The oldsters who run The Professional’s Closet bike refurbishment manufacturing facility in Louisville merely name their on-line operation the world’s largest retailer of pre-owned bikes, and so they say their new walk-in retail retailer is the Denver space’s largest bike store. But the sheer scale of the operation, which buys and sells bikes to customers all through North America, is difficult to know from the surface.
The bodily plant is the scale of two and a half soccer fields, so immense that workers use scooters to get from one finish of the manufacturing facility ground to the opposite. Large five-tier metal racks stack bikes in bins ready for buy as a result of, relying on the time of 12 months, TPC refurbishes 50 to 150 high-end bikes per day, assembly-line type.
“We expect there’s nowhere else on the planet the place you may store a whole lot of manufacturers and hundreds of distinctive SKUs, serving a rider from further small to double XL, at a myriad of value factors,” stated basic supervisor Paul Calandrella. “About 80% of our complete income comes by means of bikes that we buy, principally from particular person customers who submit two images and a bit little bit of element, who obtain a money or commerce provide from us, and ship their bike in.”
TPC’s stock contains street bikes, mountain bikes, gravel bikes, triathlon bikes and e-bikes. Within the refurbishment course of, TPC conducts a 140-point inspection and performs repairs if needed in an effort to make the bike nearly as good as new.
“You may have the identical buy-and-sell expertise from an end-user who has listed their bike on Craig’s Listing,” Calandrella stated. “However are you able to assure it’s not carbon-damaged? Can you come back it in 30 days and ensure any defect is addressed? Are you able to promote it again to them? No. All of these are a sure at TPC.”
The Professional’s Closet was based in 2006 by Nick Martin, a professional mountain biker who started promoting used biking gear which he posted on eBay utilizing a borrowed laptop whereas residing in a Volkswagen van.
“We got all this free sponsored gear yearly, and on the finish of the 12 months, to be able to pay our payments or pursue our dream of racing fulltime, you would need to promote that,” Martin stated. “I wasn’t getting a wage, however I used to be getting all this tools. I began promoting my very own issues, and that snowballed into promoting issues for my teammates. Earlier than we knew it, we had just about each skilled workforce on the circuit — I used to be promoting their extra gear on the finish of the 12 months, too.
“That’s why the title was The Professional’s Closet. It was actually all of the issues from the professional’s garages and closets,” he stated.
TPC quickly grew to become the most important biking retailer on eBay. In 2017, TPC obtained its first spherical of enterprise capital funding to construct its personal e-commerce platform, and different exterior investments adopted to additional broaden the enterprise. Martin stepped down as CEO in 2020, however he stays lively within the firm.
TPC beforehand operated from a 24,000-square-foot warehouse in Boulder and a 30,000-square-foot warehouse in Longmont. In 2021, the operation was consolidated on the present 137,000-square-foot location, which beforehand was the North American headquarters for a Swedish outside put on model. The retail store there’s new this 12 months.
“It’s outpaced my expectations for the previous 15 years,” Martin stated. “It’s grown means past something I may have imagined, and I nonetheless really feel like we’re simply getting began.”
After bikes are faraway from their delivery bins, they go to an space with six bike-wash bays whereas the bins and packaging materials they got here in are recycled. Technicians spend about 20 minutes washing every bike.
“They get an exquisite warm-water bathtub,” Calandrella stated. “We clear the drive prepare, so we will put eyes on the standard of the drive prepare. Cleansing makes for good inspection. An inspector will make sure that (whether or not there’s) something lacking to make it completely useful, or if it wants repairing. That may assist us queue it for the refurbishment work.”
One of many inspection factors for carbon-fiber bikes entails testing to ensure there isn’t any unseen structural harm.
“We don’t flip away bikes as a result of they’re carbon-damaged,” Calandrella stated. “We work with an organization in Boulder known as Damaged Carbon to restore bikes again to totally functioning. They take away the exterior paint and end, get right down to the structural harm, re-wrap the carbon and produce it again as much as absolutely rideable requirements.
“The choice is, that body will get parted out and goes in a landfill. We’d somewhat put it again into use underneath somebody who could also be effective with the truth that it’s been repaired. They’re going to get good worth for the bike for that purpose.”
Furthering the sustainability ethic, TPC stored practically 110 tons of waste out of landfills in 2022 by recycling used delivery bins and packaging materials.
After a motorbike is refurbished and prepared on the market, it strikes to a images bay the place it’s placed on a turntable for photographing at a number of angles. Photographs are uploaded into a pc close by, together with the bike’s specs, and the bike will get listed on TPC’s web site on the market.
The common promoting value of TPC bikes is $3,500 to $4,000, Calandrella stated, versus the $6,000 to $8,000 these bikes price after they have been bought new.
“When bikes are, in some circumstances, changing into prohibitively costly at $8,000, $9,000 and $12,000, wait 18 months and you may most likely come right here and get that $12,000 bike for $9,000, or that $8,000 bike for $5,000,” Calandrella stated.
Now TPC is increasing its providers to help walk-in retail gross sales and provide bike upkeep service.
“You don’t should have bought a motorbike from us,” Calandrella stated. “In case you are a rider who wants assist together with your bike, convey it to our door, we’re right here to assist. We should always be capable to use our refurbishment operation to ensure 24-hour turnaround on mechanic service. It’s merely a matter of us merging buyer bikes with these we’ve bought and shifting them proper alongside.”
This weekend’s occasion, which can run from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, will embody manufacturing facility excursions, retail gross sales, a vendor expo, product demos, free bike washes, meals vans. Guests will be capable to view Martin’s assortment of 200 classic bikes. TPC is positioned at 1900 Taylor Ave. in Louisville.
“That is my first job,” Martin stated. “It’s been a street of studying the ropes by doing and adjusting course and surrounding your self with nice individuals.”
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