A visit to the Assos headquarters
11. Jul ’14
General
As most of you know we have a close cooperation with Assos in Switzerland. We have partnered up for the Cape Epic in South Africa and for some photo shooting and press camps during the year.
Lately I had the chance to visit their headquarter in the beautiful Ticino (south part of Switzerland).
I have to say, I have rarely seen a company in the bike business that is so dedicated to innovation and quality. When you see how many samples they are making of a product before it goes into production and how many hours the fabric spends on test machines, then you understand also why this premium product has its price.
Assos has also two employed testers that ride half a day (nice job by the way). Daniele and Luca both ex professionals where also part of the Epic team. When you make the tour in the R&D department you start to understand how this company is focused to the very last small detail. If the R&D department is 10 times bigger than the finance and administration department then its very obvious where the focus is. All clothing produced outside of Switzerland is still quality controlled in Switzerland. I am sure that every CFO of another company would have cut those expenses right away. Also if you crash with your Assos kit then you can have it repaired in Switzerland by Assos employees. This is not only very customer friendly but very sustainable.
Assos history dates back to the 70’s. In fact it starts with an aero bike. While working on the aero bike in the wind tunnel (ok today that’s a standard but back then nobody did it) it became very obvious that the aerodynamic position and the rider itself are much more important than tube shapes of the bike.
They also measured that the woolen pants and jersey’s that were the standard back then, have very bad aerodynamics. So they started to look into alternative materials. That’s when the first lycra short was born and from then on Assos set the standard in short design and clothing in general.
If you are ever down in the Ticino go and visit their beautiful showroom. Also if you are not planning to buy something I am sure that you can not resist in doing so once you are there. And there is always a good chance that you run into some famous cyclist that lives and trains down there and just stops for a quick coffee in the Mangayio flagship store. I was lucky and just saw Alberto Contador riding by that day.
Lately I had the chance to visit their headquarter in the beautiful Ticino (south part of Switzerland).
I have to say, I have rarely seen a company in the bike business that is so dedicated to innovation and quality. When you see how many samples they are making of a product before it goes into production and how many hours the fabric spends on test machines, then you understand also why this premium product has its price.
Assos has also two employed testers that ride half a day (nice job by the way). Daniele and Luca both ex professionals where also part of the Epic team. When you make the tour in the R&D department you start to understand how this company is focused to the very last small detail. If the R&D department is 10 times bigger than the finance and administration department then its very obvious where the focus is. All clothing produced outside of Switzerland is still quality controlled in Switzerland. I am sure that every CFO of another company would have cut those expenses right away. Also if you crash with your Assos kit then you can have it repaired in Switzerland by Assos employees. This is not only very customer friendly but very sustainable.
Assos history dates back to the 70’s. In fact it starts with an aero bike. While working on the aero bike in the wind tunnel (ok today that’s a standard but back then nobody did it) it became very obvious that the aerodynamic position and the rider itself are much more important than tube shapes of the bike.
They also measured that the woolen pants and jersey’s that were the standard back then, have very bad aerodynamics. So they started to look into alternative materials. That’s when the first lycra short was born and from then on Assos set the standard in short design and clothing in general.
If you are ever down in the Ticino go and visit their beautiful showroom. Also if you are not planning to buy something I am sure that you can not resist in doing so once you are there. And there is always a good chance that you run into some famous cyclist that lives and trains down there and just stops for a quick coffee in the Mangayio flagship store. I was lucky and just saw Alberto Contador riding by that day.
