Tuesday Treats 70: trail 42

Your once a week dose of retail therapy from Singletrack’s Premier Dealers, stockists and advertisers.

Tuesday Treats gives you a quality serving of independent bike retailing and a chance to win big in this week’s prize draw.

This week, we introduce: trail 42.

Today’s Tuesday Treats brings you something washing machine fresh: a brand spanking new British clothing brand. Rich and Ruth at trail 42 spill the beans…

Trail 42 is an ethical mountain biking clothing company, born out of a frustration at not being able to find the stuff we liked on the market. We surveyed over 350 mountain bikers and from their shared experiences brought together some core themes which we are now working to deliver.

What sits at the core of your business?

We try to pay attention to the detail, our packaging and hangers are made from recycled paper & cardboard, our shop displays are made of wood, we use acid-free tissue paper and ecologically safe water based inks for printing our clothing. We try to ensure our products are not made by small children in far flung places but by staff, being paid a proper wage. Although it’s really important to us we don’t try to make a big thing about it because we want people to buy our products because they like them and because they work.

What’s the riding like on your doorstep, how do you link up with the local riding scene?

We are mountain bikers, so riding straight from our door step is a reality; into the local woods or we can travel for less than 30 minutes and get to the Forest of Dean, Cwmcarn and Ashton Court. We are keen to work with local businesses and have already established good working relationships with our local trail builders and some independent bike shops.

We have some trail specific tech-t’s in our ‘love a trail’ range and we give 5% of every sale back to local volunteer groups to help them build and maintain the trails. We are currently working to expand this range.

How did you get started?

We only launched our online shop in July this year and there have been some fantastic people in the industry who have given up their time and expertise to help us get started and of course it’s never too early to send a big thank you to all our existing and future customers. It’s lovely now that we’re moving forwards to say thank you to everyone who is helped us get started in the first place.

How can we find out more about trail 42’s future plans?

Everyone can keep up to date with how we are getting on and get access to some great offers by signing up for our newsletter which can be found on our website. We’re keenly involved over on Facebook and Twitter. We’ve also just updated our ‘press’ section on our site so you can see what the reaction has been like to our product launches.

Is there a regular shop ride or forthcoming event you think our readers should know about?

We love being outside, having an adventure. Next year we are linking up with Red Kite Events and will be doing a tech-t for them so look out for our event tent and pop over and say hi. We will also be at the Daisy Chain Bike Events in May. Locally Ruth rides with [local women’s riding group] Bikellas in Bristol on Tuesday evenings (promoted through @CyclingForGirls).

Lastly, remind us. What do Singletrack Premier Subscribers get from you guys?

For Singletrack readers specifically we are running a limited offer, leading up to the festive period (until 31st December 2013) ‘Buy one of our Post Ride Hoodies with £15.00 off. The perfect festive gift for you mountain bikers out there. Just use this promo code at the checkout…

Tuesday Treats Prize Draw

Click here to win this week’s prize!