Up next in 10
Ian, Vice-president of Research and Design at 7mesh, talking about the brand and all that is exciting about fabric. Honestly, if you're the kind of person that likes to geek out over bike tech, then you should watch it - there's as much thought goes into the clothes on your body as the components on your bike.
Read the full article here: https://singletrackworld.com/2018/07/we-bet-you-didnt-know-there-was-this-much-to-know-about-fabric-an-interview-with-7mesh/
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0:00
so hello and I am here with Ian from 7
0:04
mesh and in spends quite a lot of time
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in behind a sewing machine that's true
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so first of all just in case people
0:14
watching haven't heard of 7 mesh do you
0:16
want to just give us a little bit of
0:17
background on what where the company
0:20
came from and what you're about yeah
0:22
absolutely so we started 7 mesh in 2013
0:26
but our first launch collection was in
0:28
2015 so we've been in the market for
0:31
about three and a half years now we came
0:36
from an outdoor background doesn't any
0:39
outdoor apparel and hard goods and
0:41
things like that and yeah we decided
0:46
that we you know we're all riders we've
0:48
been riding for a long time we just
0:50
thought there was an opportunity to do
0:51
something really different in cycling
0:53
and elevate the level of apparel and the
0:57
technical apparel within that space um I
1:00
think for people in the UK watching that
1:03
they'll be interested to hear that you
1:04
come from somewhere that is very similar
1:06
weather to the UK that's true so we were
1:09
based in Squamish British Columbia I
1:11
don't know if I would call the weather
1:13
similar but it's equally wet
1:17
it's definitely equally wet I would
1:19
argue that the UK is a little rainy all
1:23
the time not all the time but it has
1:26
intermittent rain quite frequently
1:28
whereas BC we just get I mean we get
1:31
three months of horrible horrible rain
1:33
where it's just like every single day is
1:36
raining hard and so it's it's relentless
1:40
you haven't been to the UK or the north
1:43
of the UK in the winter then because
1:44
that is what it's like I could see that
1:47
I grew I did grow up in Newfoundland so
1:49
it's got also horrible weather so that
1:53
is a good background then to go into
1:55
outdoor apparel and apparel that is
1:58
going to be useful in I think he said
2:02
he's kind of started out with you've got
2:04
seven our staff or in the beginning
2:07
anyway like seven our way you look out
2:08
the window you know what the words can
2:10
be like and then you've got seven day
2:11
wear
2:13
so when we started seven mesh one of the
2:16
things we're having the biggest problem
2:17
with was we were kind of arguing about
2:20
what we should make so what should be
2:21
our product range what should we what
2:23
part of you know which part should we
2:24
make sure we make a Jersey should make a
2:25
tech T where should it where should it
2:27
fall in between what it came down to for
2:31
us actually came down to fit and that
2:34
sounds kind of weird but excuse me it
2:37
wasn't about riding a road bike and it
2:39
wasn't about riding a mountain bike
2:40
because everyone in each territory wears
2:43
different things it came down to just
2:45
people ride bikes and some people ride
2:47
fast they want tighter fitting things
2:50
some people ride slower or they want
2:53
more features and they want to wear
2:55
different things depending on what they
2:56
they're doing but there's so much
2:58
crossover in cycling but we tend to put
3:00
clothing into these little pecks like it
3:02
has to be a super sport race road thing
3:05
or it has to be a mountain bike enduro
3:08
freeride thing you know like and so it
3:10
gets put in these little boxes and then
3:12
no one's really sure what they should
3:14
buy so we we organized it in our brains
3:17
by 7:00 hour and 7 day and so 7 day was
3:20
like it's got versatility I'm gonna go
3:23
do a cycling trip in Europe say and I
3:26
need a jacket that I can wear both on
3:27
and off the bike I want hand pockets I
3:29
want Vince I want breathability
3:31
associated with it
3:33
I could still wear that same jacket cuz
3:34
it's got the looser fit mountain biking
3:37
you know because it kind of has more
3:38
versatility it's got more durability
3:39
associated with it 7 7 hour is like it's
3:44
done in a day it's light and it's fast I
3:46
know exactly what I'm gonna do for that
3:49
day so you know wake up in the morning
3:50
I'm gonna go for a ride for a couple
3:52
hours I'm like it is raining today and
3:53
I'm gonna do a road ride I'm gonna take
3:56
off my bike and do that that could still
3:58
be the same say if it's a jacket for
4:00
like an outerwear piece that could be
4:02
the same jacket I'm gonna wear on a
4:04
cross-country mountain bike race that's
4:07
gonna go really fast and the weather is
4:09
horrible you know the same piece would
4:10
apply I'm still gonna want to be tighter
4:12
fitting and we want a little bit
4:13
aerodynamic and I still don't need a
4:15
high level of breathability with the
4:16
output so that's kind of where we
4:18
through the categories and that gave us
4:20
a rough framework or where things should
4:22
