From left to right: George Hu (General manager Azzuri), Grant Kaplan (MC Cyclery), Brett Dutton, Me, Daniel Jungfleisch (Sales Manager Azzuri).
I forgot to mention, the other day I got to meet the guys behind upcoming bicycle manufacturer Azzurri. George Hu is the man behind Azzurri, he’d flown in from Taiwan and Brett Dutton (he’s one of Grant’s suppliers) hooked us up for lunch.
We talked about the local market, and how culturally different it was here than in Taiwan. The Azzurri web site and branding really fails to work for me. I can see what they’re trying to do and have a few ideas that George got excited about (he was a super excitable guy!). After much discussion it looks like I might get a chance to help them re-brand and re-launch, exciting times!
I also learnt that frames are not robot welded in Taiwan. In fact they’re hand welded. There are a LOT of people on internet forums out there saying robot welded this and that, goes to show you can’t believe everything you read out there, especially on forums.