Rochester’s Kink BMX maintains prominent position in bike industry

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At one point in his life, Zack Phillips was pretty sure he was going to be working in the management side of home improvement retail.

Through his late teens, he was employed by Chase-Pitkin and had advanced quickly to be an assistant store manager. He was on the fast track to bigger and better within the Wegmans-owned home and garden company.

“I thought that would be my life,” Phillips said.

That, along with riding his BMX bike in his spare time.

But it turns out his entrepreneurial spirit got the best of him (which was perhaps a good thing, since Wegmans pulled the plug on Chase-Pitkin in 2006).

Tired of having his thrill rides derailed by inferior bike parts, Phillips commissioned two local machine shops — Superior Technology, Inc., and Ace Machine — to make better parts. At the time he was still a student at the School of the Arts in Rochester.

“I wouldn’t consider myself hard on parts but I would break axels, pegs, other parts,” he said.

That was the beginning for Kink BMX, and after his products gained traction with nationally prominent BMX riders, he decided to make the venture his focus.

Now, more than three decades later, the firm has international reach and Phillips is adding real estate landlord to his repertoire with the purchase of 465 W. Commercial St. in East Rochester.

Once buildout is complete, probably in late summer or fall, he’ll use about 30,000 square feet for his business while leasing the remaining 20,000 square feet of space to three current tenants.

Kink BMX has been located at 40 Greenleaf Street, just off Atlantic Avenue, since 2007. But the 90,000-square-foot building is outdated and larger than necessary, so Caliber Commercial Brokerage helped Phillips find the property in East Rochester.

“It will allow us to operate more efficiently,” the 49-year-old Phillips said.

His local headquarters includes space for bike and parts design, warehouse and distribution space and a photo studio.

But because Kink BMX provides parts to around 2,500 bicycle shops across the country and others around the globe, the firm also has warehouses in Las Vegas and Taiwan, with 30 distributors worldwide.

So just how did a young, independent parts designer from Rochester end up supplying shops all over the U.S. and beyond? With his own unique method of cold-call marketing.

“I would call a store and ask, ‘Do you have any Kink parts,” Phillips said, knowing full well that the shop didn’t carry his products. “Then a couple days later I would call again and say I was calling from Kink and ask if they were interested in carrying our parts.”

As for the company name, there’s not really any great story behind it, Phillips said.

“The K was for Kodak and I wanted something short,” he explained. “I just thought K was a strong letter.”

Parts had always been Kink’s product line, and Phillips also produces parts under two other brand labels, Mission and Cinema. Kink and Cinema are the premier label; Mission is a more economical choice.

Along the way, bicycle design was added to production, allowing the company to provide a finished product to consumers.

“We started with small parts and grew to frames and forks,” Phillips said. “Complete bikes were the missing piece. Our dealers wanted something better.”

A presence in retail stores is a critical part of marketing. “We still believe being on the floor of a bike shop is very, very important,” Phillips said.

Bikes designed today won’t hit the market for 12 to 18 months, he said. Sales of complete bikes make up about 65 percent of revenues while parts comprise about 35 percent.

Design isn’t simply slapping together a frame, fork and axels and painting it. The process involves a great deal of design thought and revisions, right down to the available colors.

“It’s somebody’s job to analyze colors, to know colors and future trends,” Phillips said.

Brand recognition helps sell bikes, too. That’s why Phillips sponsors some of the top riders in the sport, including Nathan Williams and Garrett Reynolds. They’ll make periodic trips to the Kink BMX headquarters for photo shoots with the new products.

That’s how the target audience — 13- to 15-year-olds and their parents — becomes aware of what’s new and what’s hot. The price typically ranges from $400 to $800.

Basic business principles have paved the way to success.

“We provide quality customer service to dealers and kids and our products are good and well-priced,” Phillips said. “People know we make quality bikes.”

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