Matt VanEnkevort, The CEO Who Revived Marin Bikes

The Ride Companion

TRC Media House

Sports, Wilderness

4.9 • 533 Ratings

🗓️ 29 April 2026

⏱️ 69 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Davi visited Marin Bikes HQ in California to sit down with CEO Matt VanEnkevort to learn the real story behind how one of mountain biking's most iconic brands rebuilt itself around one simple idea, MADE FOR FUN.

On this episode of The Ride Companion Matt shares the story of joining Marin in 2012, when the brand was in serious trouble and how the team rebuilt the company, the product range and the culture. This conversation covers Marin's early history, the brand's near-bankruptcy, the reality of being a bike company CEO, the chaos of the Covid bike boom, why Marin avoids chasing hype, how they choose athletes and Matt's honest thoughts on the current state of the bike industry, ebikes and where the cycling could be heading.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	It'll be interesting to see. I mean, you can see DJI is very aggressive. I think they're very
0:06.0	aggressive in their product launches or product development. And I think they may struggle a little
0:11.0	bit in the bike industry because, you know, they're consumer electronics, right? You get to pump out
0:15.1	a new drone. You get it to the stores. As they say. Yeah. And the bike industry just doesn't function like that.
0:22.3	You're an Oean supplier, so they have to develop a housing for it, the battery, you know, the shaping of the tubes, et cetera, to fit it. Then you've got the supply chain. It's, you know, whatever five months, six months to order it to get it. Then it's a month of two to build the bikes. then it's a month of two to ship it,
0:36.2	and by the time you get it into your warehouse,
0:38.2	they've already launched a new motor.
0:39.7	Yeah.
0:40.2	And you just bought and built is now obsolete. I worry about that with them. Bosch gets product development cycles. Shimano obviously does, but Bosch gets product development cycles, and I think they're very mindful of not obsolating their customers
0:54.6	inventory yeah I just don't know if Bosch if DJI has that same mentality
1:00.0	okay ladies and gentlemen welcome back on today's episode.
1:12.7	We're joined by the one and only Matt Van Enkobot, CEO of Marin Bikes.
1:18.1	So welcome to the show, mate.
1:19.3	Appreciate you.
1:20.5	Believe it or not, I'm not the one and only, by the way.
1:23.0	There's a guy in Upper Michigan with my exact name, and we're polar opposites, And I'm always afraid somebody's going to go to social media and go, that's this. Oh, but. I thought you were going to say you're not the only CEO. I was like, oh, no, you're messed up. Now I'm the best one, though. Mate, you're the one and only. You're the one and only. Yeah, unfortunately. So most of what I wanted to talk about today, I think, like we're talking about, off air, right, coming here, meeting the people, seeing what the brand is all about, the whole motto, made for fun, etc. But obviously, you joined the company around 10 years ago. Is that correct? Up, 11. 14. 14. July of 2012. July 2012. All right. Thank you. The right, check. I appreciate it. So I know a little bit about your story of joining, but can you tell me, like, where were you in your life at that point? Where had you been before?
2:18.2	Okay.
2:21.6	I'd be interesting to learn a little bit more about that side of you joining Marin.
2:26.9	Well, I was standing in the unemployment line, and I heard there was an opening here.
2:27.7	Is that right, yeah? So I was running FSA for, so North, South America, Australia, New Zealand,
2:35.5	the counterpart of Italy doing European business.
2:38.2	And we had an owner in a factory in Dali, Taiwan,
	...

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