"They do, however, charge significantly more for the "Mash" branded stuff than any other comparable products."

Who is they? What Mash branded products?

It's true I have not been on bikeforums as long as you. That shouldn't discount everything I say though. It's just a join date.

If MASH doing the TOC was a marketing stunt, it was a hell of a marketing stunt. From what I gather and from talking to some of the riders, it wasn't a means for them to get money or for shameless self promotion. They wanted to see if they could do it and how it would be. I thought this would be a respectable thing--a group of guys want to do something particularly difficult for the sake of difficult (re: cycling), they have the means (Mash, Clif, whatever) to sponsor them and make it happen, and they do it. Should we be giving crap to professional riders who do the same thing but get paid to do it?

The truth is that Mash takes cycling actually rather seriously, it's not just about having the most expensive and nicest bike. A lot of their current riders are UCI registered, though do not race on the track. They race a lot of road and cross. They sport Mash kits, and Mike does whatever to help them out. What does a Mash kit in a cross race intend to market to? They don't have a cross frame with Cinelli. This may not be an objective point, but Mike is really not trying to make Mash a coveted limited edition collabo hype wave riding machine. I still don't find the connection with sneaker culture. To me, the Kagero and the Cannondale Track more embody that mentality than Mash.