Ekoi interview: Many brands will disappear

The French brand Ekoi was founded in Roubaix in 2001 and is now headquartered in Fréjus. Two key features characterise the brand: direct sales via its own website and a wide range of products: Ekoi offers helmets, glasses, cycling clothing and cycling shoes, as well as accessories. The company sponsors three cycling teams in the WorldTour and other leagues, as well as several hundred individual athletes. Jens Voigt is Ekoi’s ambassador in Germany. We wanted to ask CEO Rattel what he thinks about the crisis in the cycling market, why sponsorship is so important for the brand, and what he makes of trendy Instagram brands.

Interview with Jean-Christophe Rattle, Managing Director of Ekoi

​TOUR: One thing that sets Ekoï apart is that you sell directly to the public. Many companies in the cycling sector do this, but not in the clothing sector. In your opinion, will other brands follow suit?

Rattel: Yes, of course – other brands will follow. We were the ones who paved the way and demonstrated that this business model is viable and that there is great potential in direct sales, but I don’t see direct sales as the only solution. I think there’s a German brand like Cube that’s doing well, making money, becoming increasingly well-known – and they don’t use direct sales. I often say: just because you can make a burger doesn’t mean you’re any stronger than McDonald’s. Direct sales isn’t magic; in other words, there are a lot of factors you need to take into account: you need the right product, delivered quickly. You need to be visible – that is, have a presence on social media and in online marketing. And you need perfect customer service to respond to customers’ needs. If problems arise, you have to be very quick to respond. In short: it requires real expertise; it’s not enough just to have a website and say, ‘Right, that’ll do the trick’. That’s not how it works these days; you really have to take a professional approach.

TOUR: Why hasn’t Ekoï been affected by the general crisis in the sector?

Rattel: You’re familiar with the problem: there was too much stock everywhere, so there were lots of discounts and a lot of confusion. But we’ve always sold online. We don’t have that problem with retail sales. We’re continuing to grow by 20 to 30 per cent a year: this hasn’t changed, either before or after Covid. And we’ve noticed that there are three areas that are continuing to grow: road bikes, gravel bikes and triathlon bikes. Those are the three areas for us.

TOUR: During the Covid year, your turnover was still around 12 million euros – can you tell us what the figure is now?

Rattel: Next year we’ll be around 100 million euros, and at 100 million we’ll be amongst the market leaders. That’s a rough estimate – Castelli is likely to be just over 100 million, whilst many other brands are well below that. My primary goal is to make Ekoï an indispensable brand that continues to grow and attract customers – and that is exactly what we are investing in: plenty of sponsorship, plenty of innovation, plenty of personalisation, plenty of differentiation. We don’t do things the way the others do.

TOUR: In road cycling alone, you sponsor three WorldTour teams, as well as nine other teams and individual riders. That costs a lot of money – what is your aim?

Rattel: You have to stand out – I realised that a long time ago. Sponsorship is fantastic because it gives you visibility through the teams. It’s a lot of work, but we also learn a great deal from the professionals when it comes to manufacturing textiles, and that opens up new opportunities for us. We’re working on aerodynamics, we’re also working on comfort – because the pros need a comfortable product – and we’re putting a lot of effort into the durability of the products. Feedback from the riders is very important to us.

TOUR: Can you give an example of a specific change that was made following a rider’s criticism?

Rattel: Nairo Quintana didn’t like seams. He wanted flat seams everywhere, so we incorporated flat seams: in the underwear and in the socks. On the gloves, the seam had to be on the outside.

TOUR: At Ekoï, too, it’s all about profit and profitability – and visibility on television is key. Is that why the helmets are so important to the professional teams?

Rattel: Yes, that’s why many bicycle brands now make it compulsory to wear a helmet. What sets us apart is that we can focus entirely on the helmet. A bicycle brand can’t do that as well as we can, as its primary concern is the bicycle itself. Everyone focuses on safety and aerodynamics, and we’re working on these areas. Admittedly, the market for this isn’t particularly large, but we need to be able to offer the teams the fastest helmet possible. And when it comes to helmets in particular – to come back to that – it’s all about expertise in the field of safety.

TOUR: But I don’t understand why Ekoï sponsors so many teams at the same time – does that really make sense?

Rattel: You do wonder whether it’s a bit too much, but we also enter into lots of partnerships to help the teams. We’ve known Vincent Lavenu for years, for example, as we started out with AG2R – he was the one who got us into the World Tour. So when he asks us for help with Team Ma Petite Entreprise, we can’t turn him down. It’s not just about working with the big teams. You also have to support cycling in general, because we love it. We’re passionate about it. Team St Michel-Preference is a case in point. These people are really struggling because they don’t know who to turn to.”

TOUR: Rapha completely transformed the cycling clothing market years ago. Now things don’t seem to be going well for Rapha – why?

Rattel: To be perfectly honest: when I first saw the Rapha products, I thought: ‘These English lot are mad; they’ve completely lost the plot. They’re selling caps for 15 or 20 euros.’ I didn’t understand what they were doing, and it was only later that I realised it, once they’d established that style. That fashion-forward side, that uniqueness – they’ve created their own identity, and that’s a real gift. They’ve created something extraordinary. But on the other hand, that was the flip side of the coin: you have to be able to reinvent yourself. Everyone had loads of Rapha gear because it was lovely, it was authentic, it was different. But after three or four years, you start to wonder: what else do you have to offer me? And if you’re not able to make a similarly strong impact, you fall by the wayside because you become boring. I also believe that Rapha rose to such prominence thanks to Team Sky. And when you then withdraw from the sponsorship scene, you lose a bit of credibility. That’s a serious mistake. There are so many brands out there now, and as soon as there’s a success story, they all copy it. But that’s only a short-term solution. I don’t want us to copy others. I want us to create our own identity. Unbeatable value for money – that’s my identity.

