Finish of the highway for Milltag as biking clothes model enters voluntary liquidation

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UK-based cycle clothes agency Milltag, identified for its putting use of graphics and collaborations with figures from the world of music, the humanities and past, has entered voluntary liquidation, paperwork filed at Corporations Home reveal.

The corporate appointed insolvency practitioner David Wilson of Leeds-based DFW Associates earlier this month to deal with the voluntary winding-up of the enterprise, agreed by its shareholders on 9 January. No particular motive was given for the corporate being liquidated.

Milltag was arrange in west London in 2010 by graphic designers Pete Kelsey and Ed Cowburn, who in a weblog publish on the corporate’s web site in December 2021 mentioned it had began “as a aspect hustle … simply two inventive cyclists who wished some attention-grabbing equipment for ourselves and likeminded people.”

Unsurprisingly, given its co-founders’ background, from its very first providing in 2010, a restricted version jersey impressed by Bradley Wiggins’ fourth-place end on the earlier 12 months’s Tour de France and emphasising his love of all issues Mod, Milltag’s merchandise usually carried a powerful visible design factor.


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> Milltag showcase first restricted version jersey

In addition to devising its personal ranges, the corporate additionally engaged in a complete host of collaborations to provide biking equipment based mostly on the graphics utilized by bands together with The Pixies, Insanity and Motörhead, and past music with companions as various as Transport for London and the artist Sir Peter Blake, and designed customized equipment for a variety of golf equipment, organisations and occasions.

Milltag additionally supplied the leaders’ jerseys for the Tour de Yorkshire, one thing the founders had been particularly happy with, on condition that regardless of working from London, their origins lie within the area, and it could subsequently work once more with ASO on the classification jerseys for the Tour of Oman.

In 2013, it designed an attention grabbing equipment for Associates of Herne Hill Velodrome, which was on the time elevating funds to attempt to save the historic south London venue, which had hosted bike racing since earlier than the Tour de France was dreamt up – the marketing campaign proving profitable, with the observe subsequently resurfaced and a brand new clubhouse opened.

> Herne Hill “Save The Velodrome” launch new biking equipment to assist elevate funds.

In December 2021, Kelsey revealed in a weblog publish that he was stepping down from its each day administration however mentioned he was assured over Milltag’s future prospects.

“It’s been eleven superb years rising the Milltag biking model however now it’s time for me to focus on my design enterprise which I’ve additionally been managing since 1998,” he wrote.

“The pandemic has given us all slightly time to pause and replicate on the place we’re in our working lives and this looks like the precise time at hand over the each day operating of the operation.

He wrote that “in frequent with many small operations, the previous 18 months have proved difficult – the mixed pressures of Brexit-related disruption and Covid restrictions have had a big influence.

“Happily, the enterprise has proved to be greater than resilient and the order e-book is trying wholesome,” he added. “I’m leaving protected within the data Milltag will proceed to thrive and prosper.”

As not too long ago as final September, in a tweet accompanied by photos of biking jerseys it had designed for the Pleasure Division, Trip and Carter USM, Milltag mentioned it was “Planning 2023 collaborations and in search of extra bands to create cyclewear with.”

Sadly, there will probably be no extra collaborations – however here is a glance again at a number of the extra putting ones Milltag delivered in recent times, beginning with equipment impressed by the moquettes used on trains operating on Transport for London’s Victoria and District tube strains.

Emphasising the model’s roots in graphic design, there was additionally a partnership with Monotype for a jersey paying tribute to the long-lasting Helvetica typeface.

Milltag additionally teamed up with Simon Warren, creator of the 100 Climbs collection of books, for a jersey showcasing the highway signal that adorns the covers of the collection – and which may additionally repeatedly be noticed on TV being waved by the author himself at bike races within the UK and overseas.

One high-profile collaboration was with the artist Sir Peter Blake – maybe finest identified for his paintings for the 1967 Beatles LP, Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Membership Band.

And eventually, right here’s a jersey based mostly on West Ham United’s putting mid-Nineteen Seventies away equipment.

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