Talking about padding

You know how it goes, when people start to speak about padding for their cycling short. 'It's all personal', is probably the most heard sentence. Well, maybe! Maybe not, I would say! Research at the University of Padova has shown that there are very little differences in the bones in the human body. That means that one may be more heavy than the other one, but the position where the bones would rest on the saddle, are almost indifferent for the caucasian race! What this research says, is that one pad could suit everyone. Be aware that there IS a difference between men and women! A women with a pad for men would hurt herself. Then, there is another important factor, that plays a role when chosing a pad: your goals!

The most important factor that plays a role when chosing a pad, is your goal. If you are a professional cyclist, in the saddle for 6 hours or more, you will definitely need another pad, than your friend who is cycling from home to work (assuming this is less than 6 hours ;) ). We recommend you to get 2 shorts if your cycling trips vary. Each with the padding that suits for the trip you are about to make on your bike. Not because we are commercial people and because we want to sell more, but simply because this suits your needs.

Then, we have a female pad, which is developed to protect different areas. See, why would you accept some high level explanation as to what and why you have to be protected? You would not. I also wouldn't. So, I met with the people at Elastic Interface in Italy, the best producer of padding available and collected information with regards to why each pad is designed in a certain way. And, I would like to share it with you here!

I will just mention the name of the pad, and then a link to the page at Elastic Interface, where you can find all detailed information. So no bla-bla. Just straight forward insight in why we work with Elastic Interface and which pads we work with. For your protection. So no cheap Asian product, or copy of a copy. We only work with top class materials!


The ROAD pad
Link: http://www.elasticinterface.com/cycling-pads-clothing/cycling-technology-products.php?cat=3&ld=03


The HP Endurance pad
Link: http://www.elasticinterface.com/cycling-pads-clothing/cycling-technology-products.php?cat=3&ld=12

The MTB
Link: http://www.elasticinterface.com/cycling-pads-clothing/cycling-technology-products.php?cat=3&ld=05

The HP ENDURANCE WOMEN Endurance pad (on request, we can get implement a different women pad, but we have great experience with this specific pad. This is the women version of the HP Endurance)
Link: http://www.elasticinterface.com/cycling-pads-clothing/cycling-technology-products.php?cat=3&ld=13



If any questions, my team or myself are ready to answer the questions. So please do not hesitate to write us!
Thanks :)

Trip around Europe January 2012

As several amongst you got to follow (via Facebook and Twitter), I just returned from a very fatiguing but interesting trip to several European cities. I will try to give you insight, in what it takes to become one of the leaders in the sportswear market.

My first flight took me to Frankfurt (Germany) where I met with the CEO and sales representative behind 100ciclisti.com. If you are a German cyclist and haven't checked out that website yet, then I recommend you to do so now. Their aim is to create Germany's biggest cycling team. Every member of the website can order his/her personalized cycling jersey for 49 euro (including shipping). The jersey is shipped with a 50 euro voucher to spend at Stadler cycling stores and 105 Chain Liquid.
The project is set to be launched European-wide in 2012. Orana Dynamics powers this project by producing all the 100ciclisti apparel since the start.

From Frankfurt, I flew to Dublin (Ireland) where I met with Ireland's future in cycling: Philip Lavery! Philip is a member of the Irish national team and it was a true pleasure for me to meet with him. Philip is a young and motivated guy and we believe he is the right person to get our brand out there.
Philip has a beautiful website as well, where he gives an insight on his cycling career. Interested? Go to www.philiplavery.com
We are currently developing a sample collection for Philip so that people in Ireland can get an idea of the quality we offer.

From Dublin, I took off to Milan for a drive to Spinea (Italy) where I stayed with my pregnant sister who is soon opening her Gellateria (Ice Cream bar). So if you are ever over in this lovely small town, don't forget to grab your scoops of artisanal ice-cream :)
I met with guys from the Treviso roller club as they are looking out for new apparel as well. Although there are plenty of Italian producers with name and fame, their products aren't really THAT great! The guys from the Treviso Roller Club agreed that we -at Orana Dynamics- have the skills in the house to make perfect fitting, high quality apparel for inline speed skating as well.

From Spinea, I went on a 1 hour drive to San Venediamo, where the head office of Cytech is. Cytech is the company behind Elastic Interface, probably the BEST padding producer in the world! Brands such as Assos, Campagnolo, Gore are all purchasing their padding from them. As padding is THE most crucial part of a cycling short, I will dedicate a separate topic on my blog to it. So, later more on this!

On the road for about 2 weeks now, took its toll on my body. I felt a bit sick and had huge cravings for a good sleep! Sorry if I m not all smiley in this picture :)

So, waking up 4.15am, heading for Milan Airport and off to Brussels to attend Belgium's biggest bike expo: Velofollies at Kortrijk Xpo where I would be on stage with the men and women of the new Karhu-Orana Dynamics test team. Good job by Joris Sels from Sport-Deals.be. Sport-Deals is our Belgian distributor, working closely with teams and clubs looking for apparel. Great atmosphere. They were all very happy with their new apparel, which stimulates us to continue to further develop our products so they become world class products. More on the team can soon be found on our website where I replaced the 'News' section by Athletes. I felt that we cannot update the News section fast enough so I took that down for now. The new page is available here: http://www.oranaworld.com/v/athletes.php
And a photo of the team here:

Headed back to Riga, Latvia where we have to start developing 3 collections for sports brands. Lovely but hard job! Thanks to my team for delivering on a daily basis and keep up the good job guys and girls :)

Kevin

The first pictures from the 2012 photoshoot!! YEA!

