampaignENBikepriceadjustments" Weirdly enough there are no advertised price cuts. I confirmed this using Wayback Machine screenshop from 6 Dec 2022 and indeed no price decreases. They continue to screw us Canadians by first sending super low stock across the border, not offering sworks framesets through local bike shops and now saying "WE ADJUSTED PRICES" but in reality they haven't done jack.

These bike sale videos are #1 on my RU-vid list! Thanks bro!

When a brand new KTM 390 Adventure motorcycle for $6500 dollars is sitting in the same shop that has Specialized MTBs for $6700 you know the industry has gone insane. If KTM can put a six speed gearbox 40HP Real Brakes Real suspension Traction Control machine together for that price, Specialized should be able to do a simple in comparison bike for half of that, bikes are so overpriced

i am indeed LOVING these! I used to mtb a little back 2018-2020, now im a big time BMXer looking to go back into mtb, was gonna get one last fall on pinkbike, but i was told to wait cuz the economy and youre my evidence. youre my news, keep it up please!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks for the info Josh! ...love the new bike industry content. ...no one else is doing this and it's needed.

I've seen bikes on Pros Closet priced higher than new. Just saying.

I love these videos to hype me up to jump on a deal or hold my bike sales.

Thanks for the content and the updates. Please keep doing these videos if you can

Outstanding job!! Love your style and sense of humor!!

Very interesting pivot with the channel recently. No one is touching up on this topic so good on you Josh for being the one. Really thought this channel was going under but glad to see you back. Maybe even back on a bike soon too?

I really love the Videos man, thanks for your efforts

I love these types of videos you are doing right now. I hope you got more content!

enjoy your videos, keep them coming. Very informative 👏

Completely agree, my best friend that has spent 30 years in the industry as a mechanic and a machinist has transitioned to motor sports and working at a company that sells and repairs motor cycles, quads and e-bikes. As for the Pros Closet, once I checked out what was thier biggest surplus and it was e-bikes lol. I guess that makes sense.

Thanks Josh, great video 🤘🔥

Josh, I thought you left youtube for good around that time you got the ripley AF.. I'm glad your back at it!

Thanks for doing what you are doing! Keep up! It's also quite sad that huge companies can just lay off staff without any reasoning... In Europe (Germany) they need massive reasoning to lay off not only 1 employee but 15%!! is insane

Thanks for doing these really INFORMATIVE videos....I am in the market for 2 bikes one for me and one for my son so these videos very helpful to me....

I'm currently employed in the industry, part time. I work as a Mechanic/technician. I won't state the company name for privacy but, I see a massive drop in demand and I am very interested to see what spring will bring in terms of demand and sales for bikes. Our sales in snowsports gear are fairly stable as we are located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada so a winter sport center, but for bikes I can't say what we will see....

“Why would you buy and e-bike” 😆

Pleaseee, keep making these

I agree with the fact that TPC over priced their used bikes. Although everyone has the last couple of years. I still see used prices on bikes that are more expensive than brand new from store ridiculous. Just waiting to buy an Ebike in the next couple of months if prices really do go down.

Bike shop tech here. eBikes make biking accessible to people who otherwise wouldn’t be able to bike, so I wouldn’t knock them. I also have no qualms with climbing, but doing it on an eBike is also silly fun. It’s also great for recovery riding. There’s certainly a place for them in the sport.

Great videos,,very informative. I am working with a local dealer, but the estimate for the trike came in a lot higher than I thought it would. His listing of a trike was $300 more than it was listed online(thats why I went to him in the first place). Then He said he would get prices from a huge online retailer to match prices. But between taxes($300) and his estimate, it is over 1k more.

Love this guy, watched his recent videos and got a hold of some race face arc 31 carbon wheels with i9 torch hubs 850$! Wouldn’t have done that with these videos

Fortunately the bike industry goes up this year, I am currently applying as a seller on my local Mexican Scott bike shop, good luck to me.

