My shifter arrived this evening, I thought they’d sent me a mech aswell judging by the size of the box.

Should of gone shimano deore, better shifting and sensible packaging.

Could have used a cardboard inlay too, rather than vac formed plastic. That’s the worst bit for me. How many plastic inserts do they make every year that just get chucked away as soon as the component is removed? Bleurgh.

Fancy glitzy packaging and printing was all fine and dandy when we went to shops for stuff, we are online now nobody goes around looking for the nicest box

And who in their right mind ever did?

A bog standard plain cardboard box won’t make it a worse pedal, shifter or dropper leaver.

I’m sure they read STW to receive your feedback. Let’s hope they read this topic before it slips from the front page otherwise it’ll be wasted. Or I dunno, email them with your suggestion? I mean sure they’ll ignore it but it’ll be a better avenue for your dismay than posting here.

Whilst I agree that the size is excessive and the vac form tray should be card it’s a relatively low selling item that should last a few years.
Food and FMCG packaging is far worse just because of the shear volume of it.
It’s like bike companies showing off their plastic free bike box for a carbon frame cant can’t be recycled and has been shipped around the world.

I have a GX 10-52t cassette in a box. Date wk12 2022. The inlay is card.

Am older 10-50t I had was placcy.

Lots of people complain about excess packaging.
Lots of people complain about goods damaged in transit.

Somewhere there may be a happy medium.

It is a nice reusable box but the black plastic you can’t recycle is a problem, cardboard or clear plastic should be an obvious n easy alternative to produce.

Agree. I recently bought a SRAM cassette and the box was huge!

Shimano are better at this IMO, their packaging is generally all cardboard and paper and pretty minimal.

I bought my son a SRAM rear mech and it was in a suitably sized box, no plastic within. Mech was pretty much loose in the box. Maybe the shifter was older stock and they’ve changed?

Aside from anything else it means that SRAM are wasting around 60% of the capacity for ocean and road freight (assuming they aren’t using air freight). That adds significant cost to the consumer but also means they are contributing to ocean / road freight pollution.

Apple’s done some great work to reduce the size of packaging – if they can manage that for metal / glass products it’s reasonable to assume SRAM can do the same for metal / carbon / plastic objects.

Could have used a cardboard inlay too, rather than vac formed plastic

Which is how my AXS great was packaged. I’m guessing that this box came from older stock.
They still over do it IMO. The newer Shimano gear comes with no plastics, no glossy finish and they’re visibly using less blue dye.
As far as extravagant packaging is concerned, I still wouldn’t say no to a pair of Trickstuff in a fancy wooden box thanks 2024 Santa.

I bought my son a SRAM rear mech and it was in a suitably sized box, no plastic within. Mech was pretty much loose in the box. Maybe the shifter was older stock and they’ve changed?

Sounds like you bought OEM stock rather than it being a change in the way aftermarket product is packaged.

Or I dunno, email them with your suggestion? I mean sure they’ll ignore it but it’ll be a better avenue for your dismay than posting here.

Maybe I will but like you say they’ll probably ignore me. Apologies for posting some bike related musings on an internet bike related chat forum, I seem to have annoyed you slightly? 🙂

I do have an Eagle cassette here too in some less excessive packaging and with a cardboard insert, so maybe they are improving and changing things 🙂

Brake pads in plastic though vs Shimano’s cardboard boxes.

I did buy some brakes that were just wrapped in a bit of bubble wrap but I think that’s because they were bought from Chain Reaction and were originally destined as OEM kit.

Sounds like you bought OEM stock rather than it being a change in the way aftermarket product is packaged.

Nah, its a proper box for the mech. I’d photo it, but its wrapped and ready to post off to the lad’s uni 🙂

^^ People buy proper branded brake pads?! I never knew 😀

People buy proper branded brake pads?! I never knew 😀

Sometimes 😁
I normally buy Uberbike but the originals weren’t much more expensive at the time and on our gravel bikes they shouldn’t need changing too often.

Bought a cassette and it’s got a foam liner (hard to see in this picture, can’t be arsed going to the shed to take a better one,).