Most prestigious brands

ValeTudoGuy

Orange is a curious case for me, they have a rich racing history and produce some expensive high performance bikes.
But I would personally not consider them prestige, perhaps premium or high end and even desirable but not "Prestige".

On the other hand I do consider Whyte as prestige.

supersonic

low-volume sales, exclusivity

or expensive/poor sales/price themselves out of the market ;-)

lostboysaint

Lynksey, Nicolai, Yeti, Transition............

nicklouse

ValeTudoGuy wrote:

On the other hand I do consider Whyte as prestige.

but why?

all they are is the Marin designers OTT versions of his mainstream designs.

Nothing prestigious.

infact I dont think I could use prestigious about any bike brand.

nicklouse

lostboysaint wrote:

Lynksey, Nicolai, Yeti, Transition............

two Boutique brands and two Taiwain made confused brands.

pesky_jones

nicklouse wrote:

infact I dont think I could use prestigious about any bike brand.

This is what I was thinking

njee20

Possibly companies like Baum and English - proper bespoke, custom bikes in very low volumes. I'd not say Santa Cruz/Yeti/Intense etc qualify myself.

Naff term either way.

Clank

njee20 wrote:

Naff term either way.

According to OED, Presitge:

noun
[mass noun]
widespread respect and admiration felt for someone or something on the basis of a perception of their achievements or quality:
the firm has recently gained considerable prestige

[as modifier] denoting something that arouses widespread respect or admiration:
prestige diplomatic posts
a prestige car

Origin:
mid 17th century (in the sense 'illusion, conjuring trick'): from French, literally 'illusion, glamour', from late Latin praestigium 'illusion', from Latin praestigiae (plural) 'conjuring tricks'. The transference of meaning occurred by way of the sense 'dazzling influence, glamour', at first depreciatory

Yeah, naff term!

A better question might be 'what bikes would you aspire to own'?

supersonic

There is no brand I aspire to own really.

cameronb

supersonic wrote:

There is no brand I aspire to own really.

+1. If you like something you buy it, if you don't then it's simple. I wouldn't say any brand has prestige, some brands have exclusivity or are produced in low numbers but this doesn't have anything to do with prestige. Its all about how you perceive the brand and whats desirable to you.

Clank

supersonic wrote:

There is no brand I aspire to own really.

Cobblers! How about any brand with a capital 'G' and a capital 'T' in the title!

.....fanboi!

supersonic

Already have them ;-)

Clank

supersonic wrote:

Already have them ;-)

Dare I mention the Hans Rey limited addtions? Eh? Eh?

I recall you very coverting the picture of one of them recently. Eh? Eh?

supersonic

I wouldn't mind the Zaskar 100, if soemeone were to give it me! But I kinda like my own more...

bluechair84

"Based on a perception of the achievements or quality"
Well, the number of people on here who were championing the quality of the SB66 before it was even released must make Yeti a prestigious brand, and as Canyon have the longest thread in the General forum, I'd say that was a heck of an achievement! So going on the above definition, I'd put Yeti and Canyon side by side

Describing bikes as 'Boutique' is a whole 'nother can of worms too, for instance SC seems fairly boutique over here because they are expensive, partly because of import tax. They're as common in America as Orange are here and Americans don't tend to think of SC as a boutique brand.

supersonic

Yes, the SB66 was championed well before anyone got to ride it.

A lot of subjectivity in these terms, and many can be interchanged to an extend.

There is of course no doubt that people buy some bikes/parts because of the name.

Clank

supersonic wrote:

There is of course no doubt that people buy some bikes/parts because of the name.

Very much this.

But then it's no different with cars, sound equipment, or computor stuff with 'Apple' on it. ......or in my case, tools and kitchen knives

I used to covert Yeti's - thought they were the badgers nadgers. Then I looked at one up close, and the welding was very 'Orange-esque', shall we say. Nothing structurely wrong with it, but I went from 'always wanted' to 'ambivelent' in a stroke. There's a few 'boutique' frames I've seen however that have really impressed me with the care taken to build them - I like that. But then, there's a lot of mass market frames that are beautifully built. I like them too.

Do I aspire to them?

Nope. I'm happy enough with the Kinesis and the Giant - neither of which I wanted until I actually tried them.

