Recently, I found myself in the Lake District for the now iconic, Kendal Mountain Festival. A gathering of the outdoor community, with a shared love for everything walking, hiking, riding, surfing, skiing etc. My one takeaway - beyond the effectiveness of the community essence - was that the outdoors does diversity a little better.
It's not loads better, but just better enough to be noticeable by someone like me, who has grown up noticing the diversity of the room I'm in.
Kendal's attendees were notably browner and noticeably more abundant than at Rouleur Live, for example - which has actually made strides into becoming much more diverse in recent years - but I still found the faces on the stands to follow that familiar trend of being mostly white and mostly male.
During my prep for the show, I came across Opening up the Outdoors, an organisation not unlike Cycling Culture Club that aims to make the outdoors a more diverse place, improve representation inside and outside of brands and support underrepresented groups with their outdoor endeavours. I'm a big fan of what they have achieved so far and I'll be keeping a close eye on them if only to glean a little inspiration from their more advanced journey. If you've not come across them yet, check out their rather lovely website to learn more. They have managed to secure a wealth of high-profile brands such as The North Face, Adidas Terrex, Arc’teryx, Patagonia and Vivobarefoot all of whom are committed to playing their part in the transformation of their industry. Something the cycling industry should consider strongly.
I've reached out to OUTO to chat, share ideas and hopefully collaborate, perhaps we'll even share a podcast soon.
The bottom line? Cycling Culture Club exists to bring people together to utilise the power of many diverse voices, I think it's time for brands within cycling to commit to this same purpose, joining forces to make bigger change, faster.