As I walk into Kore Bicycles, I'm greeted not by a pushy salesman or a deluge of price-tagged bikes, but instead by a dog. She saunters up to me, her chubby, Border Collie body bumping against the glass case of colorful gears, pegs, and pedals.
“You waiting for Ryan?” asks a man eating Mexican food at the counter. He is one of a few men in the store, the others cranking on their bikes in the back.
Ryan Cowling is the 36-year-old owner and founder of Kore Bicycles, a small, independent shop that focuses on BMX, mountain bikes and fixed gear bicycles. Hidden in a strip mall on Scottsdale Road in north Tempe, the shop's main advertising is the constant stream of tattooed, gauged men hanging out and riding BMX outside of it.
“I don’t advertise much, it’s one thing I tried and it doesn’t seem to work out,” Cowling says. “The best thing I can do is try harder and let word-of-mouth do its work.”
This idea of building a business strong enough to stand on word-of-mouth alone is at the center of Cowling’s business model.
“I hear a lot about shops being snobby to people, not treating them right, not respecting them,” he says. “I want it to be cool, like when people come in, it’s really friendly and comfortable, no stress, it’s really easy. I sell the shop to the customers more than the bikes.”
That persona carries through the shop, which is set up more like a cool kid’s garage than a formal store. At the entrance are two gray couches, a small table and a TV that constantly streams extreme sports videos. The walls are covered in hand-painted black trees and scribbled messages. “Thanks 4 being kooler than most other shops on this street, or anywhere for that fact! – Dirty Dan,” one note reads.
It all started when Cowling worked at another bike store and watched customers be neglected by the owner. He befriended those customers, and when he talked about opening his own store, they convinced him to pursue it and financially backed him. Kore opened in 2004.
While Cowling fully owns the store today, his early friends and financiers have left a mark: the ‘K’ in the name.
“I came up with the idea for ‘Core’ with a ‘C’ to be like the core of riding, the core of all those bicycle sports, and my initial partners wanted to do it with a ‘K’, and they were helping me and putting up the money so I had to roll with it. Now it’s six or seven years later and it’s too late to change, so I kinda embrace it,” he says, laughing.
Friends have always been an important part of the store, from its origins to its customer culture, which helps Cowling deal with running a store on his own.
“I’m here six days a week, I’ve been doing it for a long time, and it does get hard,” he says. “It’s rough but I’m lucky at the same time. It sounds like I’m complaining, but I get to do what I like to do. I get to see my friends every day.”
Staying true to his start, Cowling usually tries to go downhill mountain biking on his days off.
“I still ride, which is rare. I don’t think a lot of bike shop owners that I know of actually ride bikes, actually ride downhill. They might cruise on the road and stuff but it’s different because I actually ride what I sell.”
It’s this knowledge and genuine appreciation of the sport that fuels his business. Rather than maximize profits, Cowling is interested in what customers want and what is the best in the industry.
“I don’t want to sell cheapie Walmart bikes that break all the time 'cause I’ll make a bunch of money,” he says. “I don’t wanna get huge. People are always talking about mail order and I’ll never turn into that; I don’t want to do the thing where somebody clicks a button and I put it in a box and send it to them. It might make me a million dollars, but I’m just not into it.”
The wide range of bikes lining the walls reflect this, as they are from brands like Cove, Turner, Smalltime and S&M, rather than bigger names like Trek and Specialized.
“I’m really lucky to be able to sell what I think are the best bikes, period. I’m doing more boutique, handmade type stuff so it’s not mass-produced product,” he says.
“A lot of times I see people buy these mass-produced bikes and they spend a ton of money on these things and it almost makes my stomach turn, because I can build a full, custom bike for probably cheaper and also service the thing.”
Free lifetime service is just another feature that Cowling offers. As for the store’s future, he sees himself staying small, but welcomes more to become friends of the store.
Longtime friend and customer Ryan McCracken says he knows why Cowling has been successful.
“He’s a good guy; he helps people out,” McCracken says. “I love it. This is my boy right here.”
Reach the reporter at kaila.white@asu.edu If you go… Kore Bicycles 2240 N. Scottsdale Road, Tempe 480-966-5673, korebikes.com
