roubaix - Specialized

FOUNDING PRINCIPLES
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OUR DEVELOPMENT PROCESS
YOUR RIDE STARTS HERE
SPECIALIZED WAS FOUNDED IN 1974 with the simple guiding principle
that if the company focused on a rider’s need for functional and technically
advanced cycling equipment that provided real performance benefits, it
would be successful.
OVER THREE DECADES LATER, there are many more ways to ride, but the same founding principle
is still the beating heart of the company.
But what is a “rider’s need” or a “real performance benefit?” The answer is that a rider’s need stems
from the experience that individual wants to have while out on a ride. A bike or piece of equipment
offers a real performance benefit if it has the right stuff to enable the rider to achieve that experience,
regardless of whether it’s winning a stage in the Tour de France or riding without training wheels for
the first time.
That’s where our development process comes into play. Once our product manager (who acts like
the president of smaller company within Specialized) develops an acute insight and understanding
of a specific experience—for example, what
experience a performance-oriented female
road rider seeks—they figure out what
features are required to deliver it. Then they
develop them: things like the ergonomics,
geometry, tubing dimensions and profiles
and specific components. Combined, these
attributes will guarantee that the rider will
have a greater fulfillment of their desired
riding experience than ever before.
To fully realize the target attributes of any
product involves an incredible amount of
insight and effort on the part of product
managers, engineers, designers, fabricators
and testing specialists. This insight also results in new technology, inventions so novel they are awarded
patents and first-place medals in design contests. While we like medals and pats on the back, all our
effort is in the name of making your time on a bike better.
www.specialized.com