Here in trail-blanketed Bellingham, Washington, nearly every car at the trailhead will have a familiar doohickey on its rear end. Well, any that don’t have tailgate pads that is. The doohickey is a shiny flat set of platforms with a particularly “engineered” appearance to them. Those are bike racks from 1UP USA, designed and manufactured in Wisconsin since 2001.
Unlike their competitors at Yakima, Thule, Rocky Mounts, and Saris, 1UP has put very little energy into marketing since their start. We rarely see their logo on team or event sponsorship lists, and you won’t find many advertisements for their racks at REI or in the pages of your favorite outdoorsy rag. So how did the direct-to-consumer rack brand build such a sizable cult following? We chatted with 1UP owner Robbie Lange to search for the secret in the brand’s sauce.
The company was started by an engineer named Cal who has since moved on. In the early 2000s 1UP also made a stationary bike that sold about as well as their racks, but once exercise bikes spun toward a fully digital interface in 2019 the company chose to focus on the rack side of things and let those stationary trainers go. Lange says “we’re not a software company, so we just kinda phased it out.”
The design patent that pushed 1Up to the fore was around the those two arms that hold the tires and don’t touch the frame. Until recently the patent on those parts held strong, and if you saw another rack that use this system it was because 1UP had been paid through a licensing agreement. The patent ran out in 2016, and we’re seeing more brands embrace the 1UP style, possibly with the hopes of getting some of that cult following over to their side of the trail.
Bike racks have to hold up to a smattering of abuses from the weight of bikes and force of turning or potholes as well as road grime and salt. 1UP was one of the first brands to offer a fat bike compatible rack, and those had to be extra stout to handle the harsh Wisconsin winters. On the rack’s known burliness, Lange said,”It’s kinda laughable. it’s always over-engineered. Overbuild everything. And that’s kind of in our DNA here; to make it more robust than anybody else can.”
The Wisconsin brand was also one of the first with a rack sturdy enough to holster the early 70-80lb e-bikes, and that need persists with folks wanting to haul more than one battery ride to the trail.
While not unique to 1UP, another cool element of most bike racks is that owners can order and replace broken parts from home. Companies typically make the bits that wear out or are frequently damaged for their older models. If you get rear ended with a 1UP rack on your car there’s a chance you can just replace the busted parts in your garage and keep the rest of the rack in use. In this way, the rack is truly an extension of the automobile, designed to be maintained over generations of driving.
Given the advantage of domestic sourcing, 1UP didn’t suffer the massive lead times brought on by shipping freezes and the recent boom in cycling. They did experience some challenges meeting the new demand, but they’re currently shipping orders within a week or less of purchase, which is far better than some companies have fared.
The company isn’t only doing well, but they recently purchased Bellingham-based Recon Racks this past fall, adding a vertical, hanging-style rack to their growing lineup. Lange says “it kind of times out right, with us being a little bit larger we could utilize our infrastructure a bit more and offer the Recon Rack. So we worked out a really good agreement to acquire Recon and it’s worked out really well.”
Those newly added racks hold between five and six bikes by the front tire in a vertical orientation, with a strap around the rear to prevent sway. With this addition, 1UP USA now has nearly all of the hitch-mounted rack options a mountain biker could want.
Now, welcome to that buried lede! Lange shared his perspective on how the brand managed to achieve such broad success with next-to-no marketing stories or campaigns.
“I think there’s a few things that lead to that. You’re right, our marketing budget has been pretty lean this entire time. Ultimately, the bike rack is a unique product, because it lives on the back of the vehicle. And with the cycling industry, a lot of people love looking at everybody else’s gear. So, at a popular trailhead you notice things that stand out, and our design looks so different than the imported stuff. There’s no plastic molded pieces. It sticks out like ‘did somebody make that in a garage?’ Then you get up to it and you’re like ‘ahh it’s a little more extravagant than that.’ I think that’s probably the main story. You don’t have to be marketed that much because the people who are using them are looking at everybody else’s stuff.
