I Ride, Therefore I Maintain the Trails I Ride t-shirt
I ride, therefore I maintain the trails I ride. This is the way.
Any mountain biker, new or veteran, benefits from the hard work of the trail builder. But we can all chip in, making, shaping, maintaining the trails we ride.
A little effort from every rider goes a long way.
Big love to everyone who chips in to the trails we all ride.
Original artwork for the Misspent Summers newsletter by our in-house doodler, Jon Gregory.
I ride, therefore I maintain t-shirt stuff and things
- 100% GOTS certified organic cotton; OEKO-TEX certified; Peta-Approved vegan; Fair Wear fabrication
- Classic fit – neither too tight nor too baggy
- Printed to order in the UK using OEKO-TEX certified inks and carbon offset energy
- No plastic packaging used
- Public service announcement trail building illustration for the Misspent Summers newsletter by our in-house doodler, Jon Gregory
- Sizes XXS-5XL
- £32
This t-shirt is made to order – here’s why
When we started selling mountain biker clothes in 2020, we only printed using made-to-order (also called drop shipping) companies. This allowed us to set up without investing in a big print run; it also meant we wouldn’t end up with any unsold stock if people didn’t buy a certain design. We sold quite a few t-shirts that year, relatively speaking (we’re only a tiny company).
But by the end of 2020 we had realised that the company we were using to print, while efficient and using some organic materials, were sending out packages packed full of plastic. That didn’t sit well with us, and we couldn’t do anything about it – the company was too big to care what we had to say. So we stopped everything. It was kind of a stupid decision in terms of business because sales were going well, and Christmas was just around the corner (the time when most people buy stuff). But we knew we’d be happier in the long run knowing that we weren’t sending out piles of unnecessary plastic.
It took a while, but eventually we got a stock of new t-shirts and things in our warehouse, all printed on GOTS-certified organic material in the UK using renewable energy. Now we could take charge of the packaging. Since then, we’ve shipped a lot of t-shirts (relatively – we’re still tiny) and we’ve been happy that every time someone orders a tee, we know it’s being sent with care.
However, late in 2023, after putting a kindly university student on a placement to work researching sustainable printing options in the UK, we decided to start printing some clothing to order again. We could do this because we had now found a suitable company (Inkthreadable) to produce our clothing: they hold the same standards as we do, with mindful manufacturing, no plastic packaging and an eye for quality.
Now, all our new clothing is made to order. If something proves popular, we invest in a screen-printed run of the product that we can then store at our warehouse, meaning it is sent out in the same package as any books, mags, zines and other products stored at HQ.
By ordering our made to order products, you are helping us figure out what mountain bikers like.