Five Of Our Favorite Women-Owned Cycling-Related Companies to Celebrate Women-Led Wednesday
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In the leadup to Black Friday and Cyber Monday, Women-Led Wednesday celebrates women-led businesses. Here are five of our favorite women-run cycling-related businesses and brands.
Bivo Bottles
Bivo founder Carina Hamel and her husband Robby Ringer created the stainless steel water bottle company in 2018, when they realized that a non-plastic cycling water bottle was a great product and the future of sustainability. They use rubber spouts, eliminating plastic entirely. They worked with a former NASA engineer to optimize the flow of water, since you can’t squeeze steel. And the result? A bottle that’s just really fun to drink out of.
The bottles come in insulated and non-insulated versions, in various sizes and all different colors. And the company gives back to 1% For the Planet.
Thousand Helmets
Thousand Helmets founder Gloria Hwang set out to make a helmet that she and the other casual riders she knew would actually wear. They’re simple, hip, and comfortable. Hwang started the company when a good friend of hers was killed while riding a bike.
Prominently displayed on the Thousand website is a quote from Hwang, “We named our company ‘Thousand’ as a goal of helping to save 1,000 lives by making helmets people actually want to wear.” And she means it. The company counts every helmet that’s sent in for their lifetime crash replacement program. If you’re wearing a Thousand helmet and you sustain damage to it during a crash, they replace it, no questions asked.
Oveja Negra
Lane Willson founded Oveja Negra in 2012 in her house because she wanted high quality, attractive bikepacking bags for trips around the Upper Arkansas Valley of Colorado. The company has since grown to inhabit a large workspace and downtown storefront in Salida, Colorado. The brand is all handmade by 16 people and 20 sewing machines. Over 90 percent of their raw materials come from other domestic factories. And all of their gear is designed, tested, and sewn by cyclists who are obsessed with details. The co-owner and lead sewer is also a woman, Stephanie Perko.
They make bike bags for every kind of adventure, big and small, and even custom make bags for specific trips and specific bikes.
Wild Rye
Cassie Abel founded Wild Rye in Sun Valley, Idaho, with a mission of bringing women+ (women, femme, and non-binary identifying folks) beautiful and technical mountain apparel that inspires confidence and gets more women outside. Wild Rye makes functional mountain bike gear for all seasons. Their items reflect the fact that every woman’s body is unique. The gear is made with a four-way stretch fabric to adapt to all bodies.
JoJé Bars
Jess Cerra founded JoJé Bars in 2010, because as a professional athlete and chef, she wanted something really good to eat on the go. Cerra also partners with Chefs Cycle | No Kid Hungry. According to the brand’s website, This cause is deeply personal to Jess, who faced food insecurity at certain times when growing up. Receiving help from her community enabled her to access a college education and experiences that led her to founding JoJé.
Cerra is also the race director for the gravel event, Last Best Ride in her home town of Whitefish, Montana. A portion of the event’s proceeds support the Barbara Mansfield Champion Scholar Award, which provides aid to financially qualified women pursuing post-secondary education – in the same way the generation of others made a college education possible for Jess.
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