Stages Cycling has laid off its entire workforce and looks to have ceased operations.
According to a report by Escape Collective, multiple sources close to the brand have also indicated that the company has stopped placing orders with suppliers and ceased shipping orders to customers.
At present, the brand's eCommerce website shows almost its entire catalogue of products as out of stock.
Stages Cycling - commonly just known as Stages - is a well-regarded power meter and indoor cycling brand, with manufacturing premises in Boulder, Colorado, and offices around the world.
The company has been in operation since 2009, when brothers Jim and Scott Liggett founded what is now Stages Cycling's parent company, Foundation Fitness LLC. In 2012, the Stages Cycling brand name and subsidiary was born.
It's best known in the cycling industry for its crank-based power meters, which add strain gauges to existing brands' crank arms to measure the force applied – and thus calculate the power produced – as a rider turns the pedals.
Stages' product made power meters more affordable, and the brand was at least partly responsible for bringing power-based training to the masses.
In the years since, the brand has developed the product to offer dual-sided measurement. It has also followed the rise in indoor cycling with the launch of the SB20 indoor smart bike, and has launched a series of GPS bike computers.
Notably, however, all this adds up to only a fraction of the brand's overall business, and its bigger branch, which centres around making 'commercial indoor bikes' for gyms and fitness centres, is perhaps less well-known. Its SC1, SC2 and SC3 bikes can be found in gyms and fitness centres around the world, with clients such as The Gym Group, David Lloyd, SoulCycle and more, even if they might not always carry the Stages branding.
Thanks to its strong range of products and its partnerships with high-profile teams such as Team Sky, UAE Team Emirates and others, the Stages brand is a household name in the cycling industry.
Given the strength of the brand name and the popularity of its products, it's hard to believe that the company will disappear entirely, but as we saw at WiggleCRC, companies laying off their entire workforce rarely come without significant change.
Cyclingnews has contacted Stages and Stages' UK distributor Saddleback for comment.
UK distributor Saddleback was unable to comment on the ceasing of operation, but clarified that the distributor still holds stock and will be honouring warranty claims.
