If you follow professional bike racing you probably already know about Manual For Speed. The site has a very distinctive visual and reporting style (to put it mildly) that presents cycling — and the characters who race, watch, and follow it — in a whole new light.
One of the MFS’s founders is Portland resident Daniel Wakefield Paisley. DWP as he’s known around here, is a creative force and photographer/writer extraordinaire. Not only is MFS the product of Portlander’s vision, it’s presenting sponsor is none other than Castelli, an Italian company whose U.S. headquarters (which does shipping, design, and custom kits) are based here.
Check out the press release below for the latest and greatest MFS offering:
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Manual for Speed: Announcing Artist Residency Kits
Product: A series of kits designed by artists for Manual for Speed
MSRP: Jersey – $99.99, Bibshort – $149.99, Vest – $124.99, Arm Warmers – $39.99
All products manufactured by Castelli.
Product Overview: Over the course of the summer Manual for Speed will be releasing a series of five kits designed by five different artist. The first two kits to be released feature the artwork of Jerry Inscoe and Mike Perry. Additional kits designed by Sigrid Calon, Karan Singh, and Zio Ziegler are set to be released later this summer. Manual for Speed is excited to bring the arresting and colorful work of these artists to the cycling world.
Or as Manual for Speed would put it:
The way we see it Cycling Kit is an opportunity for Elevated Personal Expression. As such we’re proposing a complete break from the hegemonic monotony of Corporate Body Advertising. Rather than being an unwilling participant in some Business Company’s fall product campaign, why not express your own aesthetic; an aesthetic that says culture counts, style counts and god damn it, art counts. While those around you engage in a race to the bottom—Lowest Common Denominator!, Base!, Pedestrian!, Branded Shlock!—with their Quick Step jerseys and their Panera Bread skinsuits. Why not elevate your message to the world? It’s easy, here’s how;Don’t be a billboard for a European dance conglomerate.
Take pride, relate your own sensibilities.
Be Beautiful.
We know what you’re thinking, this sounds great but how do I get started!? Introducing Manual for Speed’s Artist Residency Program Volume One: Chaoscolormotiontracjectory.
We gave five contemporary artists the same creative brief; The Greatest Spectacle on Earth is so much more than bike racing but bike racing is in fact the heart & soul of the Greatest Spectacle on Earth. But what is it about bike racing that we love so much, is it the Chaos, the Color, the Motion and the Trajectory? Yeah, it’s that. Interpret that.
More at Manualforspeed.com.