Launched in Febuary 2016, Vélosophy is a Swedish bicycle company with a difference. Founded by Jimmy Östholm and designed with Olof Dimdag, their bicycles feature aluminium frames accented by brightly coloured wheels, handlebars, and saddles. Östholm has said that the design and colour of the bike’s are meant to inspire happiness by looking like a bunch of tulip’s and are available in yellow, green, orange, blue and purple
The bicycles come in two editions; sport and comfort. Both are an aluminium city commuter equipped with alloy fenders, anti-rust chain and a smooth-shifting 3-speed integrated hub from Sram. The Sport however is slightly lighter at 12.3kg rather than 12.8kg and the seating position is a little bit more forward leaning than on the Comfort Edition, the saddle a little bit more narrow and the chain guard sleek and lightweight.
While the sleek design is already enough to tempt you to buy, Vélosophy has something even better up their sleeve. The need for more bicycles in the developing world is an estimated 80 million bikes. So they’ve decided to make a ‘One for One’ promise with UNICEF, whereby every time a bicycle is purchased another one will be donated to a young schoolgirl in Ghana.
Vélosophy’s ideology is that “a bike stands for so much more than just a way to move forward in style. Bicycles actually empower women and girls increase attendance in school with almost 30% and their results with nearly 60% when they have access to a bike of their own – that’s why we donate bicycles to young girls. And this is why when you buy a Vélosophy you are so much more than just a customer – because you are actually the good guy, making a social footprint.”
For more information visit the Vélosophy website.