{"id":136234,"date":"2025-09-14T06:51:11","date_gmt":"2025-09-14T06:51:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/136234\/"},"modified":"2025-09-14T06:51:11","modified_gmt":"2025-09-14T06:51:11","slug":"meet-the-woman-behind-specializeds-mountain-bike-marketing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/136234\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet the woman behind Specialized’s mountain bike marketing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Georgia Leslie is a PR expert who heads up Specialized’s mountain bike marketing in the UK and Europe. She has ridden mountain bikes for as long as she can remember and worked in the industry for most of her life. <\/p>\n

Organising launches and campaigns for some of the most talked-about bikes in mountain biking, she has a unique insight into the inner workings of one of the world’s biggest bike brands. <\/p>\n

Tom Marvin and Rob Weaver sat down with Georgia to find out about life behind the scenes at Specialized and a few tidbits of insider gossip. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n

1. Spesh may be big, but it’s not a faceless corporation<\/p>\n

\u201cAbsolutely not. You know, Mike Sinyard [founder and chairman] goes to the office still every single day, and he\u2019s in his 70s. He\u2019s still involved in all of the meetings.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe did some riding on the launch for the Stumpjumper 15<\/a>, and he was shredding too!<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of people have been at Specialized a really long time and they\u2019re still so passionate about it. It\u2019s definitely not people sitting behind a computer popping out bikes.\u201d<\/p>\n

2. Product launches are the best
\n\"FemaleLaunches are the reward for all of the months and years of work that go into developing a new bike. Haruki ‘Harookz’ Noguchi<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing involved in the launches and that side of it is really exciting. We know what\u2019s coming way in advance, but when it gets to the point where you see the prototypes, it\u2019s amazing, and then it evolves to become something really beautiful.<\/p>\n

\u201c[With all] the innovation and R&D that goes on behind it, when you see it come to life \u2013 and journalists ride it for the first time and hopefully have a really amazing experience on it \u2013 that\u2019s really cool to see.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s amazing when the product managers and engineers are there as well, and they get to have those conversations with you guys and get to see all of their hard work [come to fruition]\u2026 in some pretty cool products.\u201d<\/p>\n

3. Trends change very quickly
\n\"AdvertThe Stumpjumper has been through many iterations. Specialized<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been at Specialized almost 10 years, so I\u2019ve seen quite a few different iterations [of the Stumpjumper].<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really funny when you look back at what those bikes looked like. At the time, you were like, \u2018That\u2019s the coolest **** ever!\u2019. And now, you\u2019re like, \u2018Oh my God, do you see what that bike looks like?!\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll the colours we had, or whatever. It\u2019s really cool to see everything\u2019s still progressing so much, especially on the ebike side.\u201d<\/p>\n

4. Bike development is a global affair
\n\"SaraThe Specialized operation is spread across the globe. Haruki ‘Harookz’ Noguchi<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are so many different countries that [our] bikes are tested in. It\u2019s not just like they\u2019re built in California. The headquarters is in Silicon Valley, which it has been forever, but that isn\u2019t necessarily the best place for mountain biking.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got a new innovation centre in Auburn, three hours away, on the way to [Lake] Tahoe, and the team can ride from the door, with loads of different places to go and styles of riding. The complete off-road team have moved out there\u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cOur Turbo [ebike] office is in Switzerland, and they can ride some amazing stuff\u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got guys in the UK testing stuff, people in South Africa, in every country, who don\u2019t have a direct link to a product team. There really are \u2018real life\u2019 riders behind the brand \u2013 90% of us are.\u201d<\/p>\n

5. We\u2019re not going to be able to buy Lo\u00efc Bruni\u2019s bike
\n\"LoicDon’t expect to be able to get your hands on Lo\u00efc Bruni’s exact bike. Graeme Murray \/ Red Bull Content Pool<\/p>\n

\u201cIt feels almost like the [Specialized] Gravity Team and that [prototype downhill] bike are the Formula One of mountain biking.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo much is tested and tried and trialled on that bike \u2013 stuff people wouldn\u2019t even notice.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat technology always trickles down into platforms that people can buy [but not in its original form] because what they\u2019re doing is so extreme.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe likelihood that you\u2019ll see that exact bike available to buy is slim\u2026 Think about all the parts you\u2019d need to buy \u2013 that bike is complicated!\u201d<\/p>\n

6. Look out for a new Enduro bike\u2026 but not soon<\/p>\n

\u201cOur enduro team have been riding the Stumpy, because that being so progressive has allowed them to race that and it still be capable enough and still be their bike choice.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut yeah, the Enduro<\/a> has been a while [without a redesign]. Things are always being tested and tried, so I\u2019m sure there\u2019ll be something coming out at some point, but not in the near future.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it was put on the back burner slightly because so many riders, with the surge of ebikes [sales], were having that similar [descending] experience, but with a motor, being able to just do laps and laps without having to slog or push to the top.\u201d<\/p>\n

7. She\u2019s got a simple goal<\/p>\n

\u201cTo get more people on bikes \u2013 young people, girls, everyone. There\u2019s been quite a big surge in girls getting on bikes, which is really cool.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think [the barrier] is still at the level of getting into riding. The accessibility is still tricky, because it can look intimidating. A lot of what you see, from a marketing perspective, is the extreme side.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s not necessarily content that\u2019s just inspiring and makes people want to get out and enjoy riding.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe that\u2019s something, as brands, we could look at a bit more, to get those newer riders \u2013 and it doesn\u2019t just have to be girls \u2013 on to bikes.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Georgia Leslie is a PR expert who heads up Specialized’s mountain bike marketing in the UK and Europe.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":136235,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-136234","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-cycling","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136234","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=136234"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136234\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/136235"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=136234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=136234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=136234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}