californiagrownthere is a large difference between publicly disagreeing with the direction of a company, and publicly accusing them of poor business ethics only because you got laid off.
I straight up don't understand how people are still defending Orage. There is a right way to do things and a wrong way to do things, and the way they went about all of this was straight up wrong.
I'm not faulting them for dropping their team and changing the direction of the company. Executives make decisions for the company and the plans are carried out. But that shit just doesn't happen over night, and it sure as fuck doesn't happen in September.
When you've had people on your team for 5+ years you owe them a bit of respect. The worst people in this industry are are the ones that believe they are doing athletes a favor by hooking them up. Creating brand loyalty is just as much a task of the athlete as the people designing the gear. And these people were dropped, with no warning, in the late fall. Sure, the company wasn't profiting the way they wanted to based on these riders, but after that much service a guy deserves a fucking heads up.
The Phil discussion is fucked, for them to claim they were all peachy and down to support him and he just left is utter horseshit. Sure, let's take arguably our biggest rider, then drop his pro model and put him on flow. That's support!
Of course these decisions are going to be largely unpopular here, this is the demographic they've cut out. But there are also a few people that know how it went down and can't stand how they've played it off and tried taking the high road. Yes, that includes some disgruntled ex-riders employees, but honestly, why shouldn't it? Especially if they aren't willing to comment.