Behind the Scenes at Fit Kit Systems: A Small Business with Big Heart, Local Roots, and Real Expertise

About Us: History and Mission

On most company websites you will find an About Us, including ours. Many of these default to a generic utopian mission statement which gives zero insight into the business and who is behind it. You won’t find a generic About Us on our website (it’s detailed), and our mission statement is plastered on the front page and is very specific: to provide bike fit solutions for bike fitters and cycling enthusiasts. This might be a product, information, education, advice, or software. We don’t have it all and cannot offer it all, but our desire is to support cyclists, fitters, and bike shops with bike fit specific products and services. Not many other businesses can claim that.

Fit Kit Systems has been around for over 40 years, and if interested you can read about the history here. In the current iteration, we are a mico-business that has been based in Salt Lake City, Utah for the past 10 years, run by a tiny team of mostly part-time staff.

The Fit Kit Systems Team

The Fit Kit Systems team is made up of one overworked full time owner (John), and several part time staff and contractors in sales (Paul); marketing (Damon, Philip); admin, customer service, and inventory (Lisa); shipping (Lian); accounting (Bonnie). Reed is involved in software development and Larry and Mark are independent machinists who make parts for some of our tools. For customer interaction, you are dealing with either John, Paul or Lisa. That’s it!

Two Businesses Under One Roof

Our fitting studio – BikeFitr – is in the same building as our admin office, inventory and shipping, and tool production. Everything is in-house.

Why Fit Kit Systems Doesn’t Sell on Amazon

In a marketing meeting late last year, the question came up as to why we don’t sell on Amazon.  Although I certainly buy stuff on Amazon, I don’t want to sell on Amazon as it’s a competitive race to the bottom on quality and price. Here’s why I don’t think Amazon is the right outlet for us:

• There is no product category for bike fitting equipment  (although there is for some items we sell)
• An Amazon store requires duplication and management of all product listings, shipping calculations, and inventory management. That is a significant administrative burden and cost.
• Product margins are too low to pay Amazon their cut and subsidize the shipping costs, and still stay in business.
• There is reduced opportunity to support customers in the personalized way we prefer.

There are some similar products available on Amazon to what we sell, but they are largely being sold by companies with no interest or expertise in bike fitting, and the product quality is often questionable. Cheaper? Often. Better? No. Think of the bike buyer’s decision criteria: Light; cheap; durable.  Everyone wants all three, but in reality, you have to pick two.  Any two. This applies to fitting equipment and supplies too. Buyer’s decision though!

Unique Behind-the-Scenes Factoids

Here are some factoids about Fit Kit Systems that you may not know:

• Small private business, not an offshoot of a conglomerate or corporation.
• Wholly based in the USA
• Niche focus on bike fitting, with an expanding catalog of tools and supplies.
• The owner has 15 years of bike fitting experience, with 5 years in bike shop retail land and 10 years in actively running a bike fit studio – using most all of the products we sell.
• Fit Kit branded tools are made in-house from locally sourced and machined materials wherever possible. Who makes them? The owner. These are not offshored, mass-produced, and imported items, but local cottage industry products.

John calibrating a VeloAngle. Parts are machined and molded in the USA and assembled in our office.

• Distribution agreements with some premier European-based bike fit suppliers, to bring those items to both the USA and other international markets. Most of these are also items produced in small quantities for a niche user.
• All inventory is warehoused and shipped from our office in suburban Salt Lake City. We don’t use 3PL (third-party logistics). That means we can modify orders on request, recognize and question duplicate orders, and resolve issues with shipping charges. If we see an egregious shipping charge we know is incorrect we even refund the overcharge to the customer. Who else does that?
• Worldwide shipping. As well as the Americas, we send products to Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and Australia. i.e most anywhere.
• Customer service is from real people in the actual office. Not remote. Not based in another country.
  • Pros: no chatbots, no artificial unintelligent responses, but real advice from users of the actual products with technical expertise available when needed.
  • Cons: no 24/7 response and sometimes delays in getting back to people due to being busy doing other stuff in the business like bike fitting, packing products, making tools, responding to a mountain of emails, or going home to eat dinner. Rarely due to being on a bike ride (we wish) but sometimes due to a vacation.

We still have to earn your business and deliver the goods, but I hope you can see that is our intent. The bike industry as a whole pays scant attention to the experience the cyclist has on the bike, be it great, good, so-so, or a literal pain in the butt, back, hands, feet, knees, or neck. As a bike fitter, I see my role as a bike-body relationship counselor – helping both parties get along well together in a synergistic way. Through Fit Kit Systems we strive to broaden the benefits of a bike fit to a much greater number of cyclists – through resourcing professional fitters and providing DIY aids to enthusiasts who are self-counseling. The joy of cycling is found in the physical and emotional therapy of riding. More riding =  more joy!