Headlight Journal

Cycling
by Heart

Portrait
Pas Normal Studios

It started with a bike ride seven years ago, and last year the turnover exceeded 100 million DKK (€14m). Pas Normal Studios makes cycling wear and has experienced explosive growth since its startup. The guiding principle in everything – products, development, recruiting, and building the company – has, from the very beginning, been a passion. But how do you put something so emotional into practice? Headlight Journal met the two founders Peter Lange and Karl-Oskar Olsen to ask them.

Words by Mads Lange
Photos by Adam Katz Sinding

’Pas Normal’ is what they call the company. Pronounced in French without the ’s’. Currently, they are preparing to move their headquarters from the inner city of Copenhagen to the new district Nordhavn – the largest metropolitan development project in Scandinavia and a hot-spot of modern architecture and design.

When we meet, Peter and Karl-Oskar are in their office looking at the plans. The new headquarters is designed and furnished from top to bottom specifically for the localities. The style is functional, welcoming, and cool - Scandinavian meets Japanese. The development and design have taken a year. The new headquarters is multifunctional. In addition to offices, conference rooms, common areas, and business spaces it includes a flagship store and a café with outdoor seating where you can hang out after a bike ride. For the employees, there's a bike storage and an annex with training facilities where you can cycle, run, or do CrossFit. Or hold a virtual group ride on Zwift on exercise bikes. The new headquarters oozes cycling. It’s not just a place. It’s a meeting point that serves many purposes.

It’s obvious you’ve put in a lot of work planning your new headquarters. What were your thoughts behind it?

Peter: “We want to create a modern, active workplace that reflects our lifestyle and goes hand in hand with the DNA of our brand, our corporate culture, our passion for cycling, and our attitude towards inclusion of employees, customers, and partners. Our HQ will be a connecting point where all these elements meet and blend. We want to be close to our community. It’s possible for us to create this now due to our excellent growth. We now have the capacity to make it real.”

Karl-Oskar: “It is almost every week that new employees start at Pas Normal. And they’re all tapping into our culture immediately. You can feel the energy. It’s driven by passion and pride. We had an employee survey the other day in which 97 % said they were proud to work here. So, we must be doing something right.”

“You get really motivated when working with your passion. It’s a self-reinforcing thing. Especially if you also have colleagues who are passionate."

- Peter Lange

So, the purpose is to motivate your employees?

Peter: “You get really motivated when working with your passion. It’s a self-reinforcing thing. Especially if you also have colleagues who are passionate. It’s super interesting that you can create a brand and a culture of passion that goes beyond borders. We are a global office. Some work early because they have to talk to Asia, others work late because they have to talk to the USA. It’s also about giving our employees the facilities they need to maintain a healthy lifestyle. Now, we’re starting an office in the US where we’ve got two super passionate people on board. That’s what our new HQ is supposed to support: Our culture of passion.”

Karl-Oskar: “Our customers respond to it too. Their commitment is extremely high. It’s not just a product; cycling is people’s hobby. They ride themselves, they watch it on TV, they follow races with their heroes. That’s also a great thing about cycling. No matter how good you are at football, you’ll hardly get to play at Camp Nou or Wembley. But on Strava, you can ride up Alpe d’Huez and compete against Mathieu van der Poel. The road is accessible to all.”

The story of Pas Normal Studios began in 2014 when Karl-Oskar and Peter had 10 sets of cycling clothes made for themselves and their friends because they were going to France to participate in the La Marmotte cycling race that finishes at Alpe d’Huez. Peter had a contact in an Italian cycling wear company that has a white label, so one can choose the model of the outfit and make the design themselves. So, Karl- Oskar designed it. They both felt that the market lacked a brand of cycling wear that didn’t focus on old school-stuff but, instead, was both technically high-end and, at the same time, a contemporary cool design.

