Trek has rolled out a new initiative to support their retailers' efforts to create more bicycle friendly cities throughout the country with a focus on huge change on a local level.
The new initiative, titled “One World Two Wheels Game Changers,” renews existing programs with a revolutionary focus on empowering retailers through connecting them with the nation's foremost advocacy groups: IMBA, People for Bikes, and the League of American Bicyclists. The new program was unveiled in front of a group of over 1,500 Trek retailers and employees, during Trek President John Burke's keynote address that kicked off 2013's North American Trek World.
Game Changers is the product of Trek's new three-year agreement with the League to provide on-site assistance to Trek retailers to build a tailored plan working towards a certified Bicycle Friendly Community. Each year of the agreement, the League will visit 100 Trek retailers to tour their community, see the existing infrastructure, discuss the necessary changes, and craft a plan with the retailer. With only 23 percent of Trek retailers currently residing in a recognized Bicycle Friendly Community, the program's potential is vast.
“Trek's generous support of the Bicycle Friendly America program gives us an unprecedented opportunity to connect local decision-makers to a proven Bicycle Friendly Community blueprint they can implement – and Trek retailers will be front and center in making that happen,” remarked League of American Bicyclists Executive Director Andy Clarke.
“We're going to start creating a more bicycle friendly America at the local level, where we all can make a more significant and lasting impact,” said Trek's President John Burke. “The bicycle is a simple solution to so many of this country's most complex problems. There is so much work to be done but there has never been a better time in this country's history to make a change for the better.”
Trek has extended its existing $10 donation for each full suspension mountain bike sold to IMBA's Trail Building Fund while $1 of every helmet sold will go to the League of American Bicyclists' Bicycle Friendly America program. Many Trek retailers have joined Trek by matching the donation, increasing the impact and creating a strong fund-raising base.
“Trek's large and generous support of IMBA's trail building fund means trail projects that would otherwise languish will now move forward,” said IMBA Executive Director Mike Van Abel. “A small start-up investment in professional trail planning and design will yield two things: new purpose built trails and inspired, motivated public land managers willing to budget for larger public investment in new trails.”
Since 2007's Trek World launch of the One World Two Wheels advocacy commitment, Trek and Trek retailers have given over $5 million to various bicycle advocacy groups which has been leveraged into investments of tens of millions in federal and state bicycle infrastructure projects. In that same time, 180 new Bicycle Friendly Communities have been recognized and 100 new IMBA trail projects have been completed.
