T.J. Tollakson has faced many of the pandemic-worsened business issues detailed in a Goldman Sachs survey released Wednesday.
His performance Dimond bikes were hard to sell in a year when triathletes, the key market, were sidelined by canceled events. They weren’t buying the high-end triathlon bikes, or the travel bags designed to carry the bikes on planes.
But Tollakson managed to save the business, part of his Ruster Sports company, in part by accelerating his rollout of dirt and gravel bikes, which sold well.
Did they save the company?
“There’s no question about it,” Tollakson said in an interview. “If we had to rely 100% on just triathlon bikes last year, and bicycle travel cases, we would be in a very difficult spot right now.”
Instead, Tollakson is trying to add a staffer or two to his six-person manufacturing company located on the south edge of downtown Des Moines. But he is running into familiar problems. Many job candidates don’t have the right skills, and trained bike mechanics demand higher salaries in an age of worker shortages.