Since, they were fond of their first set of cycling clothes, they decided to make a rerun in a slightly different design. They emailed the design of the second set to friends and people in their network, so others could get a set as well while they were at it. In two days, 110 people had ordered and paid for a set upfront. That’s when they realized there was something going on. Shortly after that, Karl- Oskar and Peter went on a 200 km bike ride around Roskilde. They spent most of the ride discussing starting a business together. When they got off the bikes, they sat down and drew up the company and the idea. And then they started it up. After the first 6 months, the sales were going so well that they began hiring people.

Did you start out with an ambition to make Pas Normal as it is today – or was it something that happened along the way?

Karl-Oskar: “From the very beginning, we were ambitious and uncompromising about the product. Peter and I agreed that we wanted to make the best cycling clothes in the world. It was actually pretty wild saying it out loud. But that was what we set out to do. And we were spot on, in the epicenter of something that’s going on right now. Pas Normal is genuine. It’s not an illusion like most other things in the fashion world. Pas Normal is a need-to-have. People want to get out and into the wild and ride. Pas Normal speaks to this new generation.”

Peter: ”And from the very beginning, we also worked hard to find and establish good relationships with ambassadors and dealers around the world who are just as crazy about cycling as we are. We’re always looking for people with a sincere passion for cycling - often, local heroes who are deeply rooted where they live. Many of our ambassadors have a large local network. We don’t care how many followers they have on social media; it depends on how genuine their passion for cycling is. Our ambassadors are chosen based on whether they are ‘cycling by heart’.”

So, for you, it’s all about being genuine?

Karl-Oskar: “The trend, right now, is that the consumer wants the real McCoy. Instead of buying a ski jacket from a fashion company like Acne, they’d rather buy one from Canadian Arc’teryx because they’ve always made ski jackets. Because it’s genuine. In Pas Normal, there’s also this necessity and functionality about the product that adds an extra dimension to the design. It’s this passion and authenticity that drives it and does it for me. I’ve worked in the fashion industry for 20 years, and the illusion you create in this business is not a necessity. It’s based on trends. At Wood Wood, I tried to implement elements from cycling in our collections several times, but it came with a fashion approach. I wasn’t making it for a cycling community; it was for fashion people, and it was an anticlimax every time. Fashion taps into trends, and then they’re over, and people move on to the next. At some point, I sensed that Pas Normal became a calling for me. I had to go this way. It’s a necessity for me.”

“The older I get, the more I think about how I spend my time. Time is the greatest luxury. I really don’t care if you show me a fancy new watch you bought, but if you’ve been a week in Mallorca cycling, then I might be envious. Because you take time doing something you like.”

- Karl-Oskar Olsen

So, now that you’ve built your own cycling community, how do you establish a good relationship with them, the ambassadors, for example?

Peter: “When I worked at Diesel, we had a Marketing Communication meeting every six months where we gathered marketing- and salespeople from all over the world. It worked really well as a bi-annual kick-starter. I thought we could do that in Pas Normal. But instead of doing it as an internal event, we’d use it to establish relationships with our ambassadors and dealers. We called it a brand summit, and the first one we held was in Lucca, Italy. People traveled from all over the world to be a part of it – from South Korea, Japan, Italy, Spain, Germany, Austria, USA. They paid to get there themselves, and then we took care of the rest. We booked a humble Airbnb and hired an Italian mama to make a family-style dinner for everyone. They got a set of new cycling clothes, and we were hosts for 4 days when we rode together. By making them pay for the trip themselves, we made sure that only dedicated people showed up. We facilitated something that people would tap into.”

Karl-Oskar: “We are a community-driven brand. It’s people out in the field who are Pas Normal’s face to the world. And we’ve been good at finding the right people from the start.”

Peter: “Pas Normal’s identity consists of two things: Design and community. The way we build our photoshoots and everything we do is about being social. I’ve just been in Barcelona meeting people from our local network, and they tell me that it’s crazy; this family feeling they have with Pas Normal.”

So, you were uncompromising about the product and good at connecting to people with the same passion for cycling as yourself – employees, ambassadors, dealers, as well as suppliers. What about your own part in it?