I have sold a few bikes to Pros Closet over the years. I get a bid from them on every bike I sale. Most of the time there bid is to low. Interesting responses to my last three submittals to them. Two where e-bikes and declined. The third was a Evo. They offered to buy for over thousand under what it sold for on PB. But it was not a cash offer it was a in store credit. I called them to discus the store credit and was told at this time they are doing no cash purchases for bikes. Guy on phone sounded bummed about his job……

My closest Trek bike shop closed a few months ago! Chino Hills

Hopefully, bike prices will fall back to pre-2018 bike markets and stay that way for the forceiable future.

I ordered two, moto mini bike style e-bikes from My Bike Shop last summer. Last week I got an email that they were going out of business after 12 years. Something is definitely going on.

I was talking to my local bike shop manager last week and he said he canceled his bike orders because of old stock he could not sell and his main distributors said they have so many bikes it would not be a problem to just order bikes as needed. I brought up did the industry get greedy during Covid and he said yes! In every aspect of it. From components to full bikes were vastly over priced. But he say he thinks right now it’s just the winter phase of the industry and once spring and summer comes bikes will move but as you said probably at precovid prices.

TPC has been a great place to nerd out on bikes/the industry the past couple years. I'm continually shocked at the prices they put on bikes that are 4-5 years old and thoroughly dinged up. I sold them a frame and, as is typical in retail, they marked it up 50%. Makes sense, not complaining, just was interesting to see how the whole process worked. I submitted another bike a last week, and they were only offering store credit, and a rediculously low amount at that. Like the big boys, they are sitting on a giant pile of inventory and it's gotta go.

Just bought a brand new 2022 stumpjumper evo aluminum comp for $3,300 total out the door and shipped. Specialized has it for $4,400 plus Tax and Shipping which would bring the price up to approx $4,900. Thats a $1,600 discount on a new bike

On the same note Nordic skiiing did the same thing in 2021 but on a much smaller scale. People in snow country were buying equipment that was 35 years old and bleaming the shops for not having more.

I knew prices were going to crash as soon as I saw shops and stores selling the GX AXS groupset at below MSRP a couple of months ago.

When you're over 50 and have a new knee and waiting for another, you'll know why ebikes are so attractive and relevant. I ride an Orbea with torque sensor. It's wonderful and allows me to enjoy the single-track through the woods again. Thanks for the sometimes informed and usually interesting content

I’ll be honest I was interested in about a half a dozen bikes offered at pros closet and they were the same price as new. I call that taking advantage of supply shortages to jack up prices on the used market. I’m very glad to see this business model start to die.

During the peak of Covid price hikes I decided to see what pros closet would buy my bike for. They offered like 2600 for it. Well here we are and about a month ago decided to do same thing and now they only offering 1500 for it

Do you think Trek bikes will go on sale? Seems like they're holding out at this time. Please let me know boss!

HEY!! I just saw an add for marin bogof deal on a few bikes. Is this real? Good deal ? Have you reviewed any of these? Time sensitive.

Layoffs @ Trek too

Oh the poor bike industry. Eventually the gravy train runs out of gravy.

The Pro's Closet is a business that is based on selling high end used bikes. They prospered temporarily from the demand created by COVID. But the idea that a business is based on selling bikes up to $13k is insane. None the less the idiots that make up the investment world invested $60 million into TPC. That is so stupid that it boggles the mind.

The couple time i went to the pros closet it seemed like the bikes were so close to new in price it didn’t make sense to buy used. So when used prices start falling…

The Pros Closet was charging way too much for used bikes. I get it, the market was up on used bikes during the pandemic. That said, their high prices is why they have too much inventory. I feel bike shops and companies took advantage of hard times. Shame on losing jobs. Terrible.

"Why would you buy an E-bike". Just what Rock have you been under?

Loving me information news updates , Do you believe Prices might come up a little bit during tax refund season Since people will have a little extra money to spend?

Will Fezzarri also start to discount their bikes ??

I feel like this is the cycling industries Carvana.

What don't you like about e-bikes?

btw, in Ontario over the past week, I seen some enduro starting to drop the price. Will not know for sure until after the riding season.

Something is wrong with the industry. Got some insanely cheap prices on parts.

Pro's closet have super high prices on used and beat-up bikes. They have the bikes in stock for months.

