Electric bike manufacturer Super73 hit the big screen last year when it was featured in the home taken over by Ryan Gosling, aka Ken, in the hit movie “Barbie.”
“Getting our Super73 bikes featured in the Barbie movie was an absolute thrill for us,” co-founder and Chief Marketing Officer Michael Cannavo told the Business Journal.
After the company worked with an agency to get a Super73 e-bike on set, the studio quickly found a place for it in the movie.
This year, Super73 is gearing up to capitalize on that fame by building out its own retail footprint.
The co-founders in 2016 first set out to build 25 e-bikes in Tustin for a Kickstarter campaign and are currently manufacturing thousands of bikes to sell in over 300 dealers in North America.
In moving all business operations under one roof this year at its 70,000-square-foot headquarters on the corner of Jamboree Road and Michelson Drive in Irvine, the former base of now Costa Mesa-based Anduril, Super73 made the effort to update the front of house showroom into an operational retail store.
The renovated space is the first Super73 flagship to sell bikes and accessories and is said to be the blueprint for the rest of the company’s pipeline.
The retail focus comes after three years of establishing an extensive wholesale network first, Chief Revenue Officer Ben Masek told the Business Journal during a tour of the new store.
Masek is among the recent employee growth Super73 has experienced in the past few years with a current headcount of 75 companywide, including 60 in Irvine.
“When you think about the product type we’re selling, being vehicles, at some point people that will buy Super73 will want to kick the tires. They’ll want to swing a leg over it and to demo it. The only place they could do that was through a vast wholesale network,” Masek said. “But we’ve always had an eye on our own retail.”
Masek added that although there is no rush, Super73 aims to open five to 10 stores over the next three years.
Multi-Format
While Super73 was working well off its direct-to-consumer model—sales had doubled in 2020—wholesale partners allowed the company’s e-bikes to enter new markets and attend to consumers in a physical way. The company would not disclose recent figures.
However, retailers are managing “multiple different brands and product types” in stores which makes promoting an individual brand difficult, Masek noted. Super73 wanted to boost its own product in a retail environment they controlled.
“Before, it was a small space for customers to come in and buy a bike, but it wasn’t an experience; it wasn’t elevated,” Masek said of the decision to renovate the room.
He added it was Super73’s first attempt on how to merchandise their product versus simply having bikes on the floor. The new retail store currently makes 10% of the company’s total profit, according to Super73. The company also added a service center at its headquarters to further support local customers.
The company doesn’t need to stick to a single model or design for its future stores, Masek said. Its retail concept could take on several different formats, from a free-standing building with a Super73 store, service center and coffee shop co-existing to a colorful showroom in a local mall.
It could also open solo service centers, which might be necessary with a current backlog at the one in its headquarters.
“It’s about identifying the areas we want to be involved in from both a community standpoint and a retail standpoint,” Masek said.
Super73 is seeking locations based on data from its direct-to-consumer channels as well as existing retailers.
“We never want to step on our wholesale partners,” he added.
Key territories include New York, the Carolinas, Florida, Texas, Arizona and up to Oregon and Washington, or the “smiley face of the U.S.,” Masek said.
New Line
In the new store, Super73’s newest line of e-bikes are parked on the showroom floor following a weekend launch party in April.
The new bikes are a result of customer feedback, co-founder Cannavo told the Business Journal. This is the first line of e-bikes to have interchangeable batteries, resulting in three models each with different power and range.
The new models also feature special edition and limited-edition trims for the first time with exclusive badging that help identify the individual bike. Super73 made up to 500 of the special and limited editions to play into the collectability of the product.
The company is also working with local enforcement to not only keep Super73 bikes up to code but to introduce more accessible rules and regulations for these types of vehicles, to avoid any upsets in the community. These include hosting events with the Huntington Beach Police Department to train riders on safety and local laws.
The manufacturer is getting closer to finishing its first motorcycle, the C1X, with a release timeline to be announced before the end of this year.
Product Placement
Super73’s electric bikes have not only been a hit among everyday consumers—the Irvine-based manufacturer says there are over 15 to 20 biking communities in existing markets who call themselves “SuperSquads”—they have also reached the homes of over 50 celebrities and more recently, the sets of blockbuster movies.
The base price starts at $1,995 for the Z Miami model and can go up to roughly $4,500 for an RX Limited Edition, then everywhere in between.
The high-end customers exist in a different space with a different expendable income and “allows us to flex as well with our innovation and technology and finding out how to push the boundaries,” Chief Revenue Officer Ben Masek told the Business Journal.
Custom e-bikes have been made for notable names such as singer Post Malone and actor Chris Hemsworth and for brands that Super73 chooses to align with based on their fan base.
The company also wants to make sure it stays grounded and spread across multiple consumer channels. Turning away collaboration offers is just as important as the projects they say yes to, executives said.
Co-founder and Chief Marketing Officer Michael Cannavo still has a few ideas up his sleeve when it comes to where the e-bikes can go and whose hands they can fall into. One current focus is to have more product placement in movies and television shows in the future.
Its most recent film appearance was in 2023’s “Barbie” blockbuster in the “renovated” dreamhouse of Ken, played by Ryan Gosling.
“It was a testament to the fun, adventurous spirit of our brand and the exciting lifestyle it represents. We were incredibly proud to see our products take center stage,” Cannavo said.
Super73 ultimately hopes to become a “legacy” brand, a household name that outlives its founders turning into the Harley-Davidson or Jeep of the electric bike category, Cannavo said.
—Emily Santiago-Molina