@Ranchhand I’m not sure I follow your logic. On the one hand you’re saying there isn’t a market for this and it will fail, on the other hand you don’t like it because you’ll “see IH on everyone”. Those things seem mutually exclusive to me.
Either way, I don’t think you have anything to worry about. IH is and will remain IH. The core collection and seasonal products will be there still. These new brands are just that, new brands with a specific target group in mind. It is quite a narrow target group as well so it’s not exactly world domination G and H are going for here. If anything it’s even more niche than IH is.
It’s worth remembering that this is really just an extension of what IH does anyway. In Japan it’s almost exclusively a biker brand and most of those guys are crazy about HD. In the US and Europe there are at least as many non biker customers as biker customers. So I see this is a way of creating gear that caters for an audience in the US that is similar to the audience in Japan, without dicking around with the core brand.
Personally I don’t own a Harley and it’s a long while since I’ve ridden, but I’m excited to see new gear of the quality we’ve come to expect with a different focus. I’m not in the target group but I hope and suspect there may be bits of kit that appeal to me as well. That’s win/win.
I wish Giles, Haraki, Alex and Tom and all involved the best of luck with these new ventures.