Karl-Oskar: “We’ve been really good at dividing responsibility. Peter is a true visionary on the commercial part and good at making a clear framework. I’m the classic creative who needs a framework. We’re very different but we complement each other. When he sets up the framework, and I’m allowed to unfold myself inside, then something good happens.”

Peter: “Karl-Oskar has been rock-solid in building the designs and visual identity of Pas Normal; all the time, adding collections for different purposes. The graphic identity has a wide range, going from a simple strong expression to a super creative expression in his TKO-collection. That means, we have different drops throughout the year, and that’s why we can communicate with our ambassadors and target group all the time. The result is a smooth communication flow to the market, without a hitch or compromising our visual identity.”

Karl-Oskar: “Within our segment, Pas Normal is luxury. It’s a relatively expensive product. In return, it lasts for a long time. Pas Normal is a functional product, but at the same time, I want the design to reflect trends in contemporary fashion. I’m talking about colors, the way we brand the clothes, and the way we communicate it. I try to make the design reflect the time we live in. The manufacturing of cycling apparel has previously been run by a few large mainly Italian and American, very conservative companies who, by and large, only made black, blue, or red clothing. Pas Normal has risen very quickly among the top-ten in the world. We’ve been good at connecting with the new generation of cyclists.”

Peter: “Maybe what we’ve done is a new way of starting a global brand. When your company is very small, and you sow small seeds all around... no, more like ripples in water. You’re standing on the shore of a lake throwing stones out north, east, south, and west. And if you keep throwing stones out in the lake forming rings of ripples in the water, the ripples will at some point meet. Most companies start in a specific territory and then expand bridgehead by bridgehead. Bit by bit. In Pas Normal, we’ve done it the other way around, from the outside in. I have always believed in this strategy. In the world of today, you can expand and grow in completely new ways. These rings of ripples in the water spread really fast. You don’t have to send a carrier pigeon to the US with the message that we have a new jersey. A text and some pictures will do the trick. I love supporting our ambassadors and dealers and seeing the brand flourish globally. I find it fascinating. Pas Normal is an experiment. Right now, I can’t think of anybody else who’s done it this way from the very start.”

To conclude... how’s work?

Peter: “Well, I’ve loved cycling since I was young. Now my passion has become part of my working life. It’s really a privilege. I also have a passion for developing things. You can be creative in countless different ways, but to me, it becomes really exciting when it’s innovative and when you can make creativity commercial. That’s what is really interesting to me when it comes to products as well as marketing; to be creative and innovative, and at the same time to make sure it develops and benefits business and differentiates you from your competitors. So, there’s a lot I gain from work in Pas Normal.”

Karl-Oskar: “The older I get, the more I think about how I spend my time. Time is the greatest luxury. I really don’t care if you show me a fancy new watch you bought, but if you’ve been a week in Mallorca cycling, then I might be envious. Because you take time doing something you like. With Pas Normal, I get a little bit of everything. I get to work with something close to my heart and ride my bike. It has become important to me. Instead of working 80 hours a week, I like that what I do makes sense to me. It has not come by chance either. I’ve worked hard for many years with stuff that has allowed me to open this door. I gained experience doing these other things.”

Peter: “Being part of a team creating a sustainable business, where salaries and profits are paid, where partners, suppliers, and the bank can count on us satisfies me. Anyone can make a hole in the ground. I’ve tried, in a previous job, to overdo spending because we had to conquer market share. It doesn’t feel good. I like it when things sum up; when things are followed through so you don’t end up in bad situations where you don’t want to be. It works like that in Pas Normal, and that’s very satisfying.”

Karl-Oskar: “Once I was invited to give a speech to a networking group of CEO’s about the startup of Wood Wood. I talked a lot about how handheld and intuitive it was. How fun and chaotic it was. Afterward, this guy comes over – and this is a top CEO of a big Danish company – and says: ‘It was really interesting to hear about your startup. But listen, from now on, everything will be boring. That startup is the most fun you’re going to experience. Afterward, it’s corporate alignment, staff issues, liquidity problems, and one thing after another.’ I guess he missed the passion that once was. And that’s exactly what I want to keep.”