2.18.2008

Introducting the Mishka DART cycling team

A project that's been in the works for a while now has finally launched. The Mishka NYC Death Adders Road and Track cycling team or DART has come to light! As a close friend of the Mishka crew and a member of their family, they felt that it was a good idea to create a street team of riders who appreciate Mishka's designs and who are respected in the scene. This isn't a sponsorship like Nike or Puma, it's a brand that's down with supporting their family and are stoked to see where this goes! Read the briefing below: For those of you unfamiliar with the world of fixed gears, here's a crash course in the history of the bicycle's forefather. In the simplest terms, fixed gear bikes lack a freewheel and therefore are incapable of coasting. If the wheels are turning, then your feet are pedaling. The first bicycles were fixed gears, but since then bikes have added more gears, better brakes and lighter materials. Up until about 10 years ago, the only place you'd see a fixed gear was either on your kid brother's tricycle or on a track bike, which were traditionally ridden on a banked track called a velodrome. Slowly, these bikes made their way onto the street as road racers used them to train in the winter and messengers used them because they were cheap to buy and maintain. Contemporary fixed-gear culture, has been growing steadily since the late 90's. It began in cities like New York, and now the fixed-gear bicycle is commonplace in both urban and more recently, suburban areas across the world. This growing popularity has helped usher in new talent & new innovation. In the same way that kids riding Schwinn Stingrays off dirt jumps preceded BMX, track bikes are evolving into the new freestyle bicycle of choice for many people. While the status quo inevitably tends oppose anything new & revolutionary, the ideology behind fixed gears is simple… just get out and have fun. Being Brooklyn based, cycling is very much a part of everyday life for most of us at Mishka. We’ve watched and participated in cycling’s growing popularity over the years and have enjoyed a mutual respect between ourselves and riders. We’re beyond proud to introduce to you the Death Adders Road and Track (D.A.R.T) Cycling Team. We’ve carefully recruited a group of riders on the forefront of this booming subculture. This eclectic group of athletes are motivated to not only push the boundaries in exciting ways, but to re-define and evolve the sport to the next level. The support and encouragement of this evolution forms the foundation of the Mishka D.A.R.T Cycling Team. Led by team rider & D.A.R.T captain John "Prolly" Watson, Mishka will be scouting the globe for talented riders, sponsoring & organizing bike-related events, creating rider specific gear and collaborating with the best in the industry on hardware. For all press inquiries relating to Mishka NYC or D.A.R.T Cycling Team, please contact: Annie Lam Media Relations Mishka NYC P: 647 204 0978 annie@breadwinner.ca Photography by Luke "Jonny" Stiles, Ed Glazar & Wilis Johnson

36 comments:

Ronsta, said...

Killer!

Anonymous said...

big UPs! Prolly.

Guav said...

I must confess, I am a little confused—a Death Adder is a poisonous snake, so why is their logo a bear?

Prolly said...

The Death Adder came from that old Video Game "Golden Axe" where all the characters were fighting a mystical beast called a Death Adder.

Mishka means bear cub in Russian. They're logo has long been the fierce bear face with a snake's tongue. So they called it a "death adder". Over the years Mishka has made a series of Varsity jackets, sweatshirts, ect with the "Death Adders" listed as the "team"...

We felt that it'd be suiting to name the "team" the Death Adders....

Kristopher said...

Rad dude! Congratulations!

Guav said...

Ahhhh, I see. Thank you for explaining all that to me. Makes sense now :)

Davey D said...

sweet! lighting up the nets today boys!

So maybe I'm just a dumb guy from SLC, but help me with this one:
I get riding bikes, a ton; I get having fun, I get being silly and glamalicious and taking publicity shots, I even get riding brakeless and learning to do crazy tricks to freak out bmxers and cagers alike... But why do you have to brand it? why can't clothing be silly and expressive AND unique, not commodified and brand-specific? It seems kind of sad to be your own crazy person in somebody else's clothes... your bikes don't look straight off the rack if you know what I mean...

anyway, Willis' bike is hot, and Prolly's mustache is fuckin' sketchy. Luke is indelibly etched in my mind now as the personification of BSNYC, even if that isn't the case.

