The Layman's Almanac

Robert Egger

Having designed for Trek and Blackburn, Robert Egger started working for Specialized Bicycle Components in 1987, where he is now the Design Director. A competitive road racer, Egger has made the Specialized mantra "innovate or die" a reality.

At the Specialized facility in Morgan Hill, California.

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RE: One thing I've learned as a designer over the years is you always have to be willing to reinvent yourself. You can't get stuck doing the same things over and over and over because things change like anything else. The way that we did things when I first started here, I've been here almost 25 years, so a long time, the way we did things 25 years ago are quite different than the way we do things now. We used to do a lot of things with just a simple sketch, or taking something and adding a little Bondo to it, or shaping something and sending it right over to a factory and they'd make it. Now it's much more complex. We have tech packages, we have lots of specifications, you really have to understand a lot about the material choices and textures. It's a lot harder to be a designer now than it was back then because there's just so much more information. Challenging, more challenging for designers.

LA: What do you think the skill set is for designers now versus how it was back then?

RE: I'm amazed at the young graduates that I see. Their abilities are unbelievable. The schools are doing a good job preparing kids with the tools they'll need to be constructive when they come to a new company. We also get to meet a lot of students, we co-taught a class at San Jose State last semester. I was a bit disheartened by a lot of kids in the design program, they really shouldn't have been in the program. I think that design or any art type of degree is challenging, it's always tough, it takes a certain individual to be successful. I think a lot of these kids get into these programs and they're not really equipped to work in a design environment. They may not have the skills, they may not have the passion, they may not have it in their soul to be designers. It takes a special person.

I always ask, whenever I'm interviewing somebody, "hey, what did you do as a kid?" If someone says "I sketched and I doodled", and maybe "one of my parents was artistic or mechanical", then I think there's a pretty good chance for that person to be successful because it's kind of in their genes, they've been around it. If you just decided when you're 21, and said "hey I want to be a designer", I suppose it works sometimes, but I think it's challenging. I think you have to just grow up being artistic, or having a sense of style. I think the definition of design now is so vast. I always joke - you know a few clicks on Illustrator, and everybody's a designer. Everyone feels like they can design, but it's very challenging. One thing I do here with SBCU, a lot of students come through and I talk a little bit about design, and I make them design a bicycle. They have a sheet of paper with 1 circles on it, a pencil, and 5 minutes; and they find out how hard it is to design a bicycle. It's got 2 wheels, and there's a lot you can do between the front wheel and the rear wheel, I can find out right away who's creative and who's not. I think a lot of people think it's easy to be a designer, and a lot of people can be designers, but to be a good designer, and to make a difference in the world, is challenging. And it's trial and error. That's the way I work here, I try a lot of stuff. It's like taking pictures, you take a thousand pictures and maybe you get one good picture.

LA: Do you see any skill sets this generation of students are bringing or lacking?

RE: I really value the hands-on skills a lot. I see the hands-on stuff going away a little bit. I hope there is resurgence toward more hands-on because your hand can d a lot of things intuitively that your head can't. If you just take a piece of clay, close your eyes and let your hands build something, you might amaze yourself. Maybe a lot of designers don't want to get their hands dirty, get dirty in the shop, they just want to look at their keyboard and make design. I always think the best engineers, the way I can tell a good engineer is look at his keyboard. If his keyboard is dirty, he's working on his computer, then he's going down to the shop and working with his hands. That's an indication to me that that person is well balanced, and they're doing a little bit of both, which good or bad, right or wrong, that's what I think is the best, that balance. It's like life, it's best to have a balance of family, work and recreation. If you have what you feel is an equal balance, then you're going to be a happy person.

In design, it's the same in most any profession, if you have a balance, you will most likely be good at what you do. There's a saying in the Native American culture about the women who make baskets, that they never make a basket when they're not happy. When you design, you should never design when you're not happy, because you won't make good designs. Only design when you feel good and feel happy, when you're in a good environment. Sometimes you're going to be stressed out, and sometimes you're going to have to get that damn design done this second, but for the most part, design when you're in a good mood. Took me a long time to learn that.

LA: What is your process?

RE: Observation is big, and listening. You've got to take these guys right here, I'm pointing to my ears right now, and you've got to flex them out like this and you've got to be listening all the time. That's how I get a lot of ideas, I listen to other people. You can't underestimate how important it is to observe, watch how people do things. If you're designing a new basketball, go watch a basketball game. Sounds simple, but that's how you learn. You always have to get back to the basics and do things simple. I like the most simple designs, and the most simple designs are always the hardest. If you look at a hammer, look how simple it is, but it works so well. It's really a beautiful form, if you look how it's made, it's forged, and the wood handle, kind of a perfect thing.