I did once aspire to a Bontrager, and I bought one. And 18+ years later, I'm still in love with it. God, I was such a fanboi.

supersonic

I bought my original Zaskar LE because of the name - Peaty had one, Hans did, it was widely received as one of the best and most desirable frames out there, and when I got the whole bike for £400, I was very happy. But that was 15 years ago, and I have changed into a miserable old barstard ;-)

The Zaskar team was bought for different reasons - I wanted a tough hardtail at a good weight that could take a medium travel fork. Also the geo was perfect for me. And it was just about the cheapest carbon frame at the time. It is actually quite rare I recommend GT at all, as I think most are overpriced. I recommend Decathlon far more lol.

paulneenan76

Prestige brands like Apple, Ferrari, Tag Huer, Chanel, Rolls Royce, Church shoes, are called prestige brands because they've created kudos and the desire to own their products through influence and innovation throughout their history - and often charge a very big premium to get into the brand. They become aspirational. I'm not sure any bike related brands are prestigious - Marin, Pashley, Lapierre, Hope or other bike brands which have influenced the industry, may be desirable, have Kudos, and be aspirational, but none really has all the ingredients for prestige like a Ferrari or Mont Blanc. Do I desire a carbon Santa Cruz tallboy? Yes. I aspire to own something from their brand, but it would not be prestigious, an Omega watch would be. Having said that, the closest I think you can get woul be a bespoke frame builder and designer who hand makes the frame - but certainly not Orange.

As someone already replied - maybe the OP should have used the phrase Aspirational/desirable instead of prestigious.

Nice topic though.

nicklouse

Time to read the other two posts he made with the same topic in road and commuting.

ValeTudoGuy

I think it appears that he three posts have run the majority of their course, I would like to thank everyone who expressed an opinion.

It has been said a couple of times that perhaps I picked the wrong word by using Prestigious, on reflection this may or may not have been the case but I'm not totally decided.

I have found the replies interesting and although this has been far from scientific and has only accessed a very small amount of society, I will perhaps jump to a couple of conclusions

1. Branding appears to have much less of an affect on commuters. Well perhaps they are too busy thinking about out and out quality and out and out value and this is more conducive to utility and utility is not always that desirable..... Ce the well duh!

2. Branding is very effective within the world of road cycling, perhaps this is because of the age of the sport and the heritage this brings to some of its brands. some Italian manufacturers seem to have been able to have attained a quasi legendary status. I personally believe that this is perhaps driven by the popularity of the major sporting events "TDF" and the on avarage age ranges and therefore disposable cash of the people who take part.

3. Mountain bikers are certainly affected by brand but nowhere near the level of the Road cyclists, perhaps this is due in part to the relative young age of the sport and the fact that it may sill been seen as an alternative choice when "Alternative and or Niche" brands are king. While there is certainly a racing heritage in Mountain biking perhaps certain brands have not been as totally dominant for such long periods of time and with the vast parity between the many different forms of racing perhaps there is just not enou "Focus" it also may be that the USA and Far East have failed to market in a way that Italy has in past decades?

It is probably no surprise to many that the details of specific brands were not necisarily my interest when I started these threads, but I feel that I have personally confirmed a couple things that I thought and and perhaps learnt a couple things I hadn't considered.

So again, thanks for all the replies!

Marc

CommyAdam

For me it also involves those bikes i dreamed about as a kid so would certainly also include;

Curtis,
Marin (i think they're fairly commonly tipped as being the godfather of modern mountain biking),
Intense,
Santa Cruz,
Turner,
Nicolai

It would appear that 'heritage' would also play a part for me on reflection. I love my commencal meta and would rather have it than a bike from most of the above list but im not sure i would refer to it as prestige as per my definition...

Tom Barton

I think prestigious was a reasonable term to use. Its quite clearly different from 'popular', 'best' or 'most desired'.

To me 'prestigious' indicates a mix of desirability, exclusivity and fame (usually based on the performance of that companies racing teams and the 'expert' rating on performance, the price, their relative rarity, how they look - and perhaps maybe innovative technology, although i grant this is all influenced by the relative talent of a company's marketing team).

Sure a bike is unlikely to match the prestige of a supercar or luxury watch. But within the microcosm of biking some products can be deemed prestigious over others.

A Santa Cruz Tallboy is definately desirable (depending on your feelings about 29ers), they are definately expensive (you don't think they are can I 'borrow' 2 and half grand off you?), few bikes get quite as much media attention and they dominate in the enduro season (I believe at Afan a few weeks back, 4 of the top seven bikes were Tallboy LTcs).

But i guess all things are relative, richer people may consider Bentleys to be footballer or dellboy cars or porsches to be dreadfully common so that only a bugatti is aspirationally prestigious.