Hey Ansel Adams…GET OVER HERE.

Want just the rules? Skip to the bottom. Interested in longwinded, possibly juvenile preamble? Bless your heart. Me too.

It only looks arty. It's built like a flippin' Sherman tank.

THE BEGINNING:
So awhile back Kent and Jay bought VeloGear from the dudes at VeloNews (or as the industry literati call it, “Inside Communications”). VeloGear in its heydey was rokken like Dokken, but the wares were, well…let’s just sum them up in four words: “Park Tool Pizza Cutter”…uhh…ish. The market for those proud beauties is really only so big and with the Park Tool guys engineering everything to withstand a mutuallly assured destruction-type event they were kind of just lasting forever, so things quickly got a little saturated and the much-heralded cash cow started kind of limping along back toward the barn.

But that was OK.

You see, our heroes had a plan. In the back of their minds and possibly over a beer…or 6 they mapped out the path for the new VeloGear. In super-simple words (what choice do I have, really? My lone two brain cells are redlined already), they decided to transform VeloGear into the place that you went to get COOL stuff. I guess the pizza cutters WERE cool, but it’s really a matter of persective. They wanted to sell stuff that THEY thought was cool.

So you saw a lot of the tchatchke-type stuff fade away. Gone were the bike chain bracelets (oh wait – we still have those. We’ll make you a killer deal if you want one), and drastically reduced was their open-to-buy for Park Tool promotional merchandise. That stuff got replaced by goodies from Hincapie, Capo, Jett MTB, Sombrio and a host of other brands that are best-in-class. Big huge flippin’ Jolly Green Giant steps have been taken whereby VeloGear is being transformed from cycling’s online trinket shop into an extension of Kent and Jay themselves – it’s a house of style for stuff that your local shop may not carry.

Now our guys aren’t pretending to be Mario Cipollini, but they do put their miles in and they also both have a bit of the tastemaker in them. They’re discriminating and carry what works. And they’ve done a really good job of getting rid of the dogs in the inventory and replacing them with some show ponies.

But one area where we feel as if we’re still lacking is in identity. The voice of the brand. You see some of the irreverance shine through here and in the blog on VeloGear.com, but a picture is worth a thousand words as they say, so we’re turning to you guys to help us out. All of you have probably seen a Patagonia catalog, or something from Marmot, The North Face or Big Agnes. You’ve seen the beautiful captioned lifestyle and action shots taken as the morning mist burns away over a soft righthand break or as a ropeline ascends and disappears into cloudcover from a narrow bivy.

The other Duke

The climbers and surfers have OWNED this sort of imagery ever since Duke Kahanamoku first paddled into the north shore waters and Sir Edmund Hillary bade Tenzing Norgay to fetch him more yak milk for his tea.

Not anymore.

I say, Tenzing.

We want your shots. From the road, dirt, track or trail. Action shots? Hell yes, but we also want the shots you get:
- as your buddies get their minds right just before a DH run
- as your posse stops to hat up prior to a big climb or descent
- as you goof around trail or roadside busting each other’s chops
- as your fully-loaded tourer points upwards into that lonely road disappearing over the horizon or remote mountain saddle
- as skinny dudes kitted out in spandex engage in full-on post-ride demitasse chugging glory.

The rules are simple:
1. Post your shots on our Facebook fan page. You can get to that bad boy HERE.
2. Include a caption. It should state the location, general frame of mind or any context important to understanding the importance of the shot
3. Is there a product we carry in there? Cool, but not necessary. Let us know.
4. If we select your shot for our website or an e-blast we’ll give you a gift certificate to be used on VeloGear (sorry, we’re all out of the Frederick’s of Hollywood ones) for $25.
5. If we use your shot in our catalog along with a quick anecdote from you we’ll give you a gift certificate for $75.

Not Velo Jones (I'm not that tan.)

So plug through your archives. Or strive to get the shot that catches the light, the mood and the spirit of it all just right.

Keep those cards and letters coming, baby. We can’t wait to see ‘em.

Your pal,
Velo Jones

VELOGEAR – WHO ARE WE?

"Ummm, we're not twins."

A few nagging idiosyncrasies aside, we’d imagine that we’re a lot like you – in our lives cycling is a foundation, not an accessory. Bikes and bike gear bring out our inner kid, the one standing in slack-jawed awe as our parents rolled out that first 35lb over-geared, banana-seated freedom-generating monstrosity. Within these pages are items that stirred echoes of that same unbridled joy. That fueled our desire to expand our frontiers. That made us want to pin our ears back and fly.

Enjoy. Because we sure do.
Kent and Jay