TOUR: One gets the impression that lots of new brands are emerging as a result of hype on social media…

Rattel: As for brands that emerge in this way and make the most of their own strengths – so much the better, as they are trying to hold their own using their own resources. The more diverse the range of brands, the better. But what we mustn’t have are clones of Rapha, or clones of other brands. That brings nothing to the market and drags the product down.

TOUR: One of the distinctive features of Ekoï is that the collection changes very quickly. New colours, a new style – is that always a risk?

Rattel: To be honest, that’s pretty much the business model of the internet. If you want people to keep coming back to your website, there has to be something new. I think the customer – we live in a consumer society these days – used to buy an Assos jersey 15 years ago and keep it for as long as possible. They paid a high price to keep it. Today, people prefer to buy cheaper items but can change them more often. Cycling gear has become very fashionable. It’s a fashion product, so you have to keep offering something new. Sometimes you have to take risks because you’re not sure whether a particular design will go down well. When you sell online, you can react quickly. You know straight away whether it’s working or not. That’s because you can analyse the traffic, the number of visitors and, above all, the conversion rate out of 100 people: how many actually bought something? And we can complete a collection in three weeks. That’s because our suppliers have the fabric in stock, so the design is printed, the templates are printed, and the fabric – it all happens quickly.

TOUR: It’s surprising that Ekoï has suddenly started selling its own wheels as well…

Rattel: Why did we do that? We had a Chinese distribution partner who also assembled bikes. He asked, ‘Can you sell a few wheelsets in Europe?’ The first delivery consisted of 700 wheelsets, and we sold them all within a week – it was incredible. So we sent him an order for 1,500 pairs. The only thing was, the second delivery wasn’t of the same quality. That’s how the idea came about. Shouldn’t we develop our own range of wheelsets? We know the rim manufacturer, who is one of the largest in the world, and the manufacturer of the carbon spokes, and we have a partnership with a French company in Annecy that produced our own hub using its patent. So we thought to ourselves: “Right – we’re going to enter the wheelset market.”

TOUR: The bicycle market is going through a difficult period. Do you see any long-term problems?

Rattel: The problem with bicycles is that in Europe we have manufacturers who are still essentially craftspeople – small businesses compared to the American or Chinese giants that are set to flood the market. That is the real problem, and I sincerely believe that in ten years’ time – or even sooner – many brands will disappear. Why? Because these companies have not invested enough in their expertise. Brands such as Cube or Canyon are investing heavily in their expertise to be able to withstand the emerging competition from the US and China. The companies from China will pose a problem for many. Chinese brands have enormous production capacities. And where will they export these to? They are trying to export them to the US, and they will export them to Europe. They have a highly developed industrial process and have invested heavily. A large workforce, substantial investment and high productivity, because they have the expertise – as can be seen in the car and motorbike sectors – to boost productivity, whilst we in Europe have fallen behind in terms of industrialisation in this area.

TOUR: What challenges do you see for the future?

Rattel: China is on its way. They’re already here with the wheels, the handlebars and the 3D saddles. The carbon fibre parts – they’re already available. They’ll arrive with the bicycles. That’s for sure, and the accessories will inevitably follow in the wake of the bicycles. When the Chinese arrive, we know this: they’ll be competing on price. We have time, and we must use that time to develop specific products. When it comes to clothing, for example, it’s all about quick-drying fabrics. Comfort, durability – all of that is our expertise. All the experience we’ve built up. The others don’t have it. They can produce cycling jerseys for 5 or 7 dollars. We have to offer something that stands out. The example of the automotive industry is striking. The automotive industry is in grave danger: because they have failed to master electric mobility, they have been overtaken, and because they have not preserved or further developed their expertise in the field of internal combustion engines. That is the nature of global competition, and after China comes India. I am aware of the danger, and I am glad to understand it so that we can devise an action plan to counter it.

TOUR: You used to compete in cycle races when you were younger – do you still do so today?

Rattel: I have neither the time nor the inclination to do that. Cycling is about freedom, which is why I don’t feel like saying, ‘All right then, I’ll go for a ride at 5 or 6 in the morning.’ As for my training, a friend told me I should train on Zwift. But I don’t like Zwift because, in a closed room, I have neither the motivation nor the drive to perform at my best. I love cycling; it’s freedom – you give it your all, your spirit soars, you feel alive again, you take a deep breath. That’s what I love, so I cycle at the weekend and enjoy trying out new things.

​About the person: Jean-Christophe Rattel

Jean-Christophe Rattel (64) has Ekoï Founded in 2001 together with a friend. Prior to this, he had worked in sales at L’Oréal, Vetta and MBK. Initially, the company sold its products through large retail chains – in 2008, it switched to direct sales via its own website. Since then, the company has been based in the French seaside resort of Fréjus. One of Ekoï’s distinctive features is the wide range of products on offer: everything a cyclist needs from head to toe is available. Since the early days, CEO Rattel has relied on sponsorship. When Brice Feillu won a stage of the Tour de France in 2009 whilst wearing one of the brand’s helmets, this boosted the company’s profile enormously. Rattel subsequently stepped up sponsorship significantly and continues to rely on marketing via high-profile teams and athletes to this day.