Tell us about Foffa Bikes? What did inspire you to start this company?
Based in London and with an Italian design background, we are a group of passionate cyclists with one simple mission: to provide high quality and stylish urban bikes at the most affordable prices the market can offer. We have founded Foffa in 2009 (although Dani Foffa has been doing vintage bikes up from his bedroom as a hobby since 2007 while still working as a Business Analyst in the City) and for 4 years we had a showroom in East London from which customers could come and try our bikes out. Due to the high overheads and the necessity for bigger storage facilities we decided to close down our shop in February 2014 and start selling strictly online and though a network of resellers throughout Europe, and in this way we were able to reduce the costs of our bikes by 40% while still maintaining the same quality and branding values.
What is innovative about what you do?
Let’s be honest, the bicycle hasn’t changed its geometry in over 100 years so no bike brand can claim to be innovative about it these days. However we believe there are very few brands out there that find the right balance between a functional, comfortable bike range designed specifically for tough everyday city use, that at the same time will have a stylish design and attention to details without breaking the bank.
How do you come up with new designs of the bikes?
The approach we take is to get the community to help us shape the direction of the brand (within our branding guidelines of course) so we constantly ask tech editors, creatives and artists to help us design the new ranges. Also it helps that when we had our East London shop we used to offer a customised service that would allow our clients to choose the deisgn of their bikes, so after almost 4000 different designs we have a decent idea of what sells
What is your favourite bike?
Clearly I may be a bit biased on this one but it has to be the Foffa Single Speed Premium which we are going to launch in Spring 2015 and will feature a fully chrome plated frameset with some nice brown touches to give it a very classical feel.
Why do you choose Shoreditch to run your business?
We don’t like to generalise but around this area there tends to be a very cool crowd which might not necessarily relate to the lycra type of cyclist
What are your favourite places in Shoreditch?
Although I am Italian I am a big fan of Vietnamese food, so there are a couple of places on Kingsland road that I go to quite regularly. And if I fancy some fish and chips I would say Poppies on Hanbury street is my favourite in town! If I had to choose a venue Café 1001 is always a good choice.
What does the future has in store for your business?
The good thing about our team is that we never run out of ideas, it is just the case of getting the timing right as it is very easy in business (as I am sure you are aware) to spread yourself too thin. We have 5 new bike ranges already in the pipeline for the next 2 years and we have been working for over a year now on an affordable urban apparel range which will be launched in Summer 15. Think of the Levis Commuter with all the technical features that make urban clothing perfect for commuting but at the same time in style and as comfortable as casual clothing can get so that it can be used anywhere else without the bike.
Social links:
Website: foffabikes.com
Twitter: www.twitter.com/foffabikes
Facebook: facebook.com/foffabikes
