Image Courtesy of Saeeda Shabbir.
CANYON‘s success story starts with three things: a proud father, a son’s passion for races and a bright blue trailer. Roman Arnold’s father imported Italian bike parts and sold them from his trailer at the sidelines of the road races.
The beginning of CANYON is also a story of loss. At the young age of 18, Roman and his brothers lost their father and faced the responsibility of inheriting the bicycle parts trade. While Roman competed, his father sowed the seeds for a burgeoning bicycle sales business, which later turned into a mail-order business, and then into one of the most disruptive brands in the bicycle business. This journey from local retailer to a worldwide company all started in 1985, when the brothers founded Radsport Arnold (which became CANYON in 2002) and opened their first bicycle store in downtown Koblenz.
Image Courtesy of Saeeda Shabbir.
DAY 1
Over the years, CANYON has continued to stayed true to its roots. Koblenz is the city I’ll be spending the next two days, exploring the world of bicycle production. It’s an unknown world to me, I must admit, but I’m excited to learn more. The “CANYON home” is divided into sub buildings: the headquarters, the CANYON showroom, the e-bike showroom and the test and innovation lab. Thirty minutes away, the Pro Sport Office and production site are located in Bannberscheid.
Upon arrival, there is a short introduction about the history of CANYON. Back to where it all started: Roman’s love for races and his father cheering on his son, while growing his sideline-sales. You can feel the initial spirit from those early years everywhere. CANYON has continued to stay true to its roots of community, passion and inspiration. It’s easy to feel part of the family when you get such a warm welcome.
Image Courtesy of Saeeda Shabbir.
The E-bike Showroom.
This is where I get to meet the brand manager Max Stauber and the graphic designer Lukas Beck. CANYON is mainly focusing on a very well developed and user-friendly e-commerce but if you’d like to go old school, the showroom and only physical retail shop is the place to go. There you can try a variety of different bikes, sizes and equipment. You can also have a coffee and a little break at their cosy in-house café. In the showroom, CANYON’s charm and love for clean design is omnipresent.
The brand has a wide range of costumers and products, from professionals attending the Olympics or the Tour de France to people seeking innovative alternatives for urban mobility. Max Stauber explains that they are constantly working at making bike riding more approachable through things such as lighter bodies, cleaner looks, colours and subtle conveniences.
Another important pillar for CANYON is eco-friendliness and the benefits of bikes over cars. In the age of greenwashing, the company’s priority is to be truly transparent. How can they motivate even more people to make the switch to a greener footprint and healthier lifestyle while exceeding sustainable standards with their production?
The graphic designer Lukas Beck talks about how the riders’ values are strongly taken into consideration for the final product. Experimenting with design and functions or predicting colour trends is essential for CANYON during the design process. Sometimes artists such as Erik Spiekermann are coming in to work on limited editions.
Image Courtesy of Saeeda Shabbir.
At the Lab.
To guarantee 100% quality the test and innovations labs are crucial. This is the place where perfection and German precision comes in. The procedures at the lab involve among others destructing and non-destructing test for every last part of the bike, machines that work like x-rays to scan the pieces from the inside for errors as well as flexibility and endurance tests.
The day ended with a bike ride to an observation deck. An otherwise rather exhausting experience was transformed into a relaxed and fun little tour for everyone due to the electronic bikes, followed by a lovely dinner.
Image Courtesy of Saeeda Shabbir.
DAY 2
Day two starts with a tour at the production factory with one of the packaging engineers. Ambition for detailed work and a friendly work atmosphere are the keys to a successful end-production and packaging. With the highest safety standards in mind, CANYON is working with huge and expensive machinery to ensure their bikes are the best they can possibly be – after all, with a direct-to-customer business, their bikes need to reach the customer in perfect condition. As an eco-friendly measure the brand is investing in sustainable packaging. The bikes are being assembled in a circle-rotation system with a 120 seconds cycle. Every 120 seconds the bike is moving to the next station and the next worker for its next assembling part. Before the bikes are send out to the customers with an easy introduction on how to put their bikes together, the bike is also going through the process of assembling an de-assembling for packaging at the factory.
This is where our visit to CANYON slowly comes to end at the in-house photo studio and Pro Sport Office. Here the bikes are photographed by a talented photo production team for the website. The film studio is used to produce content for collaborations or DIY bike manuals.
The interesting thing about the Pro Sport office is that it is also lead by former athletes who know the challenges of the profession and now use their experience at CANYON. They work very closely with the athletes to make custom bikes for the professional races. The love is in the detail here as well, even the design is reflecting the athlete’s personality and style.
Image Courtesy of Saeeda Shabbir.
After two days at the CANYON headquarters, I discovered a new side of myself: a new and genuine interest for bikes and the desire to get my hands on one of them, not only because of the high quality and design, but because of the dedication and ambition of the people working there. Everyone I met was a bike lover and so invested in the idea of community and performance. The motivation and diligence was infectious and I leave Koblenz impressed by this world that was brought to life by a bright blue trailer.