Iconic cycling brand GT Bicycles appears to be in dire straits, with sources telling Escape Collective that the brand is undergoing significant layoffs and – at a minimum – pausing new releases indefinitely.
The brand has confirmed this scenario to Bicycle Retailer and Industry News, stating that it is “implementing a strategic reorientation to align with evolving customer preferences,” and will refocus “on core strengths… refining our strategy to position GT for long-term growth.” It will sell through existing inventory, the brand confirmed. GT’s managing director Jason Schiers – the founder of Edge Composites, now Enve – also confirmed to Bicycle Retailer that there will be layoffs before the end of the year.
However, there are numerous indications that the real picture is somewhat bleaker.
In a video published late in the afternoon of Tuesday 17 December titled ‘Goodbye GT – thanks for all the Good Times’, sponsored rider and popular Youtuber Phil Kmetz (‘Skills with Phil’) said that, minutes earlier, he’d got off a group call with all sponsored riders in which “we were just informed that GT is going to be no more” and that they were no longer going to be sponsored athletes. A visibly rattled Kmetz painted a picture of an emotional meeting, in which the brand’s head of athlete relations appeared to be in tears as he said goodbye to the riders he’d worked with. Days earlier, GT dropped its entire BMX freestyle team – an especially troubling sign considering the brand’s legacy in that space.
Kmetz later clarified his remarks to say that “they’re not shutting down; they’re going to sell the inventory that GT has and then once that inventory is done, they’re going to pause the brand.”
He also suggested that Schiers, the managing director, made an offer to purchase the GT brand from its parent company PON – a vast Dutch conglomerate which also owns Cannondale, Cervelo, Focus and Santa Cruz, among others – but was rebuffed. These comments have since been removed.
Numerous sources with firsthand knowledge of the situation tell Escape that an “indefinite pause” was GT’s fate.
The news caps a turbulent year for GT, which as recently as February 2024 was telling a story of optimism and rebirth. The company relocated from Connecticut to Cervelo’s Southern California headquarters, close to the Laguna Hills – the brand’s spiritual birthplace. GT’s staff expanded from eight to 23 employees, including key hires in the product development team, although it is clear that optimism has now curdled.
GT has a long history in the cycling industry, having recently clocked its 50th anniversary, and is considered one of its legacy brands on the MTB and BMX side of the sport. Around the turn of the century it also produced a well-regarded range of road bikes which were ridden at the highest level of the sport by team Lotto-Adecco, with Andrei Tchmil winning the 2000 edition of Tour of Flanders on a GT with the brand’s visual trademark, the ‘triple triangle’ design. Its legacy is more impressive in the gravity disciplines of MTB, notching numerous World Championships during its lengthy sponsorship of the Atherton family.
GT has been through several changes of ownership in recent years, including Cycling Sports Group (CSG), Dorel Industries and PON. The acquisition of the various cycling brands within both CSG and Dorel’s portfolio by PON has been a somewhat fraught process: other well-regarded brands within the group, including Fabric and Charge, were similarly put on what was described at the time as indefinite hiatus, but years later have yet to return.
Escape Collective has reached out to senior members of staff at GT (including Schiers) for comment, along with PON and other related brands, as well as local wholesalers. No comments of substance on GT’s future were offered at the time of publication.
This is a developing story, and will be updated with any responses.
Did we do a good job with this story?