FEATURE
“If say, we as a brand, decide to do something different or progressive, we’re not going to change the world overnight,” she continued. “It’s slow progress. But by thinking about the mountain biking industry as an ecosystem, it gives you power, because you think ‘I can do a small thing, and it matters, because if I can do a small thing, everybody can do a small thing.’
“It works on the flip side as well. It’s lots of different touch points, lots of different assumptions, multiple different decisions. I think thinking about it as an ecosystem helps us understand what we can do, and it also helps us understand the interrelated nature of the problem.” Sustainability was one of the topics touched on in this year’s conference and is often a talking point in the industry as brands aim to go carbon-neutral and focus on greener policies.
look a certain way, can talk a certain talk and understand these rules.”
Whether you’ve felt marginalised or unwelcome in mountain biking or not, it’s hard to deny that, as someone on the outside of the industry looking in, it could be seen as off- putting to some societal groups. But, we can make a difference in this perception, as Spotswood explained. “Sport has this potential to drive social change. What we see in sport changes how society works. If we see women commentating on Premier League football, it changes how we see women in society. If we see sports brands taking responsibility for the carbon footprint or some kind of sustainability metric, then that drives how we as consumers think about sustainability in our sport.” So, how does she suggest we, as an industry, begin this wave of change? By considering the sector as an “ecosystem.”
And if mountain biking overall was almost ‘reframed’ to showcase how it can help us to connect with nature and protect our trails, it would certainly help to highlight these issues more and encourage more conversation outside of the one event a year where it’s a main topic of discussion. Another big area of discussion was around gender inequality and encouraging inclusiveness in the sport. We’ve all heard stories or had experiences of women being put in awkward positions by parts of the industry, whether that be in a shop or an online forum. But understanding that in itself, it’s not the fault of the 16-year-old sales assistant, or Gary from Slough on his laptop, it’s about collective responsibility, and that we all need to call out behaviour and attitudes that no longer serve the community. “If we have a stubborn gender inequality amongst participants, or we have a predominantly white participation community, that is not the fault of a 16-year- old retail assistant working in a local shop who happens to be a bloke and struggles to communicate effectively with a middle-aged woman.
“It’s not his fault that he’s putting women in a box. It’s not one magazine’s fault or one journalist’s or one editor’s fault. It’s about a sense of collective responsibility, and that we need to shift it bit by bit.” Trying to change the perceptions of an industry and community that’s been going for decades quite comfortably on the popularity of adrenaline and technology to something that can also accept riders who are quite happy sticking with bridleways and blue trails might seem like a daunting task. But it can certainly be done, and in doing so, brands, media and the like could see a wider audience interested in their content, their products etc.
“Reframing MTB is the starting point that shows that it can be done, that it’s possible and it’s important, but we need to interrogate our corner of the ecosystem and then figure out what levers we can pull.”
18 | April 2025
www.bikebiz.com
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