Industry Ticker: Western Bikeworks absorbs Athletes Lounge to expand into triathlon market

Six weeks after closing its doors for good, Portland’s only triathlon shop has found new life in an unexpected place: Another bike shop.

Early Saturday morning Western Bikeworks announced an agreement with Athletes Lounge. Western Bikeworks has locations in northwest Portland and Tigard and is one of the city’s largest bike shops. In addition to their two retail locations Western Bikeworks does a robust online business as one of four e-commerce bike brands owned by Portland-based Velotech Inc (they also run Cyclocross.com, UrbanCyclist.com and BikeTiresDirect.com).

According to a statement, Athletes Lounge owner Gary Wallesen and an undisclosed number of his former staff will now be employed by Western Bikeworks in order to, “expand the areas of expertise” into trisports. Wallesen has also been hired to spearhead a new e-commerce site at AthletesLounge.com in the coming months.

Here’s more from Western’s statement:

“In our effort to help people have great experiences on a bike, we are constantly re-evaluating our existing expertise and community involvement,” said Western Bikeworks General Manager Colin Ross. “This addition allows us to better serve triathletes by tapping into the wealth of knowledge that Gary and his crew bring along. We look forward to further expanding our growing customer base and community investment.”

“I am very excited to be part of the Western Bikeworks team of professionals. The addition of triathlon will be great news for the large and active multi-sport community,” added Gary Wallesen, former owner of Athletes Lounge.

Western Bikeworks will incorporate Wallesen’s expertise and extensive experience in this community to provide an excellent selection of both triathlon-specific bikes and swim products. He will also work closely with the existing management team, and 3 Dots Design, on a remodel of our flagship Portland store to provide a world-class shopping experience for multi-sport athletes, and anyone else who wants to have the best experience possible riding a bike.

As we reported in August Wallesen decided to close his shop due to a lack of business. He also blamed online shopping and local shops who offer deep discounts as part of what made it hard to turn a profit.

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— Jonathan Maus, (503) 706-8804 – jonathan@bikeportland.org

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