“And then, we’ve maintained a level of credibility. If something happens, we have a phone number with credible people on the lines here. Everyone works in-house and they always have, so they have a full understanding of the processes here. We’re not hiring out call centers or making you go through an FAQ. You can actually talk to somebody. I still actually answer the phones here from time to time. Pretty much every day when somebody goes to lunch.”
The fact that so many people have had 1UP racks for ten years or more, and want to share that story with their friends to make sure they make the right purchase; that’s also part of the 1UP success narrative. Word of mouth is definitely not dead. 1UP USA has some big plans to start supporting riders and events, doing a bit of that marketing they had overlooked in the past. We asked Lange what new gear we can expect from 1UP and, but he’s not so into the sneak peek mess. He said that any new products they release will be available when they’re launched, and will maintain the brand’s focus on durable functionality.
Another important point not mentioned is that their racks make the bike sit more centrally on the back of the car, so on narrower sedans the bikes don’t stick out so far. Other racks offset the bikes which makes them stick out much further. One of the many reasons I love mine.
I’ve had my 1UP over 7 years and have not had a single issue. I have owned many different racks over the last 25 plus years. When I saw a 1UP at the trail head and knew It was my next and last rack. They may seem pricey but worth every penny.
I bought one after seeing them (a lot of them) at the trail heads. Checking them out, it was obvious they were serious, well-built racks. No brainer. And I LOVE it.
Word of mouth is how I came to purchase my 1Up rack. They are fantastic racks that are engineered to last a lifetime. Well worth the money you pay for them.
Excellent article on a topic that is near and dear to my heart. From my POV this is the new/old way forward for quality products. From an old guy perspective this is how manufactured products used to be done, but now with the benefit of a much easier direct-to-customer channel (i.e. the internet marketplace), with an immediate global reach.
I bought a 4 tray Kuat 4 years ago on a friends advice and have had the buyers remorse since. It’s a good product but the quality is no where close to the 1up. Also, it extends out flat (opposed to angled up on the 1up) so ground clearance goes to crap and the retention system doesn’t stand up to bumpy fire roads 🙁
This interview makes me even happier to be a new inductee into the 1UP cult. Love the ethos of this company.
it’s impressive to see that a superior product can actually win in this marketplace. it’s not just about mass distribution and mediocrity. in this regard, it seems that 1UP and OneUp have taken a similar approach to their businesses.
I had mine on the back of my 4 Runner with no bike. A VW Passat hit me from behind hard enough to total the car. It hit nothing but the 1Up rack. My car was completely unaffected and the 1Up rack had not a single thing wrong with it. It only slipped into my hitch mount about an inch, otherwise no evidence of an accident at all.
It’s great to have a perceived quality product by everyone……. but customer service still rules the day and 1 up has horrible service should one ever have questions or issues with their rack.
I had mine for 3 days and sold it because I couldn’t get any help….
Sad.
This reads a lot more like a press release or marketing than it does a regular article.
IMO, seems like a big omission to just gloss over a mention that Cal “has since moved on” and not mention anything at all about him starting up a new company (Quikr Stuff) with a new rack that supposedly improves upon the old design.
I think the article sticks pretty closely to the thesis which is that 1UP has a curiously cult-like following. The comments here clearly reflect that level of devotion. In fact, read the comments on ANY article about bike racks — even reviews of competing racks — and you will see comments from 1UP owners about how every rack is a copy of 1UP / isn’t as good as 1UP / etc.
The Quickr story is also an important one, and it deserves to be told separately.
I have two racks and they are great. But if you have even a small issue the customer service is also ZERO. Maybe they have a zero policy for both marketing and customer service.
We’ve had one for a few years now. A couple of families on our NICA team had them and now most families that invest in a rack ask us about ours. Since we aren’t too far from their headquarters, one of our coaches called them and got a 10% discount for picking the rack up in person.
I guess that you can feel good about owning one, but there are others that do the job just as well, at a much cheaper price.
Their rack, and others of this style are a non-starter for me. I live in the PNW and have bikes beyond my mountain bikes with full fenders. It is not possible to carry a full fender bike with this style of rack.