An antidote to chaos, Vitti Cycling shuns scale for style

Stand for something or stand for nothing. Of several well-articulated answers lobbed at me during a recent Hangout with photographer, designer and entrepreneur, Guido Vitti, this is the most memorable.

Memorable because it could be a Rule for Life, added to twelve others in a book of the same name. A guide to navigating a chaotic time in life and in modern design. It hangs in the air with the same effect. In reality, however, it’s just good advice given to him a long time ago; a principle that drives much of his work.

Vitti Cycling has taken its time crafting an image that is carefully curated on their Instagram. It is getting noticed. After shooting for big brands for two decades, he and partners now have their sights set on building their own, stitching together a kit co. that reflects interests rooted in research, careful sourcing, and manufacturing that ignores repetitive design, focusing instead on the classicism commonly associated with cycling’s post-war golden age.

“I’ve always wanted to bring my art and my aesthetic to what we see is a very repetitive marketplace,” he explains. “Ours is design birthed from a moment in time so often romanticized with all the benefits modern manufacturing can yield.”

Italian backroads are the backdrop for the company’s mood boards and the narrative from which they hope to create a cycling brand. Why would you make bibs anywhere else that looks like everything else, they say?

After their soft-launch last September, Vitti is getting ready to ramp up again this Spring. Their first full year in biz will see it add cold weather kit to the shop by Autumn. Over the winter, they’ve been busy building a narrative that will slowly drip throughout the year - a story intended to remind people why they ride. “Cycling lends focus which then lets me focus on my life,” Vitti explains. “That’s what’s so intoxicating about riding. What we see in the market doesn’t necessarily reflect that and other elements we’re passionate about.”

The cycling kit market is a crowded one, he admits, but their intent is never to be the brand of the moment. The next juggernaut. They just want to offer their stuff to people who ride at the exclusion of everything else. The noise and gradation that is dominant today can be done differently, they believe. A vision that sits at the crossroads of cycling’s past and present.

“Not to be flippant, but I really don’t care much what other companies are doing. Our kit is made for riding, for people who love cycling and who are modern-minded. That’s where we’re hoping we can make our bones in this industry.”

Taking on giants can be an impossible thing. Vitti, instead, will double-down in 2020 on casting its unique aesthetic out into the world. Probably a little riding, too. Kit review to follow.