For a while there, they were selling used bikes for more than new ones.

The new bike market appears to be adjusting after Covid price hikes - major brands are offering serious discounts to maintain cash flow/reduce stock. The problem is that the used bike market is lagging - used stock was acquired against the hiked prices and are now competing with discounted new(er) models. Whilst this cannot last, the more downstream retailers are going to experience signifcant challenges until the market stabilizes again.

You think it’s a good time to sell and upgrade? Or just buy parts for current bike?

This is going to be the norm for the next few months as many businesses across different industries settle back to "normal" size. When Covid hit 3 years ago everyone wanted a new bike (amongst other things...) So businesses ramped up their head counts, and now Covid is becoming normalized the demand for bikes is falling, so sensibly businesses need to re-size to remain profitable or even at break-even. Sad for those made redundant, no doubt about that, but we are seeing huge layoffs in other sectors (Big Tech) too for the same reasons.

I can promise you they didn’t buy used bikes at a high price. They have never offered me more than half of what I ended up selling my used bike for privately. I sold a used Devinci AC for $3500. The offer I got from pros closet was $1500.

What is your views on e-mtb ??? My friend Turn to emtb and wanted me to buy one but My issue with them you cannot get fit with a ebike

Im waiting for bike part prices to fall too

This is good information, but I disagree with the conspiracy-theory approach to calling the layoffs "secret" like there's some hidden agenda out there. No company advertises proudly that they're laying off employees. This is normal economic cycle stuff that happens all the time.

Hey Josh, G'day from downunder. I'm going to preface this by saying I'm not sure about the Pro's Closets shipping policy is but if they could find cheap shipping to the southern hemisphere they could possibly move more inventory as it's currently summer when more people are riding. I know Aussies would love to get their hands on some bikes that manufacturers normally put a premium on when they're sold downunder

Sales going down compared to what though? Covid times were highly unusual. I’m sure sales will drop as a comparison to pre-Covid times and take a while to recover. Factor in that MTB geometry has hit the sweet spot, there’s no wonder all the big brands are focussing on pushing their e-bike offerings.

When you just resell in the retail space... It's expected for this outcome.

Give it 5 years and all your favorite bike brands will be owned by 3-4 mega companies (think car manufacturers, media companies). I'm actually amazed it hasn't happened already!

Tpc not buying and offering only in-store credit for trade ?

A lot of those "original prices" on TPC are NOT what the prices were originally. They are amounts that were increased from where they were, initially, so that the "sale prices" seem that much better.

Nice info Mate,.. I really love it Thx so much

Let the Retired Employees start/form a cooperative society, & start doing business all over world , with minimum profit. Approach the UNO ,& other world-wide organisation, to do retail business alongwith servicing facility + replacing parts also, whenever / wherever - required by customers.Bike-price also should be competitive."God help those- who help themselves" .-always true.= senior citizen.

Thanks for sharing this with us Josh.

I suspected this was coming. I sold two higher end Evils to them and got what I thought was a pretty amazing deal. Then I saw what they put the bikes up for sale at which was shocking! And they sold too. I knew it wasn't sustainable and at some point they'd be left hold the bag.... or bikes in this case. Hope they can bounce back as they seem to be a legit business.

Great info. Thanks. The dramatics are distracting at best.

Pros closet is fundamentally in trouble because they bought bikes while prices were high and now prices are coming down. Additionally, pros closet did real damage to their brand image by selling bikes in worse condition than stated or that were poorly repaired with lower grade parts at still premium prices. Now they are stuck.

They paid too much for used bikes and now are suffering. Hopefully they can recover some of the money invested in them.

nothing against pros closet, interesting idea for a business, but the used bike market was bound to come back to earth. Have 3 mountain bikes, newest 2017, oldest 2012, should have sold one of them during the run up in demand (and used the money to buy a meme stock), would, coulda, shoulda…But, I started riding all 3 regularly again reduce the frequency of drive train wear, as it became harder to get cassettes.

their business model will not make it through a downturn

Pros closet has never made a decent offer from my experience.I put 2 different bikes out there and got very low offers. One bike was a 2021 switchblade in excellent/mint condition. The cash offer was stupid low and trade in offer was not much better. I also put my current bike on PC to see what kind of offer they would make. Pretty much the same type of offer as the SB. I checked thier stock for similar bikes and are selling for nearly retail. I also seen older bikes on PC that are selling for nearly retail, as in current market retail prices. Needless to say, I never took thier offer. Buy new if you can or from a private party.

