The Cyclist Raincoat Taking Amsterdam By Storm

I have been working on the design of Cyclist Raincoat sporadically for around four years and it all started as a commission for my friend’s bike brand Erenpreiss. One version to another, the coat was shortlisted for the Muji Design Awards in 2014 and was going to start appearing in stores by September 2015. At the last minute, Muji decided to pull out, but their interest gave me enough confidence to continue with the design. This shaped the identity and the vision of senscommon.

I believe that apparel design should embrace technically advanced materials and techniques. Personally, I am against low-quality, fast-fashion, and think that, durable, versatile textiles are the way forward. For me, laser-cutting, seam welding/taping, and 3D knitting should no longer be an experiment or a decoration. They should be the standard, leading to more comfortable, performant, products that are compatible with modern life.
As Cyclist Raincoat combines aspects of fashionable streetwear and cycling apparel, perfecting its silhouette was particularly challenging. To get to the point where both worlds met took serious work, and every small aesthetic change had to be tested on a bike to ensure that it didn’t effect the coat’s performance. It was quite a ping-pong match.

I like to think that senscommon is creating a new market between the niche techwear created by Nike ACG, Y-3, or Acronym and Muji, or Uniqlo’s functional clothing. Cyclist Raincoat is an affordable techwear item that delivers maximum performance, while keeping to a basic, minimalistic design.

Over the course of 30 days Kickstarter allowed senscommon to interact directly with customers, pre-sell the product and conduct market research, all at once. I cannot imagine being able to gather as many contacts, feedback and collaboration offers if we had launched the product using traditional methods. Participating in shows or exhibitions would have definitely taken us a year, if not more.

Cycle around neighborhoods featuring Amsterdam School architecture. Go to Hotel Droog’s design store and eat at a ramen place on the 5th floor of a Chinese supermarket. Then, take in a brewery tour, ending the day at De School’s restaurant and club.

We want our product to be well represented overseas and we are currently looking for suitable distributors in Japan, Canada and the U.S.A. Cyclist Raincoat is already available on our web-store, and we plan to use this site as our main platform- allowing us to communicate our vision while offering our products.
We have several ideas on paper, but are going to wait until Cyclist Raincoat has found its feet before committing to a new project. We want to approach apparel using processes drawn from furniture design; spending time perfecting a single product and only releasing it when it is truly ready.