By Matt Quan
SOMERVILLE -- It's the dead of winter in Boston and spring is nowhere in sight. People huddle inside Crema Café in Harvard Square to have a cup of coffee and warm themselves from the frigid cold. Outside the café, two colorful bikes stand oddly out of place locked to a railing on top of a mound of snow. Not something commonly associated with winter, these bicycles belong to Josh Kampa and Zack Teachout, two average guys whose lives revolve around a love for bicycles.
Inside the café, they sit and plan the future of their new bike shop, called Open, that they hope will bring bike enthusiasts around Boston together. An idea conceived during an every day bike ride together, Open is Kampa and Teachout's passion and vehicle to build a greater bicycle community in Boston.
Kampa & Teachout's Bikes
"We wanted to create a shop that provided what the community really needed. Something different," said Teachout.
Kampa and Teachout first became friends in Boston through mutual social circles and a love for bikes. Both had previous professions before pursuing bikes full-time. Teachout came from a creative, architecture and brand development background. Kampa raced mountain bikes in college and worked as a bike mechanic. And on any given day, you will rarely find either without their bicycle close by.
Yet they had always felt something was missing from the bicycle community in Boston. "Boston lacked a communal aspect to its local bike shops that built community. Something beyond simply bike parts and bike service," said Kampa.
Teachout & Kampa
So in early 2008, Kampa and Teachout decided to open their own bicycle store that would provide bike enthusiasts with physical goods and services, but would also cultivate creative ideas and social relationships between cyclists.
"The bike community is all very fragmented in Boston right now, but cycling is universal. It's a meeting point for people from all walks of life," said Kampa.
Colin Eggleton, the manager of Wheelworks a local competitor, agreed, saying that the bike shops around Boston are mainly geographically spread out and cater to very different aspects of the biking community.
"There's so much bike culture going on in Boston right now and so many different parts to it," said Eggleton. "There are the people who do triathlons, long distance cycling, commuting, track racing, weekend recreation, package delivery, and many others."
Open hopes to bring these divergent bike cultures together by providing them with a location that is a combination of bike shop, design studio, lounge, art gallery, music stage, and party venue, according to Kampa and Teachout.
"Our events and how we tie the community together is as important, if not more than the bike products we will carry," said Kampa.
Open believes that it is also valuable to strengthen the relationships between local consumers and vendors by focusing on "local products" in today's economy, says Teachout.
The shop will be the exclusive distributor of three local bike frame builders that are located in the Boston area including Geekhouse Bikes and Royal H. Open will also be collaborating with the clothing store Proletariat in Harvard to design bike-related clothing and merchandise.
Frame & Clothing
"I'm looking forward to collaborating with Open on some bike-related projects," said Kerry Simon, owner and artist at Proletariat. "There's a lot of interconnection between the people who wear our clothing and the bike culture. Stores in the same scene should work together."
Building relationships between people is one of Open's main goals and in this difficult economy, it could be the strategy that will allow them to flourish.
Kerry Simon
"We have definitely seen less businesses opening in Somerville this year," said David Guzman, the economic development planner of Somerville where Open is located. "We've also seen an increase in local business advocacy groups and assistance programs."
As it becomes more difficult to keep business going, the ability for owners to refer customers and assist each other locally is becoming invaluable.
"Especially now, its good to know that we're helping local people out and customers prefer to buy things that are made around here," said Teachout.
The Open blog plays one of the key roles in featuring other businesses and informing the bike community about what is going on around town. On the blog, people can get information about what's going on in the biking community, mechanical advice from Kampa, or even purchase certain goods available at Open and other local businesses. It is a place for people to see what's going on around the community and to indulge their curiosity or passion for bikes.
"No matter what I did in life, I always came back to bikes," said Kampa as he took another sip of his steaming café drink.
The cold winter wind blows outside, but it will not stop Teachout and Kampa from riding home from the café. Similarly, the challenges that lay before them in opening their bike shop in a difficult economy and disjointed community will not hinder their passions. They are determined to bring the bicycling community a place to come together. A place they call Open.
Leave a comment