SRAM Buys Hammerhead

Must Read: Hammerhead Karoo 2 Review

The SRAM Corporation has just announced its deal to acquire Hammerhead.

SRAM are perhaps best known as the main competitor to Shimano for their range of bike groupsets but they also have a track record of acquisitions having previously bought Rockshox, Zipp and others.

Hammerhead is somewhat of a one-trick pony. Its one trick, however, is a very impressive one; that trick being the Hammerhead Karoo 2 bike computer. The Karoo 2 is the bike world’s equivalent of the Coros outdoor sports watches. Both Coros and Hammerhead are shaping up to be key longterm challengers to Garmin’s dominance of bike, run and triathlon tech.

Coros is an agile company focussing on lots of features, awesome hardware quality and decent prices. Hammerhead is similar in that they too are pretty agile and have great quality hardware. However, Hammerhead is perhaps more of a justifiably-premium brand than Coros and whose long-term potential is further secured by reliance on Android to underpin its bike computers.

I’m not a fan of Android as such, however, it is a potentially EXCELLENT mechanism for 3rd party apps to be added to the Karoo ecosystem. Indeed it is perhaps the only way that Garmin CIQ can be matched by any competitor in the medium term.

Relatively recently, Hammerhead secured significant amounts of venture capital funding. No doubt the VCs have made a small killing on this one, buoyed by the apparent success of Karoo sales. Although I’ve only ever seen my Karoo and someone else’s in the wilds of Surrey.

“Hammerhead has always been focused on building the world’s best cycling computer. Joining the SRAM portfolio allows us to innovate and expand even more rapidly, and ultimately deliver a better riding experience for cyclists.” Pieter Morgan, CEO

Long Term

SRAM seems to support its brands to maintain their own unique identity. Fair enough. The current messages are that this will be the same for the Hammerhead brand which has a niche, but good reputation.

My personal view is that Shimano is much more widely known than SRAM and that SRAM would be better advised to boost their brand awareness as much as possible. Rebrand the whole portfolio as SRAM. SRAM Karoo 2? Probably not.

Hammerhead has already moved from online-only sales to having a shop presence. SRAM will undoubtedly boost this further because of its superior sales & distribution network. This will give relatively quick wins for SRAM to help pay back its initial investment.

Yet the Hammerhead brand still has scope for expansion. Hammerhead has already dabbled with various accessories and add-ons. I have a Hammerhead heart rate monitor which has an unusual sensor area with fabric interwoven with silver. It’s a high spec HRM and innovative to a degree but a Hammerhead HRM2 isn’t going to make SRAM’s fortune.

I would imagine that Hammerhead already has more than sufficient resources to develop a mini-Karoo 2 and I would also imagine that their current development plans are perfectly good enough to keep growth going and to keep software updates frequently flowing. They are already doing a good job here.

So I bet that SRAM has something bigger and more Wahoo-like in mind for Hammerhead. Ambitions beyond just another 3 features and way beyond a smaller bike head unit.

Perhaps an Android-based Hammerhead RIVALETTO triathlon watch or Hammerhead branded indoor trainers? Who knows? But there are plenty of opportunities for quality products with a good brand name like Hammerhead &/or Karoo.

Maybe SRAM might even consider buying Coros? Maybe not.

Opinion?

A: Great move.

More Info

• Hammerhead Press Release
• DCRainmaker’s Opinion