Ep. 50 - Aaron Stinner (STINNER Bikes)

I hope all of you had a wonderful holiday season. If you haven’t already, please visit the website at standard-h.com as several new products have been released over the last month. I’m super excited for 2021 as there are several things to come, including a couple different lines of goods that have been in development for well over a year, so I can’t wait to share them with you. Along with my product enthusiasm comes my pleasure of hosting today’s guest, Aaron Stinner of @STINNERFRAMEWORKS. Aaron is a custom bike builder and fabricator based in Santa Barbara, California and specializes in steel and titanium bike frames. The thing about bikes is, to the lay person, they all look very similar. However, when you’re as talented as Aaron is, you’ll find the beauty is most certainly in the details. Great bike building using steel and titanium involves beautiful welds resembling that of a beautiful garment possessing impeccable stitching. This comparison goes further in that STINNER manufactures bikes similar to a made to measure program offered by a fashion house. Aaron and I discuss his upbringing; how his grandfather taught him to use a drill press at the ripe age of 4, and how he was organically growing his business while living in a friend’s walk-in closet. Aaron walks us through what it was like scaling his business only to back that down to hone in on making a better, higher-quality product. My favorite things about STINNER’s bike’s, aside from being beautiful, functional objects, are they’re being made by Aaron, by hand, and right here in California. My first job was in a bike shop, and though I’ve ridden for years, I’ve never had a bike built for me, so I was definitely excited to learn a bit more about the process. I think what really resonates whether you ride bikes or not, is Aaron’s attention to detail and his thoughtful approach to creating his products.