While some on and outside this forum have predicted our demise for some time, or have even gone so far to post libelous statements on the web about our publication - despite this negativity that has been aimed at us, we have continued to march forward with keeping our publication alive. That being said, we have some great news to share with you! We share the love you all have for these bikes and the culture surrounding them, and we appreciate the support from those on the RRB forum have shown for Kickstand Magazine. Tomorrow we will be announcing some fantastic news to the world:
An open letter to our friends and fans,
The old adage of taking one step backward in order to take two steps forward is a perfect metaphor for where we are today with the status of our beloved Kickstand Magazine. To the shock of some, This IS NOT THE END. To the contrary, this is only the BEGINNING! While it’s taken some time to work out the details of our brand new future- we are ecstatic about what we have spent the winter working towards, and we wanted to share this exciting news with you first!
As you may already know, Kickstand Magazine was launched because we were hosts to the wildly popular Denver Cruiser Ride, which has grown from 13 people in 2005 to more than 3,000 in 2011 - and we expect this summer to be off the charts fun for thousands upon thousands of bicycle enthusiasts here in Denver, CO. The question we asked ourselves in 2008 when the ride had swelled weekly to some 600 people, was “what do we do next?” With some basic market research, we discovered that there was a missing component in the marketplace. Ultimately this was the seed from which we hatched the idea of publishing a magazine. First-and-foremost with a love and passion for riding bicycles - some decent design skills, and with limited set of resources, we were able to publish the inaugural issue in August of 2009. We jumped in two feet first!
In less than three years since its inception, we’ve managed to publish 9 issues. We accomplished this feat at a time synonymous with the worst economic disaster that the US had seen in more than 75 years. Despite this foreboding economic backdrop and the demise of the print publishing world as it had been for decades, we kept plugging along - knowing that eventually things would turn around and advertisers would again spend their scarce marketing dollars. Since the magazine’s inception, we’ve seen the social riding scene explode not just in our hometown, but on all continents on the globe. We were convinced when we started this project that there needed to be a publication focused on this segment of the bicycle market, and despite the challenges of producing a nationally-distributed publication (we were immediately schooled that this was gonna be a lot more work than we had envisioned), however today we are more committed than ever to seeing this concept to fruition.
Thus the reason for this announcement. On May 1, 2012, Kickstand Magazine entered into a strategic partnership with Recreational Equipment Inc. (REI) to bring the magazine to a larger audience than we had previously imagined possible. It took nearly the entirety of the winter to work out the details of this program, but it’s an exciting next step for our publication.
Beginning with the tenth issue, Kickstand Magazine will be available at all REI stores in CO, UT and MT! While this is only the first phase of a multi-phased program with the world’s largest bike seller - it is with an eye to the future - where Kickstand will be available nationally at all U.S. REI stores by the end of 2013. This is an ambitious program on our part because it increases our stake in being the “go to” publication for the social riding scene, not just in the U.S., but globally. Additionally, it places an enormous burden on the small staff that has already toiled to bring you the previous nine issues. None-the-less, it’s a huge step in what we have always envisioned the publication to be, which is The Owner’s Manual for a Freewheeling Life. Having been acknowledged by such a well-respected retailer of the likes of REI,it speaks volumes of what we have accomplished thus far, and what we will continue expand into the foreseeable future .
We’ve done our best with what we had to work with over the past few years. Have we done everything right thus far? Certainly not. Can we do better? Absolutely! What this announcement should communicate to everyone: from our staff, to our readers, to our current and future advertisers - is that we have struck a chord in the marketplace that needs the coverage that Kickstand Magazine provides. Today, we stand firm in the belief that we have the right mix of love for the bicycle, as well as the chutzpah to weather any storm that comes our way.
We appreciate the early support from advertisers like New Belgium Brewery and Bikes Belong/People for Bikes that saw this publication as a strategic partner in encouraging more people to get on bicycles not just for fun, but for health and for a more-engaged lifestyle. To them we say “Thank you.” To our subscribers and readers, as well as the haters, that have dealt with our learning curve in producing this multi-armed monster, and for your patience with our erratic and sometimes frustrating publishing schedule, we also say “Thank you!”