fit in so in some ways there
4:26
is really it's been really interesting
4:28
to see people's progression with our
4:30
brand and our product range and we'll
4:31
have people come in and be like look at
4:33
the product they've never seen it before
4:35
never heard of us and they'll go oh this
4:37
is great Road biking stuff oh my gosh I
4:39
can't I can't believe how good this is
4:40
and then literally the next half an hour
4:43
15 minutes you have someone come in and
4:45
they'll say oh my gosh this is great
4:47
mountain biking stuff holy smokes it's
4:48
great you have someone come in oh I'm
4:50
gonna buy this for my grab a bike and we
4:52
never once say it's a mountain bike
4:53
piece or a road piece and that's been
4:55
somewhat confusing but also really
4:57
interesting to see how people use bikes
5:00
in different areas and how they how they
5:02
view themselves as riders within that
5:05
apparel category so it's a bit of a
5:07
social experiment at this point in time
5:09
but it's been it's been quite good yeah
5:12
so yeah you said you started with the
5:15
perspective of a fit and functionality
5:17
for that fit so you want to talk a
5:19
little bit about some of the kind of key
5:23
areas in the pattern and how you go
5:25
about designing it totally so um you
5:29
know for us you know we're very hands-on
5:32
design organization so you know
5:34
everything we do is we build all our own
5:37
patterns all our own prototypes
5:39
everything in-house so and I think
5:41
there's there's a lot of value in the
5:43
process of going through that you know
5:45
some people are like oh we'll get a
5:47
sample so err and they can sew a product
5:50
for you and speed up your efficiency and
5:51
all those things and I actually think
5:52
there's a ton of benefit for the person
5:54
who's actually working on the style
5:56
creating the pattern understanding how
5:59
that fabrics working understanding how
6:00
the fabric works with the pattern
6:02
understanding where it's not working and
6:04
then being able to make those changes so
6:06
the time it takes for someone to sew a
6:08
pro garment it's really really important
6:11
and I really should always say like you
6:13
know our backgrounds at Arc'teryx and
6:15
they've got a very interesting design
6:16
process as well I don't know if that's
6:19
changed in the last five or six years
6:20
since since we haven't been there but
6:24
you know when I started working there it
6:26
was very much there was a standard that
6:28
was kind of set that you needed to so
6:31
your prototypes at a very very high
6:33
level and the factory because we had our
6:36
own factory at the time
6:37
it should take them at least a couple
6:40
hundred products in the factory to get
6:42
to your level of execution and so that
6:45
was a lot of pressure for people to be
6:47
able to so to a certain level and be
6:49
able to to execute with that I
6:52
definitely wouldn't pass so it takes a
6:56
long time so and you know you make lots
6:58
of mistakes and you have lots of
7:00
prototypes don't work and we go through
7:02
quite a few so you know if every product
7:03
we design you know we might if it's a
7:07
just a quick version that we're doing of
7:09
something else you might be you know
7:11
three to five samples we might make and
7:13
then once we have it done in its
7:14
entirety we'll send that to our partner
7:17
factory and then they'll produce the
7:19
first counter sample at a factory some
7:21
styles are more complex and we might do
7:23
thirty samples you know or we might not
7:25
really have dialed what it is but you
7:28
know typically in that design process
7:29
it's it starts with a fabric and you
7:32
usually solve it starts with a problem
7:34
that we're trying to solve so for
7:37
example you're you're trying to either
7:40
make it the government more dry or
7:42
you're trying to make it breathe better
7:44
or you're trying to make it more
7:46
versatile and usually there's different
7:49
characteristics in each one of these
7:50
fabrics that are going to make that work
7:53
really really well and work better so
7:56
you're always trying to source new yarns
7:58
new ways of looking at those fabrics
8:01
you're using knits and some applications
8:04
using woven's and others and there's you
8:07
know really big performance differences
8:08
between all those different things yes I
8:10
don't think I appreciated that there's
8:13
more to it than its gore-tex and it's
8:17
you know the right color and it's cut
8:19
right like you were explaining this
8:23
morning about the other different
8:25
properties of fabrics and then how you
8:27
can mix the yarns and the weaves and
8:29
stuff to me that's that was really
8:32
interesting but it also explains there's
8:36
a lot more thought goes into a product
8:38
design than just you know grab some
8:40
lycra and stitch it together absolutely
8:41
and so like you know one of the things
8:43
people don't understand is that you know
8:44
like the cycling industry is you know
8:48
it's been around for a really long time
8:49
rooted in history it's got this
8:51
wonderful beautiful history associated
8:53
with it and you know ever since the
8:56
early to mid 70s
8:59
people have been printing on on jerseys
9:02
and that's been a lot of but it's been
9:04
really race focused you know you need
9:05
your sponsor logos on them and this kind
9:07
