Swiss clothing manufacturer Assos is a brand name which carries a certain amount of gravity – its price point isn’t exactly bargain basement but this reflects the quality, research and innovation that the brand has always be synonymous with. Assos has a history full of firsts, wins & records and their products have become a benchmark to other manufacturers.

 

Assos was founded almost by accident, in 1976, Toni Maier-Moussa, a keen cyclist & engineer had obtained a license from the US Military (yep, back then you needed permission!) to use of carbon fibre to create the worlds first carbon framed bike. The frame, which had teardrop shaped tubes, looked revolutionary but Toni needed to prove it was faster, he decided to test his creation in a wind tunnel, something that was common in the aerospace industry but had never been done for bikes before.

 

His theory was correct, the aerodynamic tubing created less drag than regular round tubes. But what was more interesting to Toni was that the test rider’s woollen clothing & position on the bike were responsible for far more drag than the frame. Pushing the riders head down & arms forward onto extended bars (yes – he pretty much invented Tri-Bars too…) Borrowing a downhill ski racing suit from a friend he realised that the close fitting shiny material was far more aerodynamic… and thus lycra bike wear, the uniform of the roadie was born. Within 5 year the pro peleton had ditched the traditional wool racewear that had been standard clothing for almost a century and had adopted the stretchy new fabric.

In the thirty + years Assos have been involved in cycling they can claim a significant number of firsts – first carbon bike, first ‘aero’ bar extension, first use of lycra, first skinsuit, first elastic short pad, etc. etc. etc.

 


Assos have an impressive palmares too with wins including over 200 world championships & Olympic golds and every major bike race on the planet!

What is great about the company is that despite having plenty of reason to rest on their reputation they never stop innovating.

 

Take this year’s collection, products such as the hK_SturmNuss- a 3/4 knicker which has 3 different fabrics to cope with the movement, friction & breathability complications of designing a short that keeps riders dry. If defies convention by making the upper part of the short loose to allow movement instead of trying to make a waterproof fabric that needs to stretch (and breathe) the result is a comfortable and stylish piece of clothing that doesn’t have the binbag look of most waterproofs & doesn’t fail to function like most soggy attempts at lower limb rainwear.

 

It’s not just on top end apparel that Assos continue to innovate – the humble armwarmer, often an afterthought in most manufacturers collection and usually little more than a stitched lycra tube – not for Assos – their s7 armwarmers are sized, two-piece, anatomically cut and UV resistant, they don’t slip down or ruck up when you flex your arm and their fabric doesn’t lose its elasticity.

 

Assos are also way ahead of the field when it comes to designing products for women, they realized that elastic waistbands were not an ‘acceptable’ substitute for bibshorts in a ladies product range & set about developing a prouct that mirrored the traditional two strap bib’s performance but was far more comfortable for a woman to wear. The result? A Y shaped detachable yoke known as the MonoBib & a womens specific chamois.

 

Over thirty years have passed since Toni Maier-Moussa’s first wind tunnel experiments and Assos continue to perfect cycling attire with new fabrics, designs and rigerous product testing.

Even now nothing Assos makes is sold to the public until Toni has personally tested it…well, maybe not the women’s bibs!

To view the full range please take a look at our Assos brand shop at Wiggle.