Sooo! Here they are! The first pictures of the 2012 photoshoot. We would like to keep the best ones till the official 2012 catalogue presentation which will take place in about a month from now.

! We are looking for a new male model, after the one which we had hoped to shoot, broke his foot on New Years Eve. In the very last moment, we found one other guy, but the pictures are not what we had hoped for! So, if you know anyone -''preferably with a six-pack'' the women in my team shouted-, please let me know asap !

PS: Those are not fake smiles :) We really have a lot of fun in what we do and how we do it. Every day again. And we are super - super excited to kick off in 2012 with better products, better events and better.. everything! :) Thank you all very much for your support and looking forward to meet you soon!

[The making of] the 2012 catalogue

I like sharing what we do, and how we do it. Yesterday, we organized a photoshoot with 2 new models for our 2012 product catalogue and marketing materials which you will find in stores near you in about a month time from now. A special 'Thank you' goes out to Druvo, Evelina, Liza and Mihael!

Photoshoot collection 2012

Just got back home from a photoshoot which lasted all evening. Awesome work by photographer Druvo and our in-house designer Evelina! Very pleased with our new model Liza! Looking forward to post all images later on this week! Development of our new catalogue can proceed.

KARHU - ORANA DYNAMICS Testteam

[Belgium] Together with our Belgian distributor Sport-deals.be, we launched the Karhu-Orana Dynamics test team. The official presentation of the team will take place on Sunday January 23 at Belgium's biggest bike exposition VELOFOLLIES (Xpo Kortrijk) Website: Velofollies Official Website









Our test team consists of 3 teams which participate in street runs and triathlons.
We are very happy to announce the names of the athletes in our teams.

 * Pro-team '12

Tim Brydenbach, Belgian champion triathlon LD 2011 (triathlon, running)





* A-team '12

Adam Lambrechts (triathlon ETU, running)

Anke Matthyssen (triathlon, cycling, running)                           

Dirk Bullen (triathlon, Xterra, running)                                           

Filip Philips (triathlon, Xterra, duatlon, running)                                        

Hans Moonen (triathlon, duatlon, running)                                   

Joris Buyl  (triathlon ETU , running)  

Kevin Maggen (triathlon)

Pieter Hélin (triathlon LD, running)

Ruben Geys (triathlon, Xterra, running)

Sofie Rubbrecht (triathlon, running)

Stef Verachten (triathlon)

* B-team '12

Birgit Masagé

Evert Thys

Patrick Cooimans

Joris Sels

Thomas Van De Put

                                   

The 2012 Karhu Jersey, designed and produced by Orana Dynamics














More on 'Why Karhu is just the best running shoe for you!'

Entering 2012 with a company blog

Dear valued visitor,

With the new year having kicked off, I committed myself to starting and keeping this blog up and running.

First of all, I would like to take this opportunity to wish you all an healthy, sporty and successful year! 

When taking off on another flight late December, I had the time to reflect on 2011. It's been a terrific year for us at the Orana Dynamics Group. Not only have we managed to reach our goal to set out a worldwide distributor network for Orana Dynamics Sportswear, which will help us to grow further in the coming years. We also signed with top athletes in various sports, which allows us to continue developing products which are designed to suit the need of athletes in each market we serve.

We launched a few other companies under the Orana Dynamics label. More info below
Orana Dynamics Sports: Sports marketing and Sports Events bureau
Orana Dynamics Marketing: Development of marketing campaigns for our international clients. Orana Dynamics Investments: Supporting entrepreneurs with funding for their business idea
Orana Dynamics Media: Design and development of various media for press and web

A dedicated website for each of the named companies is currently in the make to give you a better idea of what we did, we do and will do. We're pretty excited! :)

A big 'Thank You' goes out to all the people who believed in us throughout the past years. While we had an enormous setback in 2005, we managed to get new funding, find the right partners to get us back into business, the right people to come on board and we were able to continue doing what we love to do which is, simply said: putting smiles on people's faces! 

In 2011, for the first time, we have sponsored various sports events in Belgium, Germany, Austria and Latvia. In Latvia, we partnered up with the leading sports marketing agency in the Baltics 'AlphaBaltic'. A hit in the rose! We brought together 900 enthusiasts on skates, for a race on a brilliant course, at a hundred meter from the beach! The sun set out in the early morning that day and it was an awesome feeling for us to see so many happy people here! We got compliments from everyone who attended the event! It was a great event, which is supported by the city council of the city-resort of Jurmala, Latvia.

Thanks to the great success, the event will take place again in 2012. So write down August 5 in your agenda already! Earlier this year, we will welcome international cyclists to the UCI 1 race in Jurmala on May 19.

We have a lot more events coming up in 2012, and we will release all the news as early as we can. For that reason, keep following our websites and this blog. We would be glad to welcome you to our events and we will make sure it's going to be a special experience!

With this blog, I would like to keep you up to date on the cool things we do, what we do on a daily basis, give you an insight in product development and more. Later on the year, we will add more videos with interviews with the people in our team, with athletes who use our products and who will give their feedback. 

We think this blog is an important addition to our Facebook Page and our Official Company Website . We love being connected with our clients to get maximum feedback.

Once again, to all of you, thank you very much for your support and looking forward to meet you at the events in 2012!

Kevin Van Lancker
Director at the Orana Dynamics Group

Articles on our website

Have you read our inside story of 2 events we attended late 2011? We will be adding more of them throughout 2012.

Article on BERLIN MARATHON 2011

Article on KRAKOW Polish Inline Cup