Ride on MC Frontalot.

Anonymous said...

Hey prolly, I just got done reading the gay comments in BikeSnobNYC's blog. It's a shame that people can't give much props anymore on anything. Just wanted to drop by and give you mad ups from Southern Cali.

Prolly said...

Der Blaue Reiter,

Thanks for the critical yet helpful commentary. It's nice to see a high level of intelligence visiting this blog and posting.

Honestly, this is no attempt at branding anything. I've been in the Mishka family for a while now. They're my good friends. A lot of what goes on at Mishka is influenced by their friends and family.

Major decisions are made by comrads and Mike and Greg support their buddies anyway possible. After they sponsored Peel Sessions, they say their clothing in a new light. Kids riding bikes, wearing their shit.

Not just "hipsters" either. Messengers, shop owners, ect.

When Greg gave Tom a jacket and then Tony and then Luke and Wilis, they were like "fuck it, let's put these guys on a flow team and see how this goes".

We're all friends and all this is meant to do is build bigger bonds with other riders in the area. Everyone likes free clothes and Mishka has been around long enough to know this.

My point is, this is in no way an attempt of fronting off a scene. It's just a way two local Brooklyn guys can support something that's become an identity of their area.

That being said, please dude, send me some footage. We wanna make this family grow. I understand why people are salty, but I also feel like a log of good can come from this...

Feel free to email me directly with any further comments, or hit me up on Myspace, ect.

Hopefully we'll see you at Monster Track or NACCC this year.

best,

John

Anonymous said...

People might take this more seriously if you didn't publish pictures of your "sponsored" riders using broken parts. (steamroller fork)

Prolly said...

What fork is broken? Tony and I roll a Brooklyn Machine Works fork.

Anonymous said...

I have a question, without any agenda behind it. It's still not clear to me what it is you're trying to do with D.A.R.T. You say "re-define and evolve the sport to the next level". Like what and which sport? As a not very good and still waning amateur road racer, I can understand the aim of forming a team to compete in USCF events. But that's clearly not what you're doing. And more to the point it's not clear to me why you need some kind of organization to do it.

Prolly said...

"Sport" as in "Freestyle Fixed Gear"...

As I said, it's just a group of close friends supported by my good friend's company. We ride to have fun, push ourselves and this "team" is just a support system for anyone else who wants to join in and is riding with the same thing in mind:

Try to not to think about it too much and just ride / relax.

tofu said...

what's the BCD of your logo? 3/32 or 1/8th? seriously, come to toronto for the CMWC's. great beer, great bikes, good times! http://www.cmwc2008.com

Prolly said...

I'm planning on it!

144bcd, 1/8"

Matthew Reamer said...

did Mishka make that Baltimore Oriole "Fuck Face"Billy Ripken shirt? I need that.

Matthew Reamer said...

oh yeah,golden axe was my shit. JUst found a machine in some pizza spot. Juiced.

Prolly said...

Yep. They made it 2 summers ago. "Fuck Face" is what it was called. Not sure if there are anymore in the warehouse. You can check ebay?

A bar here has Golden Axe... great game

Anonymous said...

luke stiles

video killed the radio star

Anonymous said...

The whole thing sort of reminds me of the way old school breakdance crews and a zillion late 80's bmx trick teams used to organize. It was bound to happen. I don't mean that in a bad way. I venture that a lot of people are not bugged out that you have a crew, but that the presentation is so slick.
Anyone remember the Plywood Hoods from York PA? Google them if you don't. Now there is a crew whose influence will aways be felt among anyone who has tried a forward rolling trick on a bmx bike...
Organized crews don't necessarily = bad, so long as it doesn't just become a rolling advertisement that never creates new innovative tricks.

