We love cycling and we’re all about riding bikes in cities around the world. Our products are intended to help improve every bike journey you take, with smart design features specific to cyclists and lots of little influences from the heritage of the sport. One of the most obvious places where we’ve been inspired by classic cycling is in our product names – many of them are taken from Dutch and French, because those two nations have such a strong connection with the sport.

STRAAT means street in Dutch and is the name of one of our urban-centric pairs of pants. DRAAI is the name of our courier-style military shorts, and it’s taken from the Draai van de Kaai bike race – an elite criterium that has been won by Quintana, Contador, Kittel and Valverde in the last few years. Then we have MUUR, which literally means wall, but is also used to refer to a super-steep climb – the most famous example being the Muur de Huy, which is always decisive in La Flèche Wallonne.

Crankk’s PLAKKER is a warm hoodie for wearing when the weather is cold or at night and it’s named after a Dutch expression meaning ‘someone who sticks on another rider’s wheel without sharing any of the work’. We all have at least one Plakker as a friend! The KISSMISS is a 100% cotton denim shirt, inspired by the Dutch nickname for podium girls.

OMLOOP is our unique combination of shirt and hoodie, which will be available shortly, and it’s named after the famous Classic race, the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad. RENNER is another Dutch word, meaning racer, and it’s the name we gave to a couple of our lightweight shirts – smart enough for meetings, but comfortable for riding in.

From France we borrowed names like ETAPE, COURSE and PISTE (which mean ‘stage’, ‘race’ and ‘track’, respectively), and applied them to three of our different styles of pants.

We named our first collection of T-shirts after the great cycling classics, so you can wear a ROUBAIX or a LOMBARDIA, both featuring graphics inspired by vintage cycling posters. Paris-Roubaix is considered one of the toughest of the Spring Classics, with riders tackling the dreaded pavé of northern France. Il Lombardia is the last monument and the traditional curtain call of the road season. Taking place in Autumn, it’s nickname is ‘the ride of the falling leaves’.