Shifting gears

British brand Pearson is changing, and its new Shift is leading the way

- Words Sam Challis Photography Tapestry

Pearson can lay claim to being the oldest cycling brand in the world, having been founded as a bike shop in 1860. And it still is a bike shop, in a sense. That part of the business has been renamed Forge1860 and is still located in Richmond, London. The Pearson name, however, was carved out several years ago.

'Will and Guy Pearson, descendants of Tom, Pearson's founder, spotted an opportunity in apparel, so created an offshoot business,' says CEO Scott Davies. 'It didn't work out – clothing is a difficult category – but as a result we ended up in a position where the Pearson name was on a ton of stuff: socks, wheels, allen keys...'

That's not counting a diverse range of framesets, which the brand offered even before it was divided into separate branches. When the shop was running under the Pearson name as well, it's not hard to see how the company proposition was becoming diluted and unclear.

The bike range has been reduced to four models, all centred around high performance like the premium brands Pearson aspires to sit alongside

'Even the logo on our frames' down tubes was hard to read,' says Davies, 'so we've begun to strip things back so that the customer is clear on what our objectives are and what we offer.'