Anonymous said...

The whole thing sort of reminds me of the way old school breakdance crews and a zillion late 80's bmx trick teams used to organize. It was bound to happen. I don't mean that in a bad way. I venture that a lot of people are not bugged out that you have a crew, but that the presentation is so slick.
Anyone remember the Plywood Hoods from York PA? Google them if you don't. Now there is a crew whose influence will aways be felt among anyone who has tried a forward rolling trick on a bmx bike...
Organized crews don't necessarily = bad, so long as it doesn't just become a rolling advertisement that never creates new innovative tricks.

Guav said...

People love to over-analyze shit.

"Oh waaaa, you're commodifying the blah blah and why do you need to brand your waaaa, my vagina hurts."

It's a bike crew—it's some friends having fun. They're gonna wear some shirts, make some videos, etc.

Good thing most of the commenters at BikeSnobNYC weren't riding when Quicksilver came out, they'd have just burst into tears.

Guav said...

Ridebikes: Exactly. And the Plywood Hoods still ride.

FBC Spokane said...

Congratulations and good luck.

Davey D said...

Cool man,
that's a great way to look at those things, it's one of my weak spots I guess, I have trouble seeing money/image related things in terms of community. But in this case, the way you describe it, it's a pretty sweet win-win situation, where bikers have a sense of community and clothing-makers have a chance to sell things people relate to.

Also glad you're putting it out there, films and all. I get all wrapped up in things being polished, so things never get done. Great inspiration, incl. the 80's team cards!

I used your post as a starting point to riff off on a bunch of nerdy art-history stuff , just so you know.

keep on,
Davey

M_Avina said...

y'all need to have a battle
with lords of the rhymes

http://www.lordsoftherhymes.com/

lemmiwinks said...

I was going to post a "WTF was that about?" comment because I just bounced in here from Bike Snob NYC, and I wasn't sure if this was a combined effort spoof/piss-take/humorous post. Apart from the bicycle stuff this may as well have been written in another language (actually I suspect it was) for all the sense it made, but Der Blaue Reiter's post on his blog cleared it up for me.

If this is how the cool kids are dressing/speaking these days, I'm even more pleased to be uncool. Best part is I don't even have to work at it, it comes naturally :-)

Anonymous said...

Hey Prolly,

All this stuff about you on BSNYC today inspired me to pull my first big ol' block long wheelie in about 20 years. It was going quite well, but then culminated in a cranial hardtail collision. Ass over teakettle in front of a mentally challenged man who always stands in my street smoking cigars. He didn't flinch and i was thankful. Old guys with North Face rain gear and multiple blinkies should never, ever try to freestyle. Ever.

Anonymous said...

prolly,
etc. got it?

Prolly said...

Mr. Anonymous. There are like eleventy billion of you. It's hard to keep track. Blogger now allows you to respond with OpenID, which means you can use whatever moniker you prefer.

It's hard to understand what I should "get" without knowing what it's in reference to?

Unknown said...

glad to see Burial's Untrue listed... amazing album.. great to have in yer head while riding

Stoked on Spokes said...

hey your history is off...road racers have been training with fixed gears much longer than just the past 10 years...and messengers have been riding them for at least the past 25 or so. just a heads up your wording makes it seem that way...better to edit the picture than try to edit history.

Prolly said...

Hey Stoked,

Yeah, it kinda reads both ways. I'm well aware that roadies were training on fixed gears for longer than 10 years and messengers [paperboys in the 20's and 30's] were riding them as well....

I was implying more of a resurgence in growth that's been steady for the past 10 years or so.

thanks for the feedback!

Ride safe.

Anonymous said...

wow, that Luke Stiles is so hot right now!

Anonymous said...

i hear Tom is finally going to be legal...One sexy underager...

Anonymous said...

Tom,

42x15 with 700 x 23c is 73.6 gear inches, not 75, unless you are running 27 inch wheels.

have fun guys!