Hey everyone,
I got the chance to write an essay on unicycling for one of my university subjects (money, power,war)- thought i might share it with you. (note: was a bit of a last minute job so it’s not as good as it possibly could have been, and some of the research was a little…hmmmm dodgy)
Enjoy!
What are the major economic and social factors which shape the viability of your favorite sport?
Extreme unicycling (the umbrella term I will use to describe the non-conventional disciplines of Downhill, cross country, street and trials unicycling) has a degree of common cultural and economic traits which are shared among its sports people, and in recent years has been revolutionized by globalization. In this essay I will track the changes in the economic and social aspects that have allowed for the quick expansion of this non conventional, non competitive sport. Firstly I will consider the old restrictive social and economic factors that shaped extreme unicycling, then go on to consider the impact of globalization on its ability to expand and develop. I will then gauge the changes that have been afforded by globalization by looking at the new social and economic factors which shape the viability of this sport today.
The founding father of extreme unicycling is George Peck, a white, middle class, middle aged American man who, in the early 90’s produced the first instructional video for extreme unicycling entitled “George Peck’s rough terrain unicycling.” By looking at this video, it is easy to see some initial cultural and economic factors that defined the sport at the time of its inception. The trend among pioneers in this sport was one of innovation and design. Because of a lack of any blueprint to work off about what the sport should be, people who pursued it were often forced into designing and manufacturing their own components when ones from the already established mountain biking scene were not suitable . Because of the start up difficulty in terms of equipment, the age of people who pursued this sport was usually older, and more able to afford the expenses of designing, manufacturing the equipment needed for the sport. Much of the equipment that is used has high failure rates due to its inability to cope with the unique stresses unicycling puts on components. There are only two hubs (an essential component in determining the strength of a wheel) which are produced on the market which are recommended at this stage. These are produced by small companies, are not widely distributed and are only slightly more appropriate than the stock unicycle components. The safety equipment is hand made and includes a back pad (utilizing a kitty litter tray and some foam) and gardening gloves with re-enforced finger tips. George Peck’s movie points to the most important factor which would go on fundamentally change these economic and social factors which made the sport of extreme unicycling viable, the process of Globalization. The movie was initially produced and sold through the unicycle society of America, but as the constraints of geographical separation were being dismantled by the internet and trans-national corporations, the sport found new enthusiasts (as well as connecting existing ones) and willing companies found a new market to pursue.
During the mid 90’s the unicycling world was shaped primarily by pioneer Kris Holm, a Canadian who, like George Peck, was forced to produce his own equipment from 1997, or appropriate it from the Mountain Biking world . Once discovered, his original and advanced riding soon made its way onto the internet, as well as wider media attention that was expanding the audience of people interested in the sport. It is hard to determine when the sport hit its ‘critical mass’ in attracting companies to cater for its specific needs, but a few developments in the late 1990’s are instrumental in the sudden expansion in the sports popularity and viability. This includes the spread of high speed internet and the popularity of video sharing sites, as well as the emergence of unicycle specific companies who cater to the expanding market from this popularity.
The link up of unicyclists in virtual communities and news forums afforded by the internet allowed people to share ideas, advice, designs on equipment, and footage of the newest riding styles. The unicyclist.com forums and associated email based newsgroup is a prime example of how the internet has been an effective tool to unite those with narrow interests that otherwise would be isolated . In 2001, the website recorded 7709 messages from 638 active users , and in 2005 this expanded dramatically to 63,456 messages from 1447 users. Overall, the number of registered users on the website has reached 15,751 . This has been accompanied by the same type of growth in non-English websites that cater for the unicycling communities in places such as France and Germany.
The expansion of extreme unicycling on the internet has been so successful because of the tremendous growth of the internet itself since the 1990’s. In 1990, the number of people worldwide with access to the internet was a mere 2.6 million, in 12 years this number increased to an incredible 450 million . Websites such as YouTube have become increasingly popular, achieving nearly 20 million visitors a month , with the 12-17 year old demographic being the most dominant . The impact of this on the extreme unicycling community can be seen in the content of internet forums, where 4 of the 20 most popular threads on unicyclist.com in 2005 were based on online unicycling videos, a trend not seen in previous years. More recently a new forum dedicated to videos has been added to unicyclist.com and directly links to posted videos on YouTube and other media sharing websites. The sport is being presented to a greater number of people because of the internet, and as of such the rate of interest and participation in it has increased remarkably, especially in the youth demographic which consumes the majority of this new media.
The expansion of the sport of unicycling into cyberspace has also been accompanied by an increase in companies that were willing to cater to the market. The Profile Bicycle Company consulted with David Poznanter in 1999, and produced on a large scale a heavy duty unicycle specific hub that allowed people to push the sport beyond the constraints of their equipment . Kris Holm set up his own unicycle company in 1999 providing up to date, fully assembled unicycles that catered for the extreme unicycling market . However, because of the small numbers for fabrication runs, manufacturing costs for appropriate equipment was still prohibitively high, and isolated the sport from those that did not have a high expendable income. My personal experience of the prohibitive nature of entry into this sport is a common one for those that started in the late 90’s early 00’s. In 2002-03 I started a project to build a top of the line mountain unicycle. It would end up taking 8 months, $1200 AUS, parts sourced and shipped from the USA, a custom made frame from Australia and a lot of patience. While the internet was breaking down the physical boundaries of information transfer, the problem of expensive international shipping, trade agreements, taxes and geographical isolation still existed and made procuring the equipment to allow entry into the sport expensive and slow, especially for those that did not live in the USA, and Canada. This has changed in recent years due to the increased competition among unicycle manufacturers, the outsourcing of production, and the establishment of the successful internet based retail franchise, unicycle.com.
