While researching the Red Bird bicycles, I got my hands on a copy of the 1899 Brantford Red Bird catalogue produced by the Goold Bicycle Company. The catalogue has a bright red cover with a woman wearing her Victorian dress while riding a Red Bird. The Goold Co. personalized its business by offering an anthology in the catalogue detailing ‘why’ a consumer should want to buy that new Red Bird model.
Ironically, starting with ‘why’ is the very tactic professed to big organizations today by Simon Sinek–– “People don’t buy what you do; they buy why you do it. And what you do simply proves what you believe.”
I’m always drawn to the ‘why’. It may be the personal journey of the business owner, understanding the inspiration for creating their business, a product designed with sustainable materials and minimizing environmental impacts, or detailing the artistic process when developing a product. The value proposition of starting with ‘why’ is always a connection. Psychology research indicates we want to buy those things that reflect who we are, complement our values and affiliate us with more prominent causes.
The Goold Co. catalogue starts with a “retrospective” –– yes, dear reader, I’m using the word retrospective in 1899 –– in two pages of content, their business history is divulged. At that time, Goold Co. had been in the bicycle business for 16 years, and their business advances were based on “genuine mechanical merit”. Information is shared about expanded distribution markets outside the Dominion of Canada, where there is demand for the “superior mechanical construction, elegant finish and many modern improvements” offered in the Red Bird.
But despite the demand, Goold Co. admits they had been struggling with supply, and despite best efforts to keep up, “thousands of riders were compelled to purchase other wheels through our inability to supply them with the Red Bird”. Yet this is when the story turns, and the Goold writers propose in the retrospective that this year there be “no such unfortunate disappointments” as a new, larger factory has been constructed to provide their workmen more room. A factory where: “nothing is taken for granted; everything is tested. All the steel is put through a most severe test as to its quality, strength and resistance, and the most infinitesimal defect is fatal to its acceptance. This is one of the secrets of the strength and longevity of the Red Bird.”
The entire catalogue is 43 pages, and pages 6 to 21 are dedicated to an overview of each department in the factory. The catalogue writer walks the reader through the process from steel forging to the final Red Bird constructed and distributed from the shipping room. Each page is about a “section” of a room (e.g. a section of the polishing room) or the full room (e.g. the grinding room).
The information includes a photograph of work-in-progress with pictures of the “skilled workmen” in the image –– connecting us to the people responsible for the product quality. Accompanying the image is a description of the department sharing the details of the production process with the reader. For example, the Machine Room is described as: “One of the largest and most interesting departments of the factory. It is a perfect hive of industry….particularly interesting is the hub machine. This is a very rare and expensive piece of machinery. Being thus cut from the solid bar, the Red Bird hub is tremendously strong.” Another favourite of mine is the description of the Tempering Room: “A department which gives one a vivid idea of Dante’s Inferno is the tempering room, where every portion necessary, large or small, of the Red Bird, receives that tempering which imparts to it the strength for which it is justly framed.”
The writing is almost poetic. Extending to not only what is happening in each of these rooms but the value of the process undertaken by the Goold Co. and their commitment to quality.
Eventually on page 22, there is a preamble to introduce the new bicycle models — the wheels for 1899. Goold shares that the wheels manufactured this year were produced: “With our tried-and-found-true older features of construction, and our thoroughly tested new ones, we are enabled to put wheels on the market that we can conscientiously recommend. They have everything in their favour, beauty of appearance, exceptional strength, superior mechanical construction, ease of propulsion and wonderful ability to withstand years of hard wear and tear. Very few riders have so little money that they cannot buy one of them on the terms we sell them; no rider has so much that he can buy a better mount.”
Specific details then follow for 11 pages about the 1899 bicycles; the frames, fork tubes, handlebar adjustments etc., with sketches depicting each bike component. Then finally, we have a synopsis of each new model with the specifications, sketches from various views, and a price.
With the exception of car manufacturers, we rarely see printed catalogues anymore. To me, that speaks to the fundamental difference in the consumer market from Karl’s generation to my generation. Back then, companies like Goold were selling a product that would last, of quality and was worth the investment, inspiring confidence in the manufacturer. Like the catalogue promised, 120 years later, the 1899 Red Bird 1899 is still rideable.
Today, we rely on digital content appreciating the frequent changes of products for which an annual printed catalogue would be almost immediately out of date. Sadly, this is also indicative of our disposable consumerism, our ‘throw-away” society mindset contributing to the overproduction of items that have no durability.
So for the original owners of those Brantford Red Bird bicycles, it was a good investment lasting longer than the Goold Co. itself and the amalgamated CCM company. The back cover of the 1899 catalogue is also red and simply offers the text: “You Ride A Red Bird And You Will Ride the Best”. Today we can say this bold statement is accurate. The Red Bird proved resolute and withstood those years of “wear and tear” as Karl rode it around the world.