Frog Bikes celebrates its eighth birthday

Frog Bikes celebrated its eighth birthday, with new company values, new staff members, and new bikes and website redesign on the horizon.

In contrast to the humble beginnings of Frog Bikes, starting as a ‘one-man and one-woman start-up’, the company now employs more than 80 staff members between its offices in Ascot, Surrey and factory in Pontypool, Wales. The company now supplies lightweight kids bikes to around 1800 bike shops throughout the globe, in over 50 countries, and is set to see significant growth in Europe and North America in the coming years.

Jerry and Shelley Lawson, co-founders of Frog Bikes, pride themselves on a child-centric approach to their kids’ bikes, which has earned them many accolades throughout the eight years, including global praise and awards, and a worldwide reputation.

With an honest and transparent method of supporting local businesses by distributing through independent stores, Shelley explains how Frog Bikes has been carefully created to have an ethos they are truly proud of.

Shelley comments Everything we do revolves around our values of People, Planet, Product and Profit: treading lightly on the planet; treating everybody with respect, and producing a responsible and desirable product in order to create a sustainable business.

GROWTH IN ALL AREAS

Although the company is still in its first decade, it has grown significantly over the eight years, not only in terms of team members, customers, and bike production but also in terms of product evolution. Having started with just 3 bike ranges, balance bikes, first-pedal bikes and hybrids in 2013, to now offering 6 ranges and 21 different models in 2020, which includes road bikes, mountain bikes and track bikes, with several new models on the horizon.

QUALITY DESIGN & COMPONENTRY

Frog attributes the success of the business to the support and commitment from stores, customers and staff, and the reformed thinking behind children’s bike design. Everything from the bike geometry to the quality componentry has been expertly designed and selected to make a child's journey as comfortable and enjoyable as possible.

Brian, LondonBikeHub commented Over the last few months I, personally, have built 25 Frogs and they are superb on all fronts. From the design viewpoint, they are light, robust, comprehensively equipped, and elegant. From the mechanic’s viewpoint, they are prefabricated beautifully.

And it’s not just the bike stores that appreciate the quality.
We were introduced to Frog Bikes by The Bike Company, Windsor who were singing your praises. They sold us on your story and the weight of the bikes you’ve created was the deal clincher. These are awesome pieces of kit! says Dad, Stephen Dorrett.

To maintain the high-quality of production, introduce innovations faster, reduce environmental footprint, and create jobs to benefit the local economy, it was very important to Jerry and Shelley that the manufacturing of Frog Bikes was UK based, and so in August 2016, they opened the factory in Pontypool, Wales.

COMPONENTRY UPGRADES

Since 2013 there have been many upgrades to the bikes’ componentry. Dr Tom Korff, Head of R&D, commented, We continually evolve our frames and components in collaboration with sports scientists at the Brunel University, to ensure that our bikes meet child-specific needs and anatomy.

In 2014 Ground-breaking, independent research carried out by Sport and Exercise Scientists at Brunel University in collaboration with Dimitris Katsanis, the man behind the all-conquering GB Team track bikes that brought Olympic fame, led to significant improvements of the current generation of Frog Bikes.

Many improvements have followed, including in 2015, reduced q-factor in Frog patented shortened cranks for more efficient pedalling, in 2016 Frog developed a size guide and the FrogFit Technology® app based on research data on the anatomy of children, and bike geometry derived from leg measurement, arm length and confidence in riding. And, from 2018 all hybrid bikes, FrogFit Technology® pedals, are made of rice husk composite, that uses 50% less plastic.

VIEW THE INTERACTIVE TIMELINE

To view the full interactive timeline of adaptations, click here.

MORE KIDS ON BIKES

Ultimately, the goal for Frog Bikes has been to foster a generation of healthy, active, and happy children with positive, lifelong habits, by getting more kids on bikes. Frog wants bikes to be more accessible to all, so we offer pre-loved bikes too, and convert our ex-demo fleet to pre-loved stock whenever we can. We also support independent, second-hand Frog Bikes Facebook communities (currently in the UK). We’ve recently launched an MOT test, specifically for Frog Bikes, to help children and their bikes to stay safe.

Many children have blossomed and developed a true passion for cycling, since choosing Frog Bikes.

Jo Mitchinson commented Ellie was fortunate enough to be one of Frog’s first ambassadors. They supported her from the age of 6 as she was starting in triathlon. Ellie literally ‘grew up on a Frog’. She competed in her first triathlon race, had her first crash, won her first race, turned her hand to grass track, hard track, CRITS, Cyclocross and Hill Climbs all on Frog Bikes. Ellie loved the range because they were lightweight and easy for her to ride. We, as parents, loved them because they are high-quality and reliable bikes. Ellie now regularly competes at National Championships and is the current U13 National Hill Climb Champion.



Toby, who’s just 2 years old, genuinely loves his Frog Balance Bike and wants to go out on it again and again. Now he’s asking for one with pebbles (as he calls them!). And, we, as parents couldn’t be happier, as we think it's a great product! commented Ed, Proud Dad of Toby and happy customer.




One of our ambassador’s in France commented,
Leonard's passion for cycling started very early. He got on his balance bike at 8 months old, before he could even walk.

At first, I couldn't find a bike for him, there was nothing under 12 inches. Until I discovered the Frog Bikes Tadpole Mini. I bought him one for his first Christmas present. When he saw it, he immediately understood how it worked and was super happy. And since then, he hasn't stopped riding!!


And, one of our happy customers commented,
Both Mia and Oliver enjoy riding their Frog Bikes. Mia, 4, started on a Tadpole before moving on to a Frog First Pedal.

Having a brake on the Tadpole meant that when she transitioned to her pedal bike, balancing, braking, and stopping were already well practised, leaving Mia to concentrate on pedalling.

Oliver has just started with a Frog Tadpole but has come on quickly thanks to Mia showing him the ropes. Once he had got the hang of gliding with his feet up, we noticed that Oliver's speed really picked up. With the Frog bikes being so light, getting moving and manoeuvring has become second nature to both.

BRAND COLLABORATIONS

With Frog Bikes revolutionising bikes for kids and transforming the market, it has attracted many prevalent brands to collaborate with, including Team Sky, USA Cycling, Tour de France™ and Muc-Off.

Clément Monteil, A.S.O. Licensing commented Frog Bikes were the obvious choice for a collaboration to develop a range of Tour de France™ kids’ bikes. We were impressed with the research and attention to detail that has gone into the lightweight bikes. Frog Bikes also shares our values regarding our commitment to the future of cycling, children, and the planet. We are looking forward to seeing lots of children riding around on the new range.

COMMITMENT TO FROG BIKES

Jerry commented We would not have been able to accomplish this milestone without the support of our stores, our loyal customers, and our dedicated team at Frog, many of whom have been on the journey with us from day one. The commitment to Frog Bikes has been incredible.

As for the future, we will continue to keep developing our bike range whilst improving our sustainability and reducing our carbon footprint. Most importantly we want to see more kids on bikes. The business has come a long way since 2013 and we’re so excited about what lies ahead.

Keep a lookout for #EightYearsofFrog on social media to keep up to date with the celebrations.