A former cycle courier from Portland, Oregon, USA today launches a new cycle clothing range that he hopes will offer a fashionable yet practical alternative to brands such as Rapha....
Erik van Mees, a former BMX world record holder, claims that his Stiamo Mentendo brand will “shake up the staid world of cycling!” According to van Mees, Stiamo Mentendo is the label that: "British cyclists fed up with me-too Lycra, try-hard baggy shorts or faux-revisionist nostalgia-toss retro fashion have been waiting for."
“Since the dawn of the bicycle, fashions have passed. The bicycle is not fashion,” says van Mees “As they say in Italy the bicycle is 'assurdità assoluta' - the very essence of man's being."
Stiamo Mentendo’s first range – Malato del Sidro – will be in selected stores from today and, says van Mees, “…combines modern fabric technology and corresponds to consumer demand-led sensibility yet retains a stylistically modern urban aesthetic.”
Explaining his reasons for launching in the UK first, van Mees reveals that he spent time here in the early noughties. ""I truly believe that the UK is the sickest place to visualize my vision,” he explains, “Portland reminds me of England. I was a cycle courier in Stoke-on-Trent for three months during my freshman year and the scene there was so sick. I just know what I've got going down here is going to rock places like Stoke and London."
Erik, who bested Andy Ruffle's world record for doing cherry pickers on standard trick nuts in 2003 with 20,987 consecutive picks, says that his Malato del Sidro collection of technically stylish clothing products combine style with technology. "I call it technolostyle. There is no reason why style and technology cannot be combined to create apparel that riders who dig style and dig technology recognize as part of their whole synergy."
Erik has teamed up with Turin, Italy, based fabricologists Tecnologia Di Cacca A Buon Mercato (TDCABM) to create Stiamo Trovando's first range Malato del Sidro and is the first designer to utilize UrbfreeXtremeXIVaii technical fabric in cycling clothing.
"UrbfreeXtremeXIVai was developed in conjunction with the Italian Air Force," explains TPCDM's Piegato Cavallo. "It's an advanced fabric that, as well as being not quite invisible to radar and just a little bit bullet proof, also has excellent breathability and wicking properties."
We hope to have some Malato del Sidro clothes to test soon, so look out for it in the mag!
