Held’s new clothing line

Manufacturers spend months and a small fortune developing each new item of bike kit — but how do they get it into our hands?

THE LIGHTS GO down and the music comes up. At the far end of the long, narrow room, they appear: a small group of men and women. They strut forwards with a kind of half-swaggering, half-dancing gait, alternately waving arms wide and clapping in time with the music. In time with the other spectators, faded in the shadows. But nobody’s looking at the other onlookers: all eyes are on the beautiful people moving along the catwalk. Or on the motorcycle gear they’re wearing, anyway.

Over the next half an hour, the models take it in turn to walk the catwalk in a range of items — touring and adventurestyle textiles, one- and two-piece leathers, casual jackets and armoured jeans, waterproofs. They make sure everyone gets a good look at each outfit, even holding out gloves so they can be seen more easily. At one point the lights are dimmed and they emerge with gear illuminated by glowing LEDS, as visible in the dark as characters from Tron. All the while, a compère explains what the new garments are and most of those watching take notes.

This is what a motorcycle-clothing launch looks like. RIDE is in Bavaria at the Held Get Together — an exclusive preview of the German clothing-and-accessories giant’s 2019 collection. Journalists never normally see this: these products will be formally unveiled in Milan or Frankfurt at one of the winter’s big bike shows. We’ve been invited to join the importers and the biggest dealers from key markets getting an early look at next year’s products.

The fashion show on the evening when everyone arrives is just the start of the event. Next morning we move onto the more serious stuff: everyone gets the chance for a close-up examination of the items in the range, feeling the material, examining the construction or even trying things on. To make sure everyone has enough information about the new items, there are technical workshops with Stefan Held, the head of R&D.

That’s one thing that marks Held out as different to other motorcycle-equipment firms: it’s still a family business. It was founded in 1946 by Bruno Held, who passed it on to his sons Edgar and Erhardt. Now the next generation is running the business, with Edgar’s son Markus taking over as CEO and his brother as head of R&D. Their cousin Christian runs the company’s key glove division and his sister Sabine is head of sales for Germany.

Held also stands out for its focus on bike gear, rather than having diversified to make products for snow-sports, cycling or four-wheeled motorsport as well. While the firm now sells in more than 45 countries around the world, it’s still far bigger in Germany than overseas. 2017 turnover was more than €35 million, with Germany accounting for €26 million.

The new collection shows some innovative thinking: this is the company that invented the two-chamber glove, remember. Most radical is the HLS Set – flexible LED tubes that can be inserted into compatible jackets in the 2019 range, to be powered by plugging in whatever compact USB power bank you own. Two white strips shine on the front, with two red ones on the back – set well apart so they should be visible around all but the biggest rucksacks.

There’s also the M-clima vest, which

“The new collection shows some innovative thinking”