Issue 12
Puma Bike Challenge
By Roger Gastman
Brendt Barbur, a Bay Area native and one of the founders of Critical Mass, a grassroots bicycle and self-propelled vehicle activist event, was hit by a bus while cycling in New York City seven years ago. He took this traumatizing accident and turned it into a positive—he decided to create an event that promoted the bike lifestyle, and debuted the Bicycle Film Festival in 2001.
Of his accident, Barbur told Pedal Pushers Online: “[F]irst came the anger… [I]t was about the fight for, and defense of, your personal biking space… [T]he best way to uplift the status of biking, was to do what the bike companies should be doing, celebrating this bike culture through art and film.”
Barbur wanted to celebrate bicycles the way surf and skateboard companies celebrate their products—by highlighting the fashion, art, music, film and lifestyles that bike riders embrace. Since 2001, the festival has grown every year. This year, it makes stops in 16 cities around the world: New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Toronto, Portland, San Francisco, Minneapolis, Paris, Vienna, London, Milan, Rome, Barcelona, Sydney Melbourne and Tokyo. And events have expanded to art shows, concerts and a PUMA-sponsored Recycled Bicycle Challenge (PUMA Re-Bike)—in which a handful of magazines were commissioned to build a bike from recycled parts to be sold at auction.
Anthem, and the money raised will be donated to the bicycle non-profits Recycle-a-Bicycle in NYC and Toronto, Bicycle Kitchen in L.A., Bike Kitchen in San Francisco, Community Cycling Center in Portland, and Working Bikes in Chicago. The one-of-a-kind bikes will tour the Bicycle Film Festival’s North American circuit, from May to September.
SWINDLE spoke to Barney Wates, PUMA’s vice president of marketing in North America to discuss his company’s involvement in the 2007 Bicycle Film Festival.
Why did PUMA approach magazines for the Bike Challenge?
We’ve been really active in the bike community, first with our bike messenger team in NYC, TEAM PUMA, and now with the Bicycle Film Festival. We also made bikes with Danish design company Biomega, which we sell at our stores. We created PUMA Re-Bike, to keep the ball rolling and to keep finding creative ways to involve bikes with PUMA. We approached magazines as we knew they would bring creative energy to the project and we also knew they would be really competitive and want to outdo each other.
Did any of the bicycles surprise you?
Each bike was unexpected and different. What was surprising was that people called us asking if we’d let them spend more money. We said “No,” that they had to stick to the rules.
How did PUMA become involved in the Bicycle Film Festival?
As our involvement with TEAM PUMA grew, the Bicycle Film Festival was gaining a lot of momentum. We loved what Brendt [Barbur] was doing with the festival, so we decided to jump in and help support his efforts. Showing the Re-Bike bikes in a gallery at the festival was our way of contributing to the event beyond just sticking our logo up and writing a check.
www.bicyclefilmfestival.com