Stolen Goat to ‘stop selling to Wiggle’

Stolen Goat clothing has announced that its new SS19 Collection will not be available via Wiggle or Chain Reaction Cycles.

The announcement was made yesterday by Tim Bland on the brand’s website, which can be viewed in full here.

In the post he said: “There’s no big falling out and they haven’t done anything to upset us – in fact in my experience the buying team at Wiggle are a friendly and professional bunch of people who are genuinely passionate about the sports they represent.

“We have had three good years of working with them, enjoying their obvious enthusiasm for what we do and watching our brand grow on both platforms.”

He described Wiggle as a ‘beast that needs feeding’, and said: “The staff are constantly at risk of being under-resourced and under pressure because the beast grows at a fast pace and the money coming out isn’t always sufficient to cover the costs of the products going in plus the costs of whatever happens in the middle.

“If the beast stops being fed, the whole thing falls down. As a result a brand could get caught in a less than desirable situation – which brings us to a crossroads.”

Bland added that he “deliberated over the decision” when he was approached by Wiggle in 2015 to sell on its platform. “Stolen Goat as a company was very young then and relatively unknown so I took the view that from a marketing perspective this was a good opportunity,” he said.

“Wiggle has millions of visitors going through their website each week, so that’s great exposure. They also have cheap shipping internationally so we could serve our worldwide customers almost as well as our customers closer to home.

“We are a little bigger now and as a result we are starting to look at opening operational facilities in Canada and North America and later this year (hopefully) Australia. This means we can start to replicate the cheaper/easier shipping solutions that Wiggle can offer.”

He concluded: “Ultimately, it comes down to a key decision for us to make. How much of a say do we want to have in the way our brand looks online, how it’s priced, how our customers are served. We’re a small team and we care passionately about this business. Stolen Goat means a huge amount to me, personally, so control of these points is crucial.

“We have made our choice – one that we hope will allow us to grow this brand in a way that works for us and our customers. Hopefully you can see the logic in our decision. Thank you for your support.”