An Evening with ASSOS
Approximately 6 weeks ago I received an email from Sigma Sport, inviting me to “An Evening with ASSOS“. That was for yesterday, 28 April 2016. So, I registered for the event and yesterday I went. It was the first time that I was visiting Sigma Sports. Nice shop, quite big, loads of high-end stock and prices to match. The food was great -courtesy of Look mum no hands!– and the drinks were flowing. I think that it was not as busy as they expected so the whole thing started a bit late. I believe that the reason of the low turn-up was the location.
Anyway, this is about Assos, so let’s get to the point. I remember the Assos logo from years ago. You could see it discretely on the corner of a pair of shorts (bib-shorts were rare or even non-existent those days, at least in Greece) or training jersey. It’s a name and a logo that I always remembered. I never had the chance to own a piece of their kit, though. So I was going to this event to see what they have to say and show.
The presentation started with the founder’s daughter Désirée Maier. It was quite interesting to see the history of the company and the brand, but the whole presentation was not well rehearsed. I like the whole family company ethos, but I have seen presentations by university students that were better. I felt that nobody had been well prepared for the presentation. Bruce Berkeley came to talk about his record attempt and the Assos products but he could not tell anything about the products apart from the fact that they were really good. We were shown the gear that they have made especially for the Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One team cycling club and somebody talked about the new features but once again it was not well-prepared.
They announced that they will open a flag-ship store in London’s Regent Street. They try to look more corporate but they did not show that through their presentations. I did not expect an Apple-like press conference, but I was expecting something more professional. I left feeling that I had wasted my time and Assos had wasted an opportunity to impress.