of thing so but what's happened over
9:09
time is these fabrics look all PFP
9:13
fabrics so they're generally they're
9:14
polyesters there are some nylons you can
9:16
print on but it's a more complex process
9:18
and they're what they call pfu so it's
9:20
prepared for print and so if you are
9:24
looking for PFP fabrics your scope of
9:27
what you're looking for all of a sudden
9:28
narrows dramatically so you have instead
9:31
of having this many fabrics to choose
9:32
from and select you now have this many
9:35
to choose from so automatically just by
9:38
deciding from the get-go I need to print
9:40
on the fabric you have now limited the
9:42
scope of what you can do technically
9:44
with the textile so that's that's come
9:47
through history and cycling and what's
9:50
also happened is people have introduced
9:52
lycra since the early to you know early
9:55
70s mid 70s somewhere in there I think
9:57
I've people seeing people wearing that
9:59
original line crack yeah that could be
10:01
it could be like risk of a shelf life so
10:03
I gotta watch out for that but you know
10:06
those materials are essentially
10:08
polyurethane elastomers Paul your thing
10:11
is is hydrophilic so it absorbs water so
10:17
you'll get a lot of water pick up
10:19
comparatively speaking to polyesters or
10:21
nylons in that polyurethane yarn or
10:25
fiber and so that that will inherently
10:28
have a lot of moisture you know
10:30
everyone's have felt a lycra Jersey pick
10:33
up on with really high like your content
10:34
you're like what kind of feels cold
10:35
we're Dan and that's because it
10:37
literally soaks up a ton of water so
10:40
that's great and that that goes into fit
10:43
you know like they if you're looking at
10:45
someone on you're trying to make a
10:46
garment really aerodynamic for example
10:49
the easiest way to make it really
10:53
aerodynamic is to shrink it and you just
10:55
make it smaller and smaller and there's
10:57
a lot of research and education goes in
10:59
these time-trial suits so I'm not I'm
11:01
not
11:01
we should point out it doesn't
11:03
necessarily make the person inside any
11:04
smaller does it yeah it's either faster
11:07
you're fat or you feel fast or you feel
11:10
fat
11:10
so there's definitely something to be
11:12
said for that in that depends on which
11:15
day you're riding I'm sure so those
11:18
materials are are really interesting but
11:21
if you just keep shrinking the garment
11:22
you're not necessarily patterning the
11:25
government into the correct position so
11:26
you know a bike is a really tough
11:29
position to just line clothing for your
11:32
you have to try it on in the change room
11:33
and it has to feel really good not to
11:35
tighten the chest and all these things
11:36
and then you've got to go into a riding
11:38
position bring your arms for it and
11:39
inherently that just makes the front of
11:41
the garment sag and bag out so what
11:45
people might feel really good standing
11:47
upright in doesn't necessarily work on
11:49
the bike so you've got to kind of
11:50
educate consumers that
11:52
hey it's tighten the chest so that it's
11:54
fits perfectly on the bike and you've
11:57
got to kind of like work with that so
11:58
you know we don't we don't not use lycra
12:02
but we try to avoid it when we're making
12:04
a garment you know that's a technical
12:07
garment then we're trying to manage
12:08
moisture with it so we have quite a few
12:11
different jerseys that have no lycra in
12:13
them and we're using techniques where
12:15
you're mechanically spinning yarns and
12:17
then unspinning them so they become like
12:19
little Springs and then that allows
12:21
those yarns to stretch and then bounce
12:24
back without having you know a urine or
12:28
fiber in there that absorbs a tonne of
12:29
water and so you know you're using those
12:31
in different applications and in
12:32
different areas so and we also try to
12:33
pattern the garment even if i've said
12:36
jersey instead of just shrinking it and
12:37
adding liker to it so that it's it works
12:40
really really well in those riding
12:41
positions and then bottoms on the
12:44
contrast have a huge challenge I mean
12:46
you're trying to pattern them not so
12:49
they look really good when you're
12:49
standing up you want to do it so your
12:51
legs are moving so we pattern everything
12:53
into sort of this articulated position
12:55
where they're articulated the waist if
12:58
they have knees that have to that's a
12:59
whole other challenge if you're doing
13:01
tights or leggings and we've got a whole
13:03
series of pants stuff we're working on
13:05
for next season that have it's really
13:07
really hard to solve those problems so
13:09
really if we want to buy some seven mesh
13:12
we should be trying it on interchanging
13:14
like on a turbo trainer or something
13:15
shouldn't we say need to assume the
13:19
position which you know this question of
13:21
all but that's that's the term we
13:23
generally kind of use and it's really
13:24
important and you know a couple of
13:26
companies have done like change room
13:27
posters to try to teach people how to do
13:29
that and it is really really important
13:31
for people to make sure the try on
13:33
cycling clothing make sure it fits
13:35
really well on the bike
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