Velocio Purchase a Good Fit For SRAM

Londonderry, New Hampshire, US

Components giant SRAM has moved into cycling apparel by purchasing fellow US company Velocio this month.

“Velocio’s three brand pillars resonate strongly with their customers and SRAM, and despite being a small brand, they’ve made an outsized impression within the cycling community. Their significant growth has reflected the value they provide and trust they’ve established,” said Clint Weber, SRAM’s vice president of new growth.

“The Velocio brand is guided by its fundamental principles, including better design to improve every ride, a solid commitment to environmental responsibility, and growing an inclusive culture around cycling. Velocio’s UNITY project is an annual cause-focused cycling effort to shed light on various social and environmental issues to affect positive change.”

“We approached SRAM precisely because we thought there might be a place in their well-respected orbit of components and bike products for us.”

Velocio CEO Brad Sheehan said his company had approached SRAM to propose the purchase, to assist with Velocio’s future development.

“We started this process committed to maintaining progress for our product and our brand,” he said.

“In selling Velocio, our focus was on finding a partner, a large brand or brand family that would value our three pillars: design, responsibility and culture. We approached SRAM precisely because we thought there might be a place in their well-respected orbit of components and bike products for us. We approached SRAM because our cultures are compatible.

“There’s a unique challenge to running a business that often gets overlooked; succeed and your reward is a deeper expectation to grow. Grow too large, too fast and the risk is the often-lamented loss of brand, the dilution of product, and corner-cutting changes to boost profits. We won’t do any of those things.

“Our history with SRAM goes back to 2015 when we shared sponsorship of the UCI pro cycling team Velocio-SRAM. It continued through shared event sponsorships, athlete pairings, and marketing efforts.”

He said a keen eye could spot Velocio clothing in the first-ever SRAM AXS product launch ads.

“Our supply chain, manufacturing, and product design will not fold into SRAM’s manufacturing arm,” Brad continued.

“All the Velocio policies and campaigns that have defined our brand, from the Signature Guarantee to the Unity Campaign, will remain unchanged.

“What’s exciting is that we’ll now have SRAM’s backing for more independent product design and development, including a still bigger push towards sustainability in our product offerings and how we deliver them.

“We’ll also have SRAM’s reach into racing and teams, as well as their insights into global distribution and retail support.

“If the burden of a growing business is to grow ever further, there are few partners more suited for that future in the cycling industry than SRAM.”