The Name Game

After we got the business concept for the custom bike shop down on paper, along with it's core values, it was time to think up a name. The name had to be something that could relate to the 60's, somehow connect to reuse, yet at the same time, sound cool enough to sell. It couldn't be Enviro-Bike, or Bad-Ass Customs. So we made a list of goals for the title.

Goal #1: Title should relate to 60's and/or Schwinn Stingray.

We started by looking up different species of Stingray, thinking we might find something really cool. Most species were related to color or size. Our favorite however was the Common Stingray. Something about Common Bikes sounded marketable. It's also an interesting wordplay because the bike frames are fairly common, yet we are doing something very uncommon with them through customization. This brought us to:

Goal #2: Title should relate to the idea of reuse

In the end, Common Bikes was already taken so we kept thinking. Our next thought was to research synonyms for reuse. Perhaps it would lead to something interesting, if not just give us some ideas. It just so happens that there are 3 pages of synonyms and related words for reuse so it was pretty impossible not to find something useful. The majority however we not very appealing names for a bike company. We didn't want to be too gung-ho with the Reuse idea so we were looking for something subtle. That's when we set:

Goal #3: Must be marketable to the larger community.

After much word searching, we came across foster; as in to foster a child. To bring in and give new life, new meaning. In this sense, it reflects the ideals of the company because our goal is to take in wasted bikes and give them new life by renewing them. At the same time, this isn't exactly what comes to mind when you think of foster, so it's pretty subtle. Also, Foster is a common last name, relating it to many companies of the 50's and 60's era which were simply last names. Schwinn, Herman Miller, Wrigley...Foster. In this sense it fulfills are first goal, to relate to Schwinn and the Stingray.

Foster Bikes.

Finally, it sounds good. It sounds authentic, trustworthy but upon deeper scrutiny, it holds the values of the company, which is what a good company name should do.

Foster Bikes. Hey, is that a Foster?