Today there are an array of companies that produce appropriate equipment for the extreme unicycling community. These include Kris Holm Unicycles, Koxx One, Nimbus, Quax, Onza, Profile, Bedford, and many more . This is an incredible situation if you consider that only 15 years ago, in the time of George Peck, only two companies produced after market hubs for unicycles. Competition between these increasing numbers of companies has forced them to produce better equipment for less, and has resulted in companies outsourcing to manufacturing countries such as Taiwan in order to keep costs down. The production of this new sporting equipment has also lead to the creation of the successful global unicycle retail franchise, unicycle.com. This company stocks unicycle parts in countries around the globe and has helped alleviate the economic constraints of the sport that international shipping and taxes used to apply. Unicycle.com now has dealerships in the USA, UK, Sweden, Germany, New Zealand, Australia, and Korea and has dismantled the geographic (and therefore economic) constraints on the acquisition of equipment . With the dispersion of this company around the globe, the sports concentration in North America and Canada has been replaced with a more even growth across the globe.
Globaslisation has had a profound impact on the social and economic factors that allow for the sport of extreme unicycling to exist, and even flourish today. The average age of those who enter the sport has dropped considerably because the entry costs have more than halved in the last decade and made it affordable for the youth demographic. The necessity of being able to produce your own equipment has been negated by the creation of unicycle companies and has also contributed significantly to this shift in age demographic in the sport. The drop in age demographic can also be attributed to the sports expansion through the internet and video sharing websites which are dominated by the youth demographic. However, because the sport is mainly advertised on the internet, the sport is still dominated by the middle and higher classes who can afford high speed internet suitable for streaming video- and therefore exposed to extreme unicycling in the first place. One continuous social trend that has remained relatively the same through out the sports short history , even after globalizations alterations to the way the sport has been made viable over the last decade, this is the disparity in gender participation in extreme unicycling. Female participation in the sport is very low, but comparable to rates in other more mainstream extreme sports such as skateboarding. Perhaps the aggressive and perceived dangers of these types of sports are not as attractive to women as they are to men and as of such gain fewer adherents. In the following years, I believe that the competition between unicycling companies will continue to drive down prices for equipment, and through the medium of the internet more people will be exposed to the sport, and be able to afford to enjoy it. These changes in the social and economic factors which make extreme unicycling viable are caused by globalization and are responsible for its increased popularity in the last decade.
Bibliography:
Journal Articles
Aarons, Barry. 2003 “Don’t Call-Just Send Me an E-mail: The New Competition for Traditional Telecom” Institute for Policy Innovation, Policy report no.175. 27/01/2003
Annotation: A policy report tracking the telecommunications landscape and its changing nature due to new technologies. It has global statistics on the spread, availability and cost of internet, landline phone, and mobile phone communications technologies and the challenges and opportunities this gives traditional telecommunications companies.
Bausch, Suzy and Han, Leilani. 2006. “Youtube U.S Web traffic grows 75 percent week over week” NetRatings, inc 21.07.2006
Wellman, Barry. 1996. “COMPUTER NETWORKS AS SOCIAL NETWORKS: Collaborative Work, Telework, and Virtual Community. Annual Review of Sociology” Vol. 22: 213-238 August 1996 pg 231.
Newspaper articles
USA Today “YouTube serves up 100 million videos a day online” Gannett Co. Inc., 16.7.2006.
Annotation: A newspaper article from USA today that tracks the meteoric success of online video sharing website- YouTube. It states statistics on usage, demographics targeted, the content viewed and gives a brief overview of how the company operates. It also compares YouTube to other youth targeted websites such as Myspace and Google-video.
Videos
Heaton, Dan. 2004. “UNIverse 2- bonus footage- George Pecks rough terrain unicyclng” SYKO productions.
Annotation: Originally produced in 1991 by Alaska based unicyclist, George Peck, this instructional video was included in the bonus features of seminal extreme unicycling video, UNIverse II produced by Dan Heaton. It is often cited as one of the first examples of Extreme unicycling and is responsible for many entering the sport and giving it an initial popularity among existing unicyclists.
Websites
http://www.krisholm.com/english/bio/index.htm accessed: 18.9.2007
www.unicycle.com accessed: 18.9.2007
http://www.unicycle.com/shopping/shopexd.asp?id=145 accessed: 18.9.2007
www.unicyclist.com accessed: 18.9.2007
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/The_Unicyclopedia:Manufacturers accessed: 18.9.2007
http://www.xs4all.nl/~klaasbil/uni_statistics. Accessed: 18.9.2007
Annotation: Klaas Bil has been an influential actor in the online unicyclist community, contributing to unicyclist.com and its predecessor, the email based newsgroup. In the last decade he has recorded statistics from the usage of these online applications and has released it in statistical form on the website above. It is useful in showing trends in the growth and direction of unicycling as a sport.