I really would like to see unicycling gain popularity. Not to the point where there is ‘Kris Holm Pro Unicylist’ for the Xbox, but at least to the point where bike stores had unicycle hardware and equipment on the shelf. With that said I think if all of us start flooding sites like YouTube and Myspace with unicycling videos, articles, blogs, etc… It could be really good for unicycling.
I wonder how many of you would agree that the unicycle.com has almost a complete monopoly in America, and there is alot of room for more competition.
the San Diego unicycle club have been trying to promote it as best we can. The lbs we all go to now has a 20" lx, and 24" lx, and a 26" lx, as well as a 19" torker DX, a 19" nimbus hoppley(YAY!), a 24" nimbus muni, 2 puke/booger colored secial edition 16" cx’s they haven’t been able to sell, and a bunch of unicycle hardware including two 24" by 3" duro wildlifes, a 24" by 3" gazz, 3 nimbus gel seats, 2 KH seats, a bunch of seatposts, a maxxis CC and replacement lift handles. they also hope to get a KH trials and freeride in sometime soon.
In one week they sold 5 torker Lx’s and a KH freeride!!!
I’m just gonna throw out the Illinois point of view on the monopoly of UDC. DEFINITELY!! And I can assure you we don’t have a unicycle club promoting anything. And if anyone questions UDC’s monopoly, just ask yourself why it has it’s on accrynim.
But I’m not saying it’s a bad thing. Having more competition in the market won’t result in competitive pricing. The small market (compared to biking and others) that exists is one based on quality, not cost.
But I must say that I would enjoy a growing popularity!
do you remember when skateboarding was a minority? you never saw “no skate boarding” signs. then one day, it became hip and cool to skate. everyone skated. it became commonplace. then you go into a store, and they had all these crappy skateboards. tv commercials and were loaded with all these posers and they had like kids with skateboards modeling clothes in J.C. penny catalogs… cause the marketing dept “knows what kids want”, even though the ad execs are always like 5 years behind what’s really going on… etc.
tony hawk was a household name, and on the cover of Good Housekeeping.
everything got so saturated, and it really kind of got ruined. it took all the mystique out of it.
do you really want to go into Wal-mart, K-mart, Target or whatever, and see a bunch of crappy unicycles? your town littered with little kids, all wearing their imitation sixsixone pads, riding some shit uni they got at Walgreen’s, with teenage mutant ninja turtle graphics on the frame?
kind of cheapens the whole thing…
do you want awareness?
do you want it to spread through suburban america like a disease?
do you want Kris Holm action playsets?
do you want a Razor scooter?
do you want to “Do the Dew” on a unicycle?
octobers 100% correct, although a ninja turtles uni would be pretty damn sweet (thats my opinion) but ya. i dotn see unicycling getting too overrated ever. but you never know, and that would suck if it did
Agreeing all the way with October, although I’m from Amsterdam, The
Netherlands, and not the USA.
tomtrevor enlightened us with:
> i think the best way to promote unicycling is to go out and ride.
> show off to people and let them take interest in the the sport.
Definitely. I know that’s how I started. I was thinking about getting
a unicycle, then one day I saw a girl “walking” her dog on a unicycle.
That triggered me into actually buying one. A week later, my
girlfriend got one too, and now the kids in the neighbourhood want to
get unis too.
That’s promoting unicycling!
Sybren
The problem with the world is stupidity. Not saying there should be a
capital punishment for stupidity, but why don’t we just take the
safety labels off of everything and let the problem solve itself?
Frank Zappa
Stay tuned at the uniconnews, and wait for the episode that has the inteview with Mat Hoffman (who I interviewed in Germany last weekend on THIS topic).
I am really glad almost everyone got the point of this post and agrees.
The problem with trying to just ride to promote, is that seeing someone on a uni does not help them purchase one (it does help plant a seed).
I think for you on the west coast you may not see the problem as much. But here in the midwest even Bike shops are rare and I live 7 miles from downtown kansas city.
