Giant Loop sees success despite recession-era launch
Hard work, marketing on forums lead to sales worldwide
It may have seemed strange in 2008 when Harold Olaf Cecil and Dave Wachs decided to launch Giant Loop during the start of a recession. The pair, however, didn’t have high expectations, so disappointment wasn’t even on their radar.
“We went into this thing really with very little in the way of expectations, and we didn’t know whether it would fly or not. If nothing else, maybe it would be just a little bit of an income and support something else,” Cecil recalled.
But the bar they set for success could have hung a few rungs higher, as the Oregon-based company, approaching its fourth year in business, now sustains four full-time employees, boasts a network of 110 U.S. dealers, distributes its products in more than a dozen countries and is looking to continue its growth.
“It’s been fantastic for us personally that it has been successful,” Cecil said.
Humble beginnings
The concept of creating a saddlebag company, of course, came from a saddlebag. Wachs had been taking long-distance, multi-day rides for years, experimenting with his luggage until he designed a bag that would hold everything he needed without adding significant weight to his bike.
The bag was a hit on the Adventure Rider forum (advrider.com). Wachs participated on the site, and fellow riders wanted to know where they could get one of his bags. Unfortunately, Wachs had only made a bag for himself, but Cecil saw further potential in the design.
In 2008, Cecil told Wachs that he would pay to have a few bags manufactured and sold online, in the hopes that the pair could make money in the venture. The first sale came so quickly, it was a shock to Cecil and Wachs.
“We sold our first bag within two hours of putting that website up in 2008,” Cecil said.
Wachs’ notoriety in the adventure riding community and the already-gained interest in his bag led Giant Loop to quick success.
“My business partner would post ride reports on the Adventure Rider Forum online for years until he went on and said, ‘Now I have something to sell to you,’” Cecil recalled.
And the plan worked. Not only did Giant Loop sell to individuals, but soon it picked up distributors in the United Kingdom and Australia.
“We started picking up some dealers here in the Northwest, and things just kind of took off in an organic sort of way,” Cecil explained.
Despite starting with low capital, and struggling to borrow more because most banks were unwilling to lend to a fledgling company during the recession, Giant Loop found its niche.
“In the scheme of things, we’re still really tiny, so that in itself has been a lot of hard work, and we’ve had to do it with basically zero in the way of business capital,” Cecil said. “We’re pretty proud of the fact that we really bootstrapped this thing without much help from anybody.”
Expanding the business
It turned out that starting a business during a recession was more of a blessing for Giant Loop than Cecil and Wachs would have thought. Though they’ve been told that if they had formed the business in the mid-2000s, they likely would have made more sales, Cecil believes the recession allowed the company to take its time and be conservative with its growth.
“We’ve had the opportunity to grow in a planned and a methodical kind of way instead of just exploding, and it’s forced us to run a really tight ship,” he said.
Despite Giant Loop’s recession-time startup and its tight-pocketed approach, the company has experienced great success in its first few years. The company’s offerings have expanded to eight bags, along with a few accessories, and more are coming soon. The current product line includes three saddlebags, two roll-top dry bags that integrate with two of the larger saddlebags and three tank bags.

“For 2012 we are introducing a product we call the Kodiak panniers, so they’ll be the biggest carrying capacity of our bags,” Cecil said. “We’re going to introduce hand guards we call Bushwhackers, and we have a couple other things here in our pocket that we’ll be rolling out before the year is over.”
Each bag is built for durability on long rides, even during tips. They’re also light weight, and the lack of mounts can save a bike 40 pounds or more when compared to traditional hard luggage. The bags are made in the United States, which has been helpful as American manufacturers typically require smaller minimum orders and offer quicker turnaround times than their overseas counterparts.
“It’s enabled us with the lack of cash and capital to get this thing rolling and to really improve upon our bags,” Cecil explained. “In three years’ time, we’ve been able to roll out a complete product line and make some significant changes to that line, and I don’t think we would have been able to do that if we started with an overseas manufacturer. And I still believe that ‘Made in the U.S.A.’ still has a value. All throughout the world, ‘Made in the U.S.A.’ shows that it has that type of quality.”
The company has also seen success at its Bend, Ore., headquarters. In June 2010, Giant Loop was able to move out of a 500-square-foot office to a 1,300-square-foot warehouse. The new facility offers a roll-up door, warehouse space, offices and space for Cecil and Wachs to work on their motorcycles.

“It’s been great. My little office in downtown Bend was so packed with boxes that you could barely walk around it, so we had to move out of that space,” Cecil reported.
Also, about a year ago, Cecil and Wachs were able to join Giant Loop full-time, as well as hire two other full-time employees.
In addition to expanding as a company, Giant Loop has significantly grown its distribution network. Its largest markets are the United States, with 110 dealers, Canada and Australia. Giant Loop products can also be found in the U.K., Italy, Austria, Finland, Mexico, Spain, Latvia and South Africa. Touratech also signed on to carry Giant Loop products following a deal made at EICMA in November, adding Germany, Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Iceland to Giant Loop’s distribution network.
All of this was spurred in part from what Cecil sees as a spike in long-distance riding. Riders, he said, have become inspired by each other. The movie Long Way Round and more reliable bikes also has bolstered interest. But he also credits the work he and Wachs have put into online marketing, specifically in rider forums.
“Lacking a lot of budget on our marketing, we’ve had to rely heavily on marketing that cost us little but the time and energy to make it happen ourselves, and as we continue and as we grow, our goal is to add more traditional advertising, like print ads, into our mix,” he said.
A new path in 2012
Though Giant Loop has experienced significant growth already, it has no plans to slow in 2012.
The company would like to expand its export market, particularly to France, and it’s also looking to broaden its dealer network in the United States.

“I’d like to see that dealer list double this year, and I think we’ll probably be able to do that by the end of this year,” Cecil said.
Giant Loop tends to attract customers who ride BMWs, KTMs and other European brands, so those brands’ dealers are ideal for the company’s network. However, its strap-on bags also fit any super moto, dirt, dual sport, adventure touring or sport bike.
“Our products are a premium product; they’re not a price-point oriented product,” Cecil explained. “There are less expensive products out there, so we find that our customers skew towards the end of the spectrum that often ride high-end, high-performance motorcycles.”
In the hopes of picking up a few more dealers, Giant Loop will be exhibiting this year at Dealer Expo for only the second time.
“Last year was our first year there as an exhibitor. We did pick up and add distributors and dealers, and because of the geography of being out there in Indianapolis, we were able to talk to people and dealers. We really need representation in that region,” Cecil said.
Recruiting more dealers is just one piece of what’s to come in 2012, a year that Giant Loop sees as pivotal to its viability.
“I think 2012 for me is sort of the beginning of Stage 2 for this company. Stage 1 was just proving that we had something that people want and setting up a business to display that to customers and that sort of thing,” Cecil said. “I think looking ahead to this year, the U.S. economy will start to stabilize, and we might even see some positive signs.”