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amey
If you can stand to go to road.cc, there's a bunch of comment/allegation/info in the comments section. http://road.cc/content/news/222147-cycle-clothing-brand-vulpine-insolvent-and-enters-administration#comments
I've been a critic of Vulpine's business model for a while, without knowing all the shit that's now coming out - I'd just thought the clothes were not up to much, too expensive and the whole regular discounting was insane. That the founder thought it a good idea to draw a huge salary from a loss making business really jars with the message he's always shouted about passion and integrity - but does hark back to the criticisms he made about the film industry on exiting it. You'd think he wouldn't want to shaft his own business in the same way he felt shafted by the film industry, but there we go.
It's sad for the industry as a whole - Vulpine were/are, for better or worse, one of the highest profile British brands. They'd garnered national press, with Nick managing to get his face on the telly and in several of the papers as the head of a business that was going places and doing amazing things off the back of this exciting uplift in people cycling.
With this high profile and pretty dodgy fundraising strategy - and I say dodgy because the business was already in big trouble in 2015 during the initial crowdfund, and then was literally on the verge of administration this year during the second crowdfund attempt - it will tarnish so many other smaller brands looking for honest startup capital. As we all know, cyclists get tarred with the same brush... I wonder if it'll be the same for cycling businesses?