The next few years are going to be the best that social riding has seen since the hey-day of the Schwinn Era, and we welcome you to join the ride!
Best Regards,
Brad K. Evans
Head Honcho
Kickstand Magazine
An open letter to our friends and fans,
The old adage of taking one step backward in order to take two steps forward is a perfect metaphor for where we are today with the status of our beloved Kickstand Magazine. To the shock of some, This IS NOT THE END. To the contrary, this is only the BEGINNING! While it’s taken some time to work out the details of our brand new future- we are ecstatic about what we have spent the winter working towards, and we wanted to share this exciting news with you first!
As you may already know, Kickstand Magazine was launched because we were hosts to the wildly popular Denver Cruiser Ride, which has grown from 13 people in 2005 to more than 3,000 in 2011 - and we expect this summer to be off the charts fun for thousands upon thousands of bicycle enthusiasts here in Denver, CO. The question we asked ourselves in 2008 when the ride had swelled weekly to some 600 people, was “what do we do next?” With some basic market research, we discovered that there was a missing component in the marketplace. Ultimately this was the seed from which we hatched the idea of publishing a magazine. First-and-foremost with a love and passion for riding bicycles - some decent design skills, and with limited set of resources, we were able to publish the inaugural issue in August of 2009. We jumped in two feet first!
In less than three years since its inception, we’ve managed to publish 9 issues. We accomplished this feat at a time synonymous with the worst economic disaster that the US had seen in more than 75 years. Despite this foreboding economic backdrop and the demise of the print publishing world as it had been for decades, we kept plugging along - knowing that eventually things would turn around and advertisers would again spend their scarce marketing dollars. Since the magazine’s inception, we’ve seen the social riding scene explode not just in our hometown, but on all continents on the globe. We were convinced when we started this project that there needed to be a publication focused on this segment of the bicycle market, and despite the challenges of producing a nationally-distributed publication (we were immediately schooled that this was gonna be a lot more work than we had envisioned), however today we are more committed than ever to seeing this concept to fruition.
Thus the reason for this announcement. On May 1, 2012, Kickstand Magazine entered into a strategic partnership with Recreational Equipment Inc. (REI) to bring the magazine to a larger audience than we had previously imagined possible. It took nearly the entirety of the winter to work out the details of this program, but it’s an exciting next step for our publication.
Beginning with the tenth issue, Kickstand Magazine will be available at all REI stores in CO, UT and MT! While this is only the first phase of a multi-phased program with the world’s largest bike seller - it is with an eye to the future - where Kickstand will be available nationally at all U.S. REI stores by the end of 2013. This is an ambitious program on our part because it increases our stake in being the “go to” publication for the social riding scene, not just in the U.S., but globally. Additionally, it places an enormous burden on the small staff that has already toiled to bring you the previous nine issues. None-the-less, it’s a huge step in what we have always envisioned the publication to be, which is The Owner’s Manual for a Freewheeling Life. Having been acknowledged by such a well-respected retailer of the likes of REI,it speaks volumes of what we have accomplished thus far, and what we will continue expand into the foreseeable future .
We’ve done our best with what we had to work with over the past few years. Have we done everything right thus far? Certainly not. Can we do better? Absolutely! What this announcement should communicate to everyone: from our staff, to our readers, to our current and future advertisers - is that we have struck a chord in the marketplace that needs the coverage that Kickstand Magazine provides. Today, we stand firm in the belief that we have the right mix of love for the bicycle, as well as the chutzpah to weather any storm that comes our way.
We appreciate the early support from advertisers like New Belgium Brewery and Bikes Belong/People for Bikes that saw this publication as a strategic partner in encouraging more people to get on bicycles not just for fun, but for health and for a more-engaged lifestyle. To them we say “Thank you.” To our subscribers and readers, as well as the haters, that have dealt with our learning curve in producing this multi-armed monster, and for your patience with our erratic and sometimes frustrating publishing schedule, we also say “Thank you!”
The next few years are going to be the best that social riding has seen since the hey-day of the Schwinn Era, and we welcome you to join the ride!
Best Regards,
Brad K. Evans
Head Honcho
Kickstand Magazine
