Top gear for Brick Lane’s biker boys

A new cycle/style collaboration by H&M and BLB will take you from bike to bar, says Jasmine Gardner
1/4
26 February 2013

We hardly need more proof that London’s cycling heart is in the east. Still, we’ve got some. Brick Lane Bikes (on, erm, Bethnal Green Road) is an undisputed hub of that bike culture and has long been known for custom-building extremely good-looking bikes (and good-performing, natch). It may be a trendy independent, but (like most of east London’s good bike spots) that clearly hasn’t kept it under the radar and it has now caught the attention of a multinational. In other words, H&M has been on the blower, asking for a piece of BLB.

The result is a collaboration — a pop- up shop at the back of BLB selling a range of cycle clothing designed for the bike shop by H&M. Think check shirts (£29.95), water-repellent jackets (£79.95), stretchy chinos (£24.95), caps (£9.95) and shorts with loops to hold your lock (£24.95). It’s H&M’s effort to mimic the cycle style already prevalent in Hackney and Tower Hamlets, with BLB testing out the kit to check it works just as well on the bike as in the pub.

The clothes go on sale at BLB and in H&M shops on March 7 and at first glance I’m going to predict the popularity of the quilted shirt (£39.95) over the orange-striped racer T-shirt (£19.95), but that’s just a wild guess. If it sells well, we’re bound to see more collaborations in which the big guys go east. So what next? The bike shop 14 Bike Co does a Hermès saddle bag or cycle café Look Mum No Hands does pedal-friendly Louboutins? Don’t forget who gave you the idea, folks.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in