How my daughter’s desire to have a new “old” bike gave me insight into an alternative form of innovation

How my daughter’s desire to have a new “old” bike gave me insight into an alternative form of innovation

Vintage is the thing

Vintage is THE thing at the moment in my house. I have a teenage daughter who seems to be intent on making our house a shrine to all things old. Of course old means anything pre 1990’s which makes me feel pretty vintage too.

Recently she has been desperate to get her hands on a “new” bike. The “old” one with twin suspension, 18 gears, disc brakes and aluminium wheels has now been replaced with a new one that to my eye appears to have been designed in the 1920’s.

It turns out it was.

The Pashley Bicycle Factory

The Pashley bicycle factory is located not far from where I live in the heart of William Shakespeare's Stratford Upon Avon. It is a fair statement to say that they are the purveyors of high quality hand made push bikes whose design is pretty RETRO.

The company was founded in 1926 by William ‘Rath’ Pashley who was a World War One dispatch rider. The business originally built its reputation making carrier bikes for companies like Wall’s ice cream and the post office. They are hand made and robust. A version was so tough it was licensed by Landrover another local and iconic tough bit of machinery.

My daughter's interest of course comes from the current hipster fashion for Edwardian style memorabilia. Celebrities such as Ewan McGregor, Helena Bonham Carter and Keeley Hawes have been seen regularly riding their Pashley’s around the hipper parts of London.

As well as the celebrity patronage, there are high profile customers such as a Savile Row tailor, high class London estate agents and Pret A Manger use these classic bicycles to further augment the sense of quality.

It seems that people with a Pashley love them with a passion.

Communities of interest surround their use such as the official My Pashley element of their website or the Guvnors Assembly

I find that at times my thinking can be confined to thinking that innovation needs to be shiny and new to be considered modern. My daughter's interest shows me that that the folks at Pashley have shown, innovation need not just be.

Pashley’s innovation has been to make a bicycle a style statement.

They have realised that a core feature of their product is a quintessentially British quality. Innovations around rationalising production would so easily have jeopardised the image so carefully crafted.

Their innovation has been to capitalise and build upon their community and customer service.

If you liked this

I hope that you have found this article of interest.. If you did then I have written more ideas with techniques to make your innovations punch above their weight. I call my book Innovation Muscle. Its a short sharp read as to how you and your team can innovate fresh powerful ideas. Using these processes you will be able to create ideas that punch above their weight.

You can download my book by clicking here: INNOVATION MUSCLE

Anyone purchasing the book will receive not one, but TWO FREE mini e-books that are supplied directly as PDF files to your inbox. These can be distributed to you team when starting a new project or used simply to sanity check your existing processes.

Until next time 

Paul