Thoughts On Mail-Order Pioneer Arni Nashbar

Years ago, as a struggling bike shop owner on the near west side of Cleveland, I was often faced with a customer coming in waving his/her new Nashbar catalog in my face looking for a price match – or worse, to see something s/he would eventually order from the Nashbar store after handling the product first-hand from our sales floor.

I don’t know a single shop owner in those days who didn’t have a similar exasperating experience.

Now, I look back with such a different perspective because today it’s no-contact online ordering, fierce discounting, and forget-the-bike-shop direct to consumer offerings – all unimaginable back then.

So this week, when the Arni Nashbar had died, I took a moment to honor him and mourn his passing; because as it turns out, Arni Nashbar was a pioneer.

Long before the Internet and long before Walmart or Dick’s, Arni found his place in the industry by offering up his graphically appealing catalog to the ravenous cyclists who pored over every publication that featured cycling. Whether it was a racing paper like Velo News or Bicycling magazine, when a product showed up in pictures or a story, it showed up in a Nashbar catalog.

From tires and tubes to gloves and shorts, Nashbar usually had it in stock and ready to ship – and often, had a better price than we could offer.

Arni was really smart – he somehow got hooked up with Bicycling magazine and, the moment you subscribed, you began receiving Nashbar Catalogs – unsolicited. At its peak, the catalog reached as many as 14 million cyclists a year.

Same thing happened when you registered for a bike racing license – you became a Nashbar customer!

As time went on, Nashbar realized that he could make a few extra margin points by branding his own products – tires, tubes, and even a line of bikes. It was incredibly innovative at the time.

So, I have a personal little story about Arni – even though we were never formally introduced – it turns out he “knew” me.

He, of course, would attend the trade shows the same as I did. What I didn’t know but was told by one of my employees was that Arni would follow me from booth to booth to see what I was interested in or what I was ordering for our shop.

Our shop was particularly targeted at the high-end cyclists, and they wanted high-end products. When those products showed up in Arni’s catalogs faster and cheaper, I was peeved; but eventually, I realized what he was doing was actually a compliment – maybe a little back-handed, but a compliment, nonetheless.

Eventually, Arni sold the business to Performance Bike, and soon after paper catalogs like his were competing with online stores – or more accurately, no longer in competition.

Arni left the industry and retired in Florida. He died on April 12^th at the age of 83. May he rest in peace.