Small town business has international clientele
Lindon may be a small town in Utah, but bicycles made there are world famous.
Fezzari bicycles are pedaled on the Tour de France, and the Fezzari “Wasatch Peak 27.5” was voted one of the “Top 10 best affordable mountain bikes” by Bicycle Magazine.
Fezzari bicycles stem from the passion of founder and CEO Chris Washburn, who has always loved bicycles.
He received a Schwinn Paramount road bike for Christmas as a child and that was a dream come true. “I was so excited about that,” he says.
After receiving an MBA and a law degree at BYU, Washburn worked in Southern California and Washington DC in the light electric vehicle industry.
“We were doing things for the military; special types of bikes, electric bikes, and other types of vehicles that we were also producing for the general consumer.”
About 10 years ago, Washburn wanted to start a business back home in Utah, and he found the ideal spot in Lindon.
He saw an opportunity, had a lot of connections, and by using his experience in the industry, he opened Fezzari Bicycles as an online company.
“It’s fantastic when we say ‘build bikes.’ There is so much involved in it from the very start,” says Washburn. “We come up with the concepts, do a market analysis. We have designers, engineers, manufacturing expertise, sales and marketing, accounting, legal issues, and then, of course, operations and customer service. It’s a little bit of a microcosm.”
Fast is rarely better
From design to the finished product takes over a year. Higher-end bicycles are their specialty.
“We’ll take measurements from people and custom fit the bike to them,” says Washburn. “It may be the same frame, same handlebars, the same crank arms, and the same seat post, but all of those will be sized differently for each individual. It’s all about creating the best experience.”
Fezzari ships all over the world. Their showroom is their internet website. People have come to Lindon from France, Australia, and Japan to be measured for their custom bicycles.
In the next few months, Fezzari will be expanding and moving half a mile away from their original headquarters to a bigger facility.
“We want people to know what great products are actually being built here in Utah. These are world class bikes that people will seek out from other parts of the world. We love Utah, we love the contrast with the great network and infrastructure to be able to run a business, but we also have the outdoors just right out our backyard,” says Washburn. “For our business, we couldn’t ask for a better place to do it.”
850 W 200 S, Lindon
fezzari.com
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