Durable, responsive, hard as nails…
Stique Limited is a British cycling accessories business based near Cannock Chase.
Our team is made up of cycling enthusiasts, design junkies and manufacturing obsessives. Everything we sell is made in the industrial heartland of England, mainly in Cannock but also from Sheffield down to Worcester.
We come up with ideas, we design and engineer them, prototype them and then test our new products in the French Alps, on sportives in Britain, following The Dog and The Monkey on the (Cannock) Chase, and cyclo-crossing our way round the fields and tracks of the Midlands. We've also cycled to work on the busy streets of London, so we have an idea of cyclists' needs.
Our mission is to disrupt, to challenge and yet to please. We plan to do this by thinking hard(-er?) about what cycling accessories are really all about; how they're really used, not how manufacturers think they should be used.
But we don't just want our products to be useful: we want them to feel and look good too. So we spend time thinking about these aspects when we're designing them.
With backgrounds in design, manufacturing and sourcing, we're also business people. And we make it our business to manufacture our products in the UK. Why? Because we've done the extended supply-chain stuff and we feel it doesn't offer the flexibility, the consistency of quality and the speed of change that we need.
The idea that 'low cost' manufacturing is only available outside of the West is, we feel, an outdated view of the world. With lean manufacturing and compressed supply chains, we believe the West can deliver innovation and quality in half the time, and at no additional cost when the whole process is considered.
Why 'Stique?
Our name comes from the love of the bicycle, a thirst to break new ground for bike riders, and the sweat, toil and sacrifice personified by the legendary domestiques.
Road bike, mountain bike, cyclocross or urban – we don’t care, as long as we’re busting a gut to support your ride.
Summer Recap and Two New Faces in the Office
The summer of 2018 has been one to remember for GB cycling; Geraint Thomas powered past Froome - another Brit - to win the Tour de France, Simon Yates looks like he’s about to take the crown at La Vuelta, and, for us mere mortals, the frankly disconcerting levels of British sunshine meant that Strava leaderboards were busier and more competitive than ever.
But, as always, the summer bliss draws to a steady close and, unless you’ve decided to try your chances as a pro, the darkening evenings signal your return to work. Indeed, here at Stique, September marks the arrival of two new faces, Piers and myself.
Piers, a born-and-bred West-Midlander, is nothing short of a bike boffin and has been working in the industry for over 10 years with the likes of Evans, Swinnerton, and Birmingham City Cycles. Despite brushing his teeth with WD40 and wearing a SRAM X1 11-speed chain round his neck, Piers is a nice, friendly bloke with a whole lot to offer.
Having recently graduated from Aston Uni with an BSc in Product Design and Management, he is now very well-versed in the art of product design (funnily enough) and his final year project — a road bike designed “for the consumer and not the rules & regs of the UCI” — is testament to his ability to marry such skills with extensive industry insight.
Unlike Piers, however, I have been part of the Stique journey since Day 1 as it was my old man who came home one evening with the idea of a ‘Multilever’ back in 2014. Initially drafted in on the Kickstarter campaign, where I was responsible for branding, social media, and everything in-between, I have continued to help out in various ways but am now stepping up to the proverbial plate as the man at the proverbial wheel — or handlebars.
Having done freelance branding throughout my time at uni as well as a couple of stints at established branding/marketing agencies, I’m hoping to add further creative flair to the business. My recently acquired degree in French and Business should also come in handy as we begin to conquer the other side of the Channel. French distributors, anyone?!
So, while autumn typically represents a slowing of pace, us two new young’uns are hoping to pump some fresh vigour and energy back into the Stique brand which, for various reasons, has been lacking over the past year or so. We’re excited about the challenge ahead and look forward to getting the wheels rolling at this year’s NEC Cycle Show, which is now just a fortnight away. If you’re interested in coming but less interested in paying for a ticket, head over to our social media to see how you can get yourself a free one. Until then!