What role does humor play in that process?

RE: I like to have fun. I like to do fun stuff, if you look at some of these bikes (in Specialized's loft area full of Robert's one-off creations), there's a martini bike, there's a cowboy bike, see these pedals (horse shoe pedals), they give you more horsepower, I made a police bike a while ago, where the water bottle cage is, there's a funny looking thing, with a rod coming out of it, parallel to the downtube, and that's to put donuts on. You have to have fun in design. One reason I do this stuff is sometimes we're way too serious, like a bike has to weigh 15 pounds, it has to look like this, the saddle like this, everything has to be a certain way, for me I'm able to mix things up and just say "what if?" Who I think appreciates this the most is kids, they still have a great imagination, they're not so boxed-in.

When you get to your age or my age, you get boxed-in to what you think is right. Kids don't have that yet, that something that's learned and kids still have the opportunity to be creative and think – they're not constrained. When I ask kids in kindergarten who's artistic, every kid raises their hand. By the time you get to 4th grade, one or 2 kids raise their hand. Maybe it's our school system, humanity, but kids lose all that artistic and creative thinking. Very few kids retain that and end up like us. We're kind of weirdos right? Because we stayed creative.

LA: You stated a bike has to be 15 lbs, or have a specific element, does engineering give you parameters to work with, or how does that work?

RE: It's kind of unspoken here at Specialized, we're always trying to make things really light, light weight is really important. We're racers at heart, we're always making things lighter, stronger stiffer, so we work together on those parameters, both engineering and design, we start out with our product brief, and this new one can't be heavier than the last. We can add more things, it can be stiffer, and more compliant or whatever but the weight can't creep over what it was. By default on a new design we take weight off of it. I think we'll reach a point of diminishing returns where it just can't get any lighter. We always say that, but there's always new processes, or new materials, we figure out a way to be sneaky, when you're talking grams, you have to figure out a way to be sneaky. You have to put you detective hat on, figure out a way to take a gram off here and there.

LA: Specialized has a brand aesthetic, it's especially been prominent over the last 5 or 6 years, is that also a group effort within the company?

RE: It's certainly a group effort, it's something that I've always wanted, I've always wanted Specialized to be the leader of the best designed bicycle company. I want Specialized to really have a passion for design and have our products look designed. When I first started in the bicycle industry, I was just one of a couple designers because it was heavily based on engineering 25 years ago. I've been really happy that Mike Sinyard, the founder and owner of the company, has really embraced design, he really understands how design makes us different, and how design can make products more valuable. I think if you look at our products versus our competitors', we put a lot more effort on the design side. There's always that balance of design aesthetic, and engineering prowess to not only make sure things only look beautiful, but they work beautifully. I have a saying here too: "it if looks right, it is right." You can look at something and say, "that's it, right there", and you know that there's a nice balance of design and engineering.

My mantra for my group is: it's got to look fast. If it's on the shop floor, or you sit this helmet on the table, or these shoes on the table, it looks like "oh my god, that's fast!". And it looks like it's moving. My goal has always been, if we have bikes in the shop or equipment in the shop that someone thinks "what am I going to put on Craigslist so I can have that". No matter what you choose, whether you design tennis rackets, or design cowboy boots, or design television sets, your job as a designer is to say "this thing is so cool and so kickass, whoever sees this thing is going to want it". You're kind of creating lust, creating a want for something that people have to have.

LA: 25 years ago, if you could have done anything else instead of work here, what would that be?

RE: I really love furniture design. When I was in school I did a lot of furniture design. I was crazy into furniture design and bicycles. So we had to take a class in college where it was a half a year long, and by the end of the half a year class, you had to make a full sized chair. The first quarter, since it's technically 2 quarters, you had to research chairs, learn about famous designers, and make ¼ scale chairs. After the first quarter you had to make 4 or 5 of these ¼ scale chairs, you chose one of those and then made a full scale chair. After the first quarter, I had made a hundred and fifty ¼ scale chairs. I was so crazy about it. I was always good with my hands so I could make stuff fast. I was so into the class that I basically taught the second quarter of the class. The teacher was so amazed that I could make all of these, so we kind of co-taught the rest of the class.

