Brand Evangelism: The Onewheel Story
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Brand Evangelism: The Onewheel Story
Product: Onewheel
Company: Future Motion
Year Launched: 2015
Industry: Recreation/Sports
Current Value: $118MM (2022)
#LetUsRide
The self-balancing motorized electric skateboard with one, large central wheel has become a cult product since its sales launch in 2015.
Named “the hoverboard with the most mystique” by BuzzFeed, Onewheel’s singular, wide wheel creates a ride-feel familiar to surfers, snowboarders, and skaters. You can spot them all over cities, beach towns, and train runs, but when the CPSC (Consumer Product Safety Commission) issued a safety warning urging users to stop riding their Onewheels due to ejection hazards, the brand’s community of loyalists hit back.
Onewheel’s Brand Evangelists
With the least expensive of their products listing at just over $1k, Onewheel’s challenge was to sell a lifestyle, not a product. Onewheel knew their audience — initially targeting extreme sports aficionados who appreciated the board’s ability to ride over a variety of terrain (a limit of many of their competitors), the initial users were instrumental in building the brand identity and attracting new users.
Jack Mudd, the Chief Evangelist Officer at Future Motion, wanted the product to speak for itself, sending out boards to key athlete influencers without asking them to sign, well, anything. This resonated with athletes who felt seen as people, not an ROI, and organic social media posts soon went viral and flooded explore pages.
“The valuable influencer marketing for us has been 1000% relationship based and these are situations where I will send product, not ask for anything in return, not have them sign a thing.”
– Jack Mudd, CEO, Future Motion.
This decision proved pivotal, with the company expanding rapidly to $118.8M in 7 years, and a large community of cult followers who self-identify as Onewheel riders.
The Ruling
As the CPSC ruling came through, the Onewheel community reacted swiftly with over 4,000 letters being sent within the first 48 hours and #LetUsRide trending across IG, TikTock, Reddit, Facebook, Twitter, and more. To users, the Onewheel lifestyle is worth more than the bruises and scrapes that may come with it, and respecting the power of the board is a humbling moment many have experienced — some more than once! With riders globally fighting for their right to continue a sport and activity they love, Onewheel’s investment in a non-traditional marketing campaign didn’t just help boost brand awareness and a healthy profit margin, it created ride-or-die evangelists who supported a company under threat. Would your users do that for you?
