The Ten Speed Hero Pont du Gard sock in Orange.
Luke Batten, Ten Speed Hero Co-Founder, in the company kitchen.
Sketches are everywhere in the TSH offices.
Alex Wallbaum works some magic on a GIF for the TSH website.
Product is everywhere.
The TSH photo studio is where the website magic happens.
“I think Ten Speed Hero, The Athletic and a few others have solved the cyclist sock dilemma,” says Luke Batten, co-founder of Chicago-based Ten Speed Hero. “Now you can wear your socks on a ride, to dinner, to work, etc.”
What he means is that for the longest time, cyclists have used run of the mill white gym socks on their bikes. That’s changing. Nowadays more riders are paying attention to their socks and this once overlooked piece of kit has been turned into a fashion-forward, self-expression apparel item. Cycling socks now come in an amazing array of colors and patterns and even the lower portion of the sock that’s hidden by your bike shoe is taken into consideration.
Ten Speed Hero was originally launched in 2006 as a bike blog and creative outlet for friends. The fashion side of the company got its start when Luke and his partner decided to sell a single jersey and style of sock to raise money for a trip to Paris Roubaix. It’s been off to the races ever since. These days Ten Speed Hero is a cycling kit and sock juggernaut and it’s allowed a small group of cyclists in the know to mix their love of the bike and their love of fashion.
The company is located in the up and coming, or as we would refer to it in NorCal—Hipster—neighborhood called the Near West Side, just around the corner from Girl and the Goat and on the third floor of a Chicago style walkup. The office is packed with product, a tiny photo studio and creativity tacked to the walls everywhere. Batten, his partner Jonathan Sadler, and three employees work out of this space. Batten says at their size, everyone does a little bit of everything.
“I would say, off the cuff, I think our foundation is like a lot of others,” Batten says. “Like the bike, Love to ride.”
Recent projects include design collaborations with people like Lauren Ayers and Neil Donnelly, who are both new to the bike world. Batten, who is a professor of photography at the University of Illinois, talks passionately about his love of fashion, his excitement for getting non-cyclists involved in the design process and his enduring love of the sock.
“We want to give people the platform to design amazing things. There is not a style guide, but there is a style aesthetic,” Batten says.
Admittedly, not all of TSH’s designs are for everyone, but Batten gets a big kick when he is out for a ride and sees cyclists mixing and matching their creations with top of the line kit from Rapha, Assos, and Castelli. For the TSH crew, that’s a big win.
I was only at the TSH headquarters for a short visit but it’s clear they’re having a lot of fun and doing it in super sexy socks.