Everyone kind of feared this class because at the end you had to make a full size chair, but for me it was "bring it on" because I love to build stuff. A lot of people in the class didn't have the 3D skills and some had already taken it 2 or 3 times because they could never finish the chair. So at the end of the semester, they had the furniture design show, and there were 15 kids in my class, I was the only kid who finished his chair. I didn't finish 1 chair, I finished 10 chairs. I think when you're passionate about something, when you find something you really like, it's easy. You know the saying: if you find something you love, you'll never work a day in your life. I strongly suggest you find something you really really like to do. You will spend a lot of time working in life, so find something you're really passionate about and feel you can make a difference.

LA: How has the design field changed from when you first entered?

RE: It's gotten pretty complicated. It's not as easy. It was easier to deign stuff back then. There was not a lot of competition. Design was really in its infancy in the cycling industry, so anything you did, made it prettier, was successful. Now a lot of companies understand the importance of design and the landscape is more competitive.

LA: Was there defining moment where you considered yourself a designer?

RE: I don't think you consider yourself a designer until you get a job as a designer, and then you see someone enjoying something you worked on. I think that was the epitome of if for me. My first job out of school, I worked for Trek for about a year and I worked on the first bonded aluminum Trek 5600, which I got to be a part of that project, it was just unbelievable that I could make money doing something I loved. I never thought I could work in the bike industry and design bikes. Crazy. My instructors told me "you can't get a job doing this bike stuff". But I just felt in my heart that there's got to be someone out there who's into bikes. So seeing that bike out, and talking to somebody who rode by, and I said "hey, how do you like that bike?", and they replied "oh this is the best bike in the world".

I mean that, as a designer, you've made an impact in someone's life, and you've made someone stoked, and you were part of that. When you can make somebody happy and excited, and they're staying healthy, and having fun, that's really powerful. I mean, I don't think I can be a gun designer, design something that kills somebody, hurt somebody, maim somebody, that doesn't seem right to me but I think working on projects here, I get to work on helmets, that save people's lives, work on bikes that get people commuting, or getting exercise, or enjoying the outdoors, to me that's very satisfying.

LA: What designers really influenced you?

RE: I'm not influenced by a lot of designers, I love Da Vinci stuff, absolutely think that guy was in his own world. I love car design, I really love cars, and if you look at a lot of the bikes, they're certainly car inspired. Those guys weren't necessarily car designers, just people that made cool stuff. I'm inspired by anybody that makes cool stuff, that's thought about it and has a passion, and they make something that is beautiful and lasts a long time. I like things that last. When I look at mid century modern furniture, that stuff still looks good today, and it's still going to look good a hundred years from now. That's inspiring for me because somebody designed something 60 or 70 years ago, and it's still good today. That's a freakin' good design. We should all hope that we can do something that lasts that long. Very few designers do. I don't know what it is that we design a lot of things that are disposable, which is not cool. You know you go to Target, and there's just so much stuff there, a lot of designers designing that stuff, it's pretty disposable. I like to buy stuff that's going to last a long time, I can hand it down to somebody. I like to collect a lot of nice tools because they will last my lifetime, and I can hand them down to somebody else. If you get a plastic vase, it's like "shit, that's just going to end up in a landfill".

LA: What objects influenced you as a kid?

RE: I grew up on a farm, I was always around mechanical things, I started working in a machine shop when I was 4 years old, started driving a tractor when I was 4 years old. From the bike side, I was 5 years old and I wanted a bicycle more than anything. I have a big family, I have 6 brothers and 4 sisters, I was the youngest and I always got the hand me downs so I got my sister's bike, and I was like "that's just not cool". I had a neighbor kid friend that had a beautiful red Schwinn, beautiful paint job, streamers on the handlebars, I wanted a bicycle like that. So I was begging my parents, my dad, "I want a bike, can I get a bike, please, I want a bicycle", and I kept bugging him for weeks and weeks.

One day I heard his old truck come in the yard and he came in the house and said "Robert I have your bike out in the truck". I was like "What! You got me a bicycle!", "yeah I got a bike for you in the back of the truck". So I ran out to the back of the truck, and it was piled full of old frames, old seats, old handlebars, fenders and junk like that, it was just all junk, and he said "there's your bicycle". So I unloaded all that stuff, and I was pretty pissed off, but I unloaded it and he gave me a hammer, pliers, crescent wrench and a screw driver, and he said make your own bike. That's when I started building bikes when I was 5 years old. I've made lots of bikes. So you can say it in my blood because I love cycling and I love building stuff. Then when I built those bicycles, it allowed me to explore. We didn't get out much so I got to ride my bike wherever I wanted to go. Subsequently, I got into racing, and I got invited to the Olympic training center, so I was a competitive cyclist. Cycling has been my life. From riding to designing.