Burners

....thought I'd do a little back story to this. Sorry, bit of a wordy dump, but some people might be interested;

As in op, I spent a longtime working across a wide range of products, with a wide range of uses and users. I was lucky enough to work with teams and professional athletes, sometimes able to spend quite a long time in their company, watching the whole process of training & racing. It soon became apparent that these professionals just want 'stuff that works'. Fancy, convoluted concepts carry high-risk of failure - they look to simple, durable, reliable tools for the job.

I knew about the newspaper down the jersey, and would ride past the boxes of papers at the top of the big climbs or in refuges, kindly put out for unprepared cyclo-tourists.

Really love that newspapers are still used to this day, and by Pro riders. Fans offer up papers to those who have missed their soigneurs handing out gilets - or prefer the no-nonsense simplicity of a L'Equipe. Every year you see riders in trouble trying to put jackets on..... Pantani over the Galibier is similarly painful to watch!

Rapha did a special edition gilet, with a nod to the newspaper tradition in '08, with an 'Italian Edition', featuring their signature pink Gazetta print down the vertical stripe panel (pic below)

Dominique Gabellini - the wise, seasoned vet racer, and classic face of Rapha - would also tell stories of riding with a silk scarf back in the day. Part for the style and panache, part for unfurling before a long descent, and laying across his chest, using the densely-woven silk to provide respite from a chill wind.

I think around '14, 15, we started working with technical insulations - Primaloft, Polartex Alpha - and developed products like the Insulated Brevet Gilet, then the jacket, and Windblock Jersey. I did 'design' these products in a sense, but was part of a great team who worked together to make these happen, and was lucky enough to be test-riding and inputting in development phase. Things like BCM (spot the LFGSS'er), F500 and Cent Cols were proving grounds (and fertile space for thinking up more ideas) for these hybrid, windproof products. It was really interesting to tune into what made a difference and where.

Another area for ideas that was bubbling around, was working on aero products. Again, was lucky enough to be able to 'see the invisible' and look at understanding airflow around the on-bike-body and considering windchill effect on different areas. It was really apparent that garments - particularly technical outerwear - could benefit from different performance attributes, depending on where they were positioned.

One final thing on the aero stuff, was working on long-distance projects, putting all this work into a skinsuit, then a rider putting on a non-aero-optimised gilet or rainjacket for cold night stages. ...There must be a better solution?! @hippy ;)

All these inputs and thoughts were bobbing around, and so I used some sampling to knock up a bunch of 'chest pillows'* in the winter of '16. This was in preparation for F500, but I only needed a few km's to know I was onto something good. I think I messaged people as soon as I got in, and made up more for people to ride, explained the newspaper origin, gazetta print, Dominque's silk scarves - it was set to go! ....However, I resigned my role in early '17, and I thought it had sunk without trace @villa-ru has shed some light, that it did progress down the pipe, but not to commercial....

I knew it was a great product - So simple, so many use cases, and so accessible. At the heart was my ambition to allow more people to enjoy more riding in more comfort. A mutual friend introduced me to Albion after a textile show, we got talking, immediately got it, and maybe 6 months later, the Burner was launched. We subsequently worked together on some pop-up weekends (thanks for those that popped in!), and had a lot of fun doing things like repairs and maker workshops. It's frustrating this has been put on ice by current restrictions, really enjoyed doing these.

....it's been brilliant seeing the Burner come to life and being used all over, especially professional riders on ultra-races, Classics, and Grand Tours. In July '19 we received this message from a Pro rider, mid-Tour, after a HC stage, which blew me away;

"Just wanted to say thanks for the quilt!! It's been awesome through the Pyrenees last week. It's so easy to put on and fold in on itself at the bottom, it's genius. And it really puts your mind at easy that you don't rist getting sick by the cold wind on the descent!! Thank you so much"

Was brilliant to receive because it had achieved what we'd set out to do - improve the ability to concentrate on (and enjoy!) riding. Similarly, hope this does the same for everyone - allows more enjoyment of riding in comfort, whatever you're up to :)

*The working title of 'chest pillow' stuck, and I knew it wasn't right as soon as we were saying it - it was really hard to come up with anything else. We struggled for ages, but it came to me out the blue, and knew it was bang on. A play on my name, but something easy, accessible ...and warming! Haha, staring me in the face - Perfect!