They just seem to be repeating the same mistakes. I mean I don’t really care – it’s their business and I wont be buying, but when you see how hard Cy @ Cotic, Dan Stanton, Sam @ Singular, Joe @ Starling, BTR and loads of others have worked to refine and generate confidence in their designs and really put themselves out there and bent over backwards to be open, apologise for mistakes, etc it’s no wonder that we’re a bit dumbfounded by Sick!
Correct me if I’m wrong, but the old Taiwanese business model used to be save up enough for a batch of frames, generate a little hype on the way while they get built, then as soon as they are on a boat, start taking orders. As soon as you’ve got some firm orders and you see a pattern of which sizes/colours sell, then you place your second order which should arrive 2 months after the first frames hit the UK. If you flew over a couple of frames to check personally, then you can correct any mistakes/make improvements in time for ordering the second batch.
In the meantime you’ve got a load of ‘New Bike Day’ posts of people raving about your frame so that you can sell out the second batch as soon as it gets on the boat.
Then slowly work your way away from this model, into one where you hold stock and customers don’t have to wait or gamble any more.
Then, when everyone is happy that you’re a decent sort of company, eventually launch a new model 🙂