INSIDE
ION
WORDS AND PHOTOS: MATT WRAGG
Ion's motto is "surfing trails." It's a fitting epigram for a company that came to mountain biking from a unique direction. Their roots lie in kite surfing, which may not seem like an obvious link to mountain biking. Yet like all surfing sports, kite surfing means a lot of time waiting for the right conditions, so a mountain bike is the ideal toy to keep you entertained while you wait.
Coming from another sport gives Ion a very different perspective to most other apparel manufacturers. Their kit certainly stands out from the crowd, in terms of both design and technical features. We headed to their headquarters just outside Munich, Germany to understand why Ion are so different.
MENTIONS:
it's probably too ugly to show it
little children working long hours ...
Enjoy to see where it is designed. Want to enjoy see where things are mass produced.
Factories are not pretty places. But don't have to be a toxic jail either. I value a company that picks their partner based on some standards.
The corporate mentality — companies can do whatever to turn a profit — yeah buddy, good dog, bark and protect your owner.
I agree @MojoMaujer. We should ask the difficult questions and have the right to take our business elsewhere based on corporate ethics records. It's one thing to see where gear is designed and base our impressions of a company solely on that, but to really get a feel for a company ideally we should be seeing all parts of the supply chain.
I think that kneepads/other protection is like a pair of jeans, some fit better and others just dont. Not the companys fault, its just the specific shape of a certain model that wont fit for person but fit great for Person B. For sure a producer tries to make their stuff fit for as many riders as possible but you never can make anybody happy! and having a model range that fits everybody is sometimes just to expensive... just never stop innovating!
agreed! I never had Problems with my Ion kneepads but I had some problems with kneepads from another company.
I'm waiting to see if the 661 kyle straight knee pad will now make a comeback! The greatest kneepad ever, nothing has fitted me so well since!!
Ion has been putting out quality stuff, and I'm glad to see them get into MTB more. Wind and board sports require a lot of ingenuity and pretty good quality to make stuff workable - that attitude can only be welcome in MTB.