Pioggia, neve (quando è poca), vento o sole a picco mai mi terranno lontana dalla mia bici! E se potessi portarla sempre con me? La risposta è: Sandwich Bikes!
L’innovativo progetto dello studio olandese Bleijh, nasce come un gioco nel 2006 e solo nel 2013 diventa una realtà, presenta una bicicletta estremamente leggera (circa 13kg), spedita direttamente a casa in una scatola piatta e, come i mobili di Ikea, provvista di kit di montaggio e istruzioni, non ha saldature ma resiste di più di un armadio!
Circa cinquanta pezzi per assemblare il mezzo di trasporto eco-friendly e il sandwich è fatto!
Queste bici oltre ad essere innovative, ecosostenibili e congeniali alla vita frenetica delle metropoli hanno l’hype factor, ovvero quella combinazione tra funzionalità e estetica delle forme che le rende assolutamente vincenti!
Please could you tell me a little bit about where you are based, your background and how and why you started inventing?
I didn’t design the bike myself. Basten Leijh is the designer of Sandwichbikes. Therefore a short bio of Basten:
Basten Leijh is an Industrial Designer who has designed a range of products from lighting and sanitary to interior and mobility for renowned companies like Ahrend, Modular and Roels. He hit the ground running when graduating from the Design Academy Eindhoven with his Downtown. This bicycle that was introduced in the market by Giant is now an icon of Dutch Design.
As he continues to consult a variety of companies, Leijh is also pursuing his own product designs with Bleijh Industrial Design Studio (www.bleijh.com) based in Amsterdam. When Leijh launched Sandwichbikes, his concept created buzz around the world. The flat-packed innovative wooden re-think on the classic two-wheeled design, is a good representation of his focus on invention development.
Why did you first decide to design a sandwich bike?
Basten wanted do design a bike differently in any way. Different sales, looks, logistics, materials etc… He decided to design it flat-packed. Therefore he needed strong plates from (natural) fibers and than he ended up with wood. He also wanted to create a bike that was produced fully industrial but has the looks and feeling of the furniture combination of materials.
How do you go about funding the development of your invention ideas, do you raise finance from investors, partner with other companies or finance the projects yourself?
We did everything in the first years with resources collected from other design projects and this could be more efficient… Finally a friend of mine joint me in my big adventure and that brought us where we are right now! Fully operational world wide.
From an initial invention idea how long would you normally expect it to take to get a product to market, based on projects you have worked on?
That really depends on various things. Except for the design, selecting suppliers, testing, certification and money are topics that are of big influence to get a product to market.
In which countries sandwich bikes are available?
Because we have an online channel and ship around the world, we are available around the world. We sold in over than 25 countries already and still counting.
What are your goals for the future?
Within Sandwichbikes we go on with the concept to make things more perfect and broden our product range. The Pedalfactory’s aim is to develop and market unique bikes. In the future we also like to bring other brands to the market.
With his design agency Basten is always doing more things than only bikes. He will continue working for clients in furniture, mobility and the light-industry and hopes Sandwichbikes shows new clients where he is capable in.
Le Sandwich bikes nei modelli base e limite edition sono disponibili e acquistabili sulla piattaforma di http://gleest.com/!
E durante il Fuorisalone potrete testarle di persona: Ventura Lambrate at exhibition UNSEEN from 14-19 april!
