Seems like everywhere you turn these days there’s news about bike fashion. Whether it’s featured at the National Bike Summit or making major news headlines, bike brands and major fashion labels are falling over themselves to get a piece of the growing apparel pie.
Portland is an epicenter of stylish cycling so it’s no surprise that we’ve got our share of fashion-focused events. Two of them have come on my radar recently…
This Friday River City Bicycles will host a launch event for Giro’s “New Road” apparel line. Giro, a brand known to most people for their helmets, launched their new clothing line late last month and it’s being called a potential “paradigm shift” by the bike media. A local rep for Giro explained the new line as, “Giro’s take on a changing the traditional road clothing (lycra jerseys and such) to something a bit more understated but still performance based.” New Road features merino jerseys that look more like business-casual t-shirts.
Interestingly, Giro’s marketing vibe — with its focus on riding and exploring with friends rather than racing — looks like it was inspired by Rapha. Rapha, with its North American base in Portland, has made huge inroads in the bike fashion market by thinking of themselves as “a lifestyle brand that happens to think bicycling is a great way of life.”
Giro will launch New Road in Portland with a Community Ride tomorrow (Friday, 3/22) that meets at River City Bicycles (706 SE MLK Jr. Blvd) at 12:00 pm. After the ride, they’ll host a party at 7:00 pm at The Cleaners at Ace Hotel (403 SW 10th Ave). Everyone is invited.
Then next week (3/27), Universal Cycles is hosting a “Ladies Night” event to preview the latest and greatest items in the Terry Cycling apparel line. Terry is a legendary brand in the bike world. The company’s founder, Georgena Terry, was a keynote speaker at the National Bike Summit this year and is considered a pioneer of women’s bicycling. “Terry cycling apparel is made for women and designed by women. Rally all the betties and enjoy a night out… bike style.” reads a flyer for this event.
The event will take place at Universal Cycles (2202 E Burnside) from 5-7:00 pm on Wednesday March 27th. A Terry saddle will be raffled off.
Thanks for reading.
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What? You mean I don’t have to put on lycra racing clothes to ride my bike? I mean I always wear a helmet and fire proof coveralls when I drive my car……
Nor do you have to put on gore-tex pants to ski, board-shorts to surf, or hip-waders to fly fish.
Just because you rarely see people doing those things in trousers doesn’t mean it can’tbe done 😉
The next time I ski, surf, or fly fish to work or a party I’ll keep that in mind.
“business-casual t-shirts” Discuss.
You know, as opposed to your formal t-shirts…
“Business-casual t-shirt” sound like a lie college students tell themselves.
Is that the Fonz trying to jump a shark on a sublimely curated fixie?
I like Giro but am not a big Terry fan. Too bad the new Giro line is only for men at this point.
Giro is just jumping on the bandwagon, apparel companies have been offering these types of pieces for a while now. for example:
http://www.endurasport.com/Search.aspx?search_text=urban
or
http://www.endurasport.com/Product.aspx?dept_id=124&prod_id=342
Hopefully they make an effort to keep the rampant discounting to a minimum and don’t sell directly to the consumer via their own site so places like River City, Clever Cycles, etc don’t have to compete with the likes of REI, Performance, and other retailers who ruin the apparel part of the industry for the smaller, independently owned retailers.
Rant over, but think about it and support your local bike shop!
I always thought people liked the fashion of biking. Going more business casual won’t necessarily being people into the sport. My friend started snow skiing just becasue she liked the clothes…