Bike industry veteran joins Chris King

Chris DiStefano, former PR director for Shimano and board member of the International Mountain Bicycling Association (IMBA), has been hired to the sales and marketing team of Portland-based bike part manufacturer, Chris King Components.

According to the official press release, King has a unique way of breaking in new office staff:

“Before any newly hired professional person sits down at a desk, gets a computer or phone extension, they work in the shop.. they are out there for a month or more working alongside our production staff. They start in the shop like all of our new machine operators do; mopping floors, moving raw material around, cutting barstock…they are trained to run the machines and left to run them. If they can’t do it, maybe they’d be better off working at another company.”

Yep, they don’t mess around at Chris King. As a former employee myself, I can vouch for their obsessive pursuit of perfection. It’s no wonder they’ve got the best brand name in the business and they’ve supplied Lance’s headsets for several years now.

Chris King started out making surgical tools and came out with his first headset back in 1976 (company history). His headset soon set the standard for quality in the world and this year King celebrates 30 years of success. What I really love about this company is not only do they make everything right here in Portland, but they do it in an extremely eco-sensitive way. Their committment to green manufacturing is without equal in the bike industry (or any industry for that matter). Learn more about this on their website.

I hope to bring you more info about Chris King, but they’re a pretty quiet company and they don’t grant too many interviews or factory tours. When they do, you’ll be the first to know.