Spotlight on Bicycle Fashion Designers – PEdALED

Spotlight: Hideto Suzuki

Japanese-designed cycling wear debuts in North America.

pedaled.com

Founded 2007 | Tokyo, Japan

Fashion designer Hideto Suzuki was fed up. His work was hollow and he found himself stuck going through the motions. At the beginning of his career, the fast pace of Japan’s fashion industry had been exciting. Every season called for an entirely new collection. New fabrics, new silhouettes, new colors. It was all meant to replace what had come before. In the space of six months, what had been stylish now looked hopelessly passé next to the cool new thing.

After 15 years in the industry, Suzuki had built a solid career as a fashion designer, but the work no longer reflected who he was. He found himself wanting more. More isn’t the right word; in fact the opposite is true. He began looking for less. Less stress, less hype, simply less stuff.

A chance meeting with a Canadian man introduced Suzuki to the North American tradition of log cabins. He immersed himself in this antique craft, practically the antithesis of fashion.

There is purity to the building material of the cabins. After all, the log is essentially the tree itself, not a product of some industrial process. Working with his hands, Suzuki learned the art of creating sound structures. Over two years he built 10 of these structures across Japan.

In the hierarchy of needs, apparel somehow straddles the physiological basics and the nuances of self-actualization. Essentially, it’s a portable shelter meant to protect our frail human bodies from the elements. But it’s also a means of self-expression.

Refreshed by his sojourn into architecture, Suzuki found himself thinking – or rather rethinking – about apparel. Sincerity became his guiding theme; the bicycle became the mode. Commuting through Tokyo every day, he explored his new concept: pedal in a relaxing way. Feel yourself as a part of nature. Enjoy your surroundings.

In early 2011 Suzuki launched PEdALED, a line of menswear inspired by work clothing. Each piece has a casual, timeless look and the designs are intended to be comfortable while biking. The style is decidedly not performance-based, but includes many cycling specific goodies such as a reinforcing layer to protect the pant-leg from bicycle chains, or a jacket’s hood that is cut to give the wearer a larger range of vision while moving through traffic.

In 2012, Brooks England partnered with Suzuki to bring PEdALED to the European market. The line will be available in North America in Fall 2013.