It’s crazy how many bikes they have. That’s a ton of money sitting there. Imagine if they go under and a flood of bikes hits the market for dirt cheap! It’ll be like The Great Bike Recession. 😂

@2.48. I doubt TPC is trying to sell them “close to what they paid for them”. I’ll bet it’s more accurate to say are trying to recover the entire cost of the bike AND cover their operating costs AND make a decent profit driven by the value of the service they provide to the customer. Great to be doing industry news … but you gotta make like you understand fundamental business concepts.

Funny thing, I just literally got an extended offer for my 2021 switchblade. They offered $2300 cash...lol. I sold the bike last summer and got a pretty good price for it. If you are buying or selling a bike, Stay away from PC if you can

I feel no sorrow for TheProsCloset having financial issues. They use the Gamestop model of giving the seller bottom dollar then selling that same bike or part for equal to or barely less than a new one. The cycling world is better off without them.

Anyone else try selling a bike to pro’s closet and they only offer you site credit.

The problem is the pricing oh my gosh for what they want you can buy a new one for a couple hundred dollars more

Waiting for the bike industry crash so I can buy a dirt jumper

I met the owners when they were just staring out (I was working at a shop in Boulder) and thought...how the hell are you going to make money? At the time I just sold my old bikes myself. I didn't think there would be enough people willing to let them take a cut of the sales price...I was wrong. They are (or at least were) making bank. Seems reasonable that they have to let a few people they hired during the Covid craze go. This is more of a reduction of staff back to their normal levels.

Man I used to roll by the pros closet in Boulder at their old location and score some really sweet tires they would leave by the dumpster....douchebags in Boulder are really easy to find

I think they have a tough business model…they have a huge inventory and paid too much for their bikes…then they have to include shipping the bikes to whoever purchases the bike.

Isn't this just a correction to the mean from before the government shut down?

They just did another layoff this week

We’ll see balance in the universe when the $13k Specialized Epic’s come down to $8k.

The Pro's Closet was able to eek a niche out of the resale business because of high prices at the mid to high end of bicycle models. Even though margins are roughly the same, there's more meat on the bone. 35% margin is actually decent cash when a bike's $8k. Not so much when it's a $500 bike. But they have to forecast carefully and purchase by offering below perceived market value to make their model work. And they have to demand a premium, which is ok. And right now, a downturn in the market will obviously hurt them. They're putting a "CPO" stamp of approval on a nice bike so the consumer can purchase with confidence. Most people have no clue what's involved purchasing a used bike. Buying stolen is the biggest risk. But knowing what to look for? It can take quite a while to assess the condition of a used bike. I took over an hour inspecting a used tandem to determine its quality. I lucked out and picked a diamond in the rough. But I didn't TRULY know the condition of the bike (and its value) until well after I paid for it. Six weeks later after a complete overhaul did I realize how nice the bike was and is, despite it being 14 years old. Obviously The Pro's Closet cannot do this, but they can do about 80% of it and stand behind the product they're selling with a guarantee. (On the flip side, before this, I found a similar used tandem over 10 years old. The seller was asking WAY too much for it. Then they mentioned that they bought it at the end of the model year on closeout. Oops! So that meant they were asking basically what they paid for it - after ten years! I told them they were high as a kite to feel they should recover their initial cost. After ten years of use?!!! People can be so totally unrealistic. BTW, I was amazed to see used tandem prices throughout Covid to remain really really good for buyers. Now? It's gonna be even better. Perhaps I'll pick up that coveted Ventana ECDM now!)

i been watching there site no deals there

The Pros Closet is/was part of the problem, would not be mad to see them go the way of the dinosaur.

Pros closet , why not buy from the guy selling his bike directly ?,