Sure thing that Danny MacAskill is amazing trials/urban mountain biker, but on my opinion, having over 10 million views on Youtube is the marketing achievement of the decade for the mountain biking/trials. Would be nice to know how well Inspired Bicycles have been able to capitalize their success with MacAskill videos?
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z19zFlPah-o[/youtube]
This kind of “wow, that’s super cool”-video and movie moments has always been an important part of action sports growth. I cannot recall, if there was something in the beginning of the 90’s that kicked off the mountain biking boom, I don’t think so, but I definitely remember the 80’s BMX boom and how it got started.
It was 1982 and the movie was E.T. – Extra Terrestial. On this blockbuster movie, there was an infamous BMX scene where Elliott with E.T. on a handlebar basket and other the kids were chased by the police and they had to jump over the police cars, banks, etc. Movies BMX stunt team included Bob Haro, the founder of Haro BMX bikes.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ak6njWo2XsA[/youtube]
On a winter stuff, I have a clear memory of how cool it was when James Bond on a View to Kill, took the snowmobile ski that came off after the exposion and used that to snowboard away from the soldiers. That stunt was done by Tom Sims, the founder of Sims Snowboards. A year after I saw that, I bought my first snowboard from French ski resort Valmorel.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGOe-KLc9QI[/youtube]
James Bond and E.T. style movie moments are now replaced by Youtube. 10 million views for mountain biking video is amazing as average mountain bike DVD probably sells 1000 copies. I can’t wait to see which action/outdoor sport makes the next “Youtube blockbuster” and how other social media tools like Twitter will boost our sports visibility in these overwhelming times, when there are simply too much cool stuff to digest.
ransu