ENVE Composites, on the other hand, isn’t like most Ogden companies.

On the precipice of celebrating two decades in business, the bicycle component manufacturer has recently made waves by serving UAE Team Emirates XRG and its most successful member — four-time Tour de France winner Tadej Pogačar of Slovenia — for the last four years.

Recently, the Standard-Examiner sat down with ENVE Composites Director of Marketing Neil Shirley to discuss how the company has grown and evolved in Ogden and how it has contributed to success in one of the world’s premier cycling races.

Leading the way

Photo supplied, ENVE Composites

Shirley said the company came about 19 years ago as a way of tapping into a part of the cycling market that just wasn’t being served yet.

“We were originally founded about a mile and a half away from here in the BDO (Business Depot Ogden) and the founders had a vision of creating composite bicycle parts that didn’t exist in the market,” he said. “At the time, composites were in their early stages for use in cycling, and so they set out to just make products that they wanted themselves. And 19, 20 years later, ENVE has grown to the point that we are world renowned as a leader in cycling technology, from wheels, frames and components.”

He said that the COVID-19 pandemic ended up being a time for the company to distinguish itself from competitors.

“The cycling industry and outdoor sports had a lot of growth in COVID, and then had a real tough downturn in the industry,” he said. “ENVE was able to deal with that better than most because we are a manufacturer and a lot of our competitors had to put in orders a year and a half in advance of what they thought they were going to sell. That lag time really, really was difficult for a lot of the industry, and they over-inventoried once kind of that COVID bubble burst.”

Shirley said that ENVE was shielded from the worst of this downturn because of how the particular business operates.

Rob Nielsen, Standard-Examiner

“The fact that we’re  producing stuff ourselves meant that we didn’t have to be forecasting a year and a half down the road what we think we’re going to sell,” he said. “Because we are manufacturing the objects that make up the majority of our annual revenue, we can be on-demand essentially, and so we can understand when orders are coming in, what that mix of products might be — different wheel models, different frames — and we can adjust to be really lean or ramp up.”

He said that the offerings from the company have grown significantly.

“We started as a wheel and component company, and then in 2021, we introduced our first complete bicycle,” he said. “That’s called the Custom Road … that’s 100% custom and made right here in Ogden, and it’s made around each individual. Each individual person puts in their size and we build the bike with custom paint and everything. We’ve added additional frames since then that do come from overseas vendors, but everything that’s produced here is all of our wheels, one-piece handlebars — our highest, most premium products are produced right here.”

He said that the company employs around 230 people at the moment, having grown nearly 50% over the last two and a half years due to rising demand.

A large part of that growth has come as a result of who ENVE Composites has partnered with in recent years.

Rob Nielsen, Standard-Examiner

Tour success

Four years ago, a group reached out to ENVE Composites and was clearly impressed with what it saw.

“They were looking to make a change in some of their equipment partners, and — unbeknownst to us — they bought some of our wheels and started testing them, and then reached out and said, ‘Hey, you guys are performing the best. The athletes, the riders like these. Would you want to partner with us?” Shirley said.

That group happened to be the Tour de France team UAE Team Emirates XRG which includes Pogačar, who won the Tour de France in 2020, 2021, 2024 and 2025. As of Friday, he was also in the lead of the individual general rankings for the 2026 Tour de France.

“We’re on our fourth year with the team now,” Shirley said. “We just signed another three-year contract extension, because, one, we are giving them a performance advantage every day. When Tadej lines up in the Yellow Jersey in the Tour de France, he knows that through ENVE, he has the best wheels and handlebars in the game. And when you know the sport and the small performance gains that are from weight to aerodynamics and just durability, those are things that we’re chasing all the time and looking to improve. And having a rider like him allows us to always be making the best products.”

Rob Nielsen, Standard-Examiner

He said that this isn’t the company’s first experience with the Tour de France, having worked with the Team Dimension Data (South Africa) and Team TotalEnrgies ProCycling (France) in the past. Today, ENVE Composites exclusively serves UAE Team Emirates XRG.

“We decided for going forward, we needed to focus entirely on Tadej and the UAE team because they are the best and they demand a lot of time and resources and we wanted to be entirely focused on them,” Shirley said.

He said that partnering with Pogačar has helped make ENVE a better company.

“As an athlete, they’re always expecting improvement from themselves and they expect the same thing from their partners,” Shirley said. “And so it’s a big lift on our R&D and engineering teams to always be giving them that next thing. But because we make these parts here in Ogden, it allows us to be really nimble and we can make small changes. Honestly, if there’s feedback and they need a small change on a product, it’s something that can be days or weeks, whereas if we’re using a vendor elsewhere, it would be months to make those changes. And so we were constantly giving the team an advantage in current products and future products.”

Shirley said the partnership has also been big for the company’s employees.

Rob Nielsen, Standard-Examiner

“It’s a huge source of pride for everyone here — whether they’re a cyclist or not — just knowing that any day they might have created the product or definitely had their hands on creating a product that is being ridden by, not just the best cyclist today, but all time greatest,” he said. “It unites everyone. We like to send out emails internally and let people know what’s happening in the races in case they’re not following it and let them know who made the specific rim that Tadej won on. It brings everyone together, and then we celebrate after. We bring in the taco cart, we do T-shirts for everyone and so we all have ownership in it.”

The future

While Pogačar may be on the cusp of a fifth Tour de France victory, ENVE Composites is also looking toward the future.

“We have a lot of exciting things coming up,” Shirley said. “We currently make road bikes and gravel bikes, and we’ll be entering the mountain bike world next year. And so with that, we look to mirror what we do on the road, and that means (working with) a high-level mountain bike race team as well so that, one, we get that global exposure and marketing, but two, and almost more important is the R&D to continue having top athletes helping us develop the best products. And those are the same products that our everyday consumer gets to use and gets to appreciate.”

For more information on ENVE Composites, visit https://enve.com/

Rob Nielsen, Standard-Examiner