Each Bike Courier, in a big city, moves on average between 4 and 5 quintals of goods per day; we are talking, by a wide margin, about more than 40 tonnes per year.
Behind these numbers is an economic, urban planning, environmental and even cultural issue: the Bike Messengers no longer represent a niche phenomenon limited to the most avant-garde cities, but a reality with a noticeable impact on sustainability, mobility and the economy of large and medium-sized urban spaces.
It is from here, from the increasing importance that these realities have for cities, that the new ‘Selle Royal Support Bike Couriers’ project was born.
Selle Royal, consistent with its mission as a ‘Support Cyclists’ brand, has always been attentive to positioning itself also as a cultural subject and to flanking saddles with projects aimed at ‘supporting’ mobility on two wheels and urban cycling. It has therefore chosen to support Bike Couriers to once again put itself at the service of those who use bicycles to help improve life in the city and beyond.
From Copenhagen to Milan, from Nantes to Berlin and Bruxelles: there are five cities and countries from which the project started, with the intention of eventually involving groups of Bike Messengers throughout Europe and beyond.
So what is ‘Selle Royal Support Bike Couriers’ today?
It is first and foremost a network, a network project offering the Messengers a cultural and business opportunity, but also concrete support in the form of visibility, marketing activities and participation in events; all groups have also received various models of saddles, such as Lookin Evo and On, for their cargo bikes. As a first step, in 2023, Selle Royal produced a photographic reportage dedicated to the Milan BiciCourier cyclists and published it in one of the most popular Italian magazines, thus promoting awareness of this world and offering the Milanese reality a concrete opportunity for promotion.
In the future, ‘Selle Royal Support Bike Couriers’ also wants to become a platform to offer partners a privileged channel to develop new projects and propose initiatives, sponsorships, and ideas to Selle Royal that are consistent with the project and brand values.
The company can make available not only tools, but also the expertise of its team to support Messenger companies.
‘Support Cyclists’ is in fact a slogan that goes far beyond marketing: it means believing in a system of values, in the idea that bicycles make people’s lives better.
The companies involved in this first phase are:
Milan BiciCourier
Copenhagen By-Expressen
Urbike Bruxelles
Nantes BiciCourier
Cosmo Berlin
The choice was made on the basis of a search throughout Europe assessing the focus on sustainability, the business model, which is attentive to the quality of life of cyclists, a strong presence within local communities and, last but not least, a strong passion for cycling in all its forms.
The project also serves as an invitation for other entities active in this world to join, to make the network even stronger and more effective.
