How can we make things better?
P1. Simple. Better.
Explaining a departure from the norm — what is typical to Kingdom, and nearly everyone in the mountain bike industry — probably needs to start with a bit of backstory.

Before Kingdom existed, we would spend every second of our spare time wondering how the bikes and components we owned could be better. Then looking for improvement or new possibilities. Creating (read: shed-based DIY) our own if they didn’t already exist. Improving them through a hands-on process. And enjoying the entire ride, rough or smooth.

One summer we were in Morzine and started sketching the details for an all-mountain bike that would be simple, versatile and reliable (this would later become the Vendetta hardtail). But even then, there was no plan to start a company or challenge the mountain bike industry.

 

Think. Search. Build. Test. Ride.
This silent mantra has always been at the core of our company.

Nevertheless, eventually, we had to start making bikes ourselves. The ones we wanted, and the companies we wanted to support, simply didn’t exist. So, we rolled up our sleeves and the rest is history.

The thing is, when your natural state is one of questioning, you will never be satisfied with what already exists. This applies to our own products and practises.

As our bikes have evolved over the last 14 years, so has the bike industry; the same goes for its manufacturing technologies and consumers’ habits.

We think we're due a change as well.

What a word. ‘Consumer.’
To consume. Buy it, use it up, repeat.
Recently we’ve had a bit of a crisis of conscience.

Churning out bikes for profit has never been a goal (or a result, ask our families) of running Kingdom. For us, it’s all about experimentation and improvement and increasing the fun people have on bikes (ourselves, mainly, if we’re honest).

But we do produce stuff, all of it creating waste in one way or another; we are all-too-aware of the toll of consumerism on the precious environments in which we ride. We know a growing number of riders feel the same.

The crisis is this: Everything we make harms nature. Yet it seems impossible to just stop. Is there a better way forward?

We’ve thought long and hard, we’ve searched high and low, and our next goal, one we’ve already started, is to improve the way our bikes are made. To trial and utilise the best, new efficient techniques of manufacture like additive manufacturing to help reduce our wastage, limit our impact, and improve or entirely overhaul our range with new innovative parts and features.

This is the beginning of a story.
Read Part 2. Enter the VOID.