A long-term partnership in professional sport is not a matter of course. A cooperation that works on an equal footing and continuously points the way forward in terms of content is probably an exception. This year we can also look back on 10 years of MALOJA Pushbikers with pride and a smile on our faces.
In fact, the design collaboration with team chef Christian Grasmann began more than 15 years ago, when he himself was still an individual athlete and a team like today’s Maloja Pushbikers was a long way off. Christian was dissatisfied with the design possibilities in his former cycling club – he wanted to have more influence on exactly “the design” and thus founded the RSV Irschenberg (his own cycling club) in 2007. Since that day, the designs have been inextricably linked with Maloja.
Anyone who has known Christian and the team for a long time will remember the checks and diamonds of the early years – an approach that we saw again in 2023, but interpreted differently as a race check on our jerseys.
“In everything we do, the story behind it is very important to us,” says Niculin Pitsch, Head of Development at Maloja. Most of the designs are influenced by the annually changing collection theme and the corresponding graphic world. And the Pushbikers’ approach is also characterised by this: The basic idea and the story comes from Maloja, and together with Christian, the overall design is transferred to the team. Over the years, this has worked well and created a basis from which the team design has been developed and implemented. If you like, the Pushbikers were the Maloja test team for many years: they always rode the next season’s Maloja collection twelve months in advance. New every year, improved every year and highly recognisable.
The Pushbikers are not just a bike racing team, but also valuable product developers for Maloja. Close collaboration with athletes is important to the company, as they embody the Maloja brand and always provide valuable feedback. They use Maloja products in training and competitions under the toughest conditions – and often come back with ideas that can be incorporated into the design of innovative products.
And what hasn’t been set in motion, tried out and reorganised in recent years? When the Maloja designer accompanies the team as photographer at the official team shoot in the beginning of the year, one thing becomes clear: this is really about close cooperation. If you ask Niculin Pitsch about his special “Pushbikers moments”, many different stories emerge. “Experiencing every design that I had accompanied in advance and seen on the screen during a shoot with the power of an entire team and capturing it photographically – those are memories! Or the moment when we wrapped Christian in cling film before he went into the wind tunnel when the outside temperature was below 10 degrees so that he wouldn’t freeze to death. Or the interaction with the Future Stars and seeing the children and young people in the “shrunken” designs – that’s always emotional!”
Many of the products that were created were developed specifically for the racing team and are only suitable for the wider market to a limited extent. In 2018, for example, they travelled together to the wind tunnel test at Airbus in Immenstaad. Another experience that should last, combined with new knowledge. The first aim of the wind tunnel test was to find out where Maloja’s own product stands in comparison to the best suits on the market. At the same time, different materials were tested for optimisation. To our great delight, there was only one suit that was faster than the Maloja Race Suit only at top speeds. It is these findings in particular that are incorporated into further development and lead to the suit that pushbikers wear today.
Some of the cycling products are also being incorporated into the regular Maloja collection with a slight adaptation, such as the Pushbikers Aero 1/2 Jersey and the Pushbikers Bib Pants.
And in 2024? Once again this year, there was a joint campaign and a story that connects the Pushbikers with the Maloja employees and their philosophy. The design of our current Pushbikers Team Kit was developed from empty bottles, spray cans, foils, cans, strings and countless other disposable items that we found on the side of the road and in the bushes on a grey autumn day on the way to the Maloja headquarters. Much of it was dirty and really not eye-catching, but as soon as all the objects became the starting point for the creative process, it became clear that whether something is waste or can still be valuable and useful to us depends on our perspective.
Shapes and patterns, colours and contrasts were created on digital design workstations and overhead projectors. And in the end we realised: A different awareness can redefine the meaning and purpose of a supposed waste product and open up new possibilities.
What finally ended up on the jersey are the imprints in colour of rolled aluminium foil and a new Pushbikers collection logo made up of letters from different packaging. If you take a closer look, you’re sure to recognise one or two letters – thanks to Milka or Snickers. The background, on the other hand, roots back to the team’s desire for visibility in the field, inspiration from colour gradients and different design influences in the racing bike environment.
Thanks Maloja for A DIFFERENT KIND OF CONSCIOUSNESS. In the end, it’s not just quick success that counts, but what lasts and is good for everyone.
