WOOM | THE YOUNG COMPANY WITH AN EXCEPTIONAL SUCCESS STORY
For woom, the year 2019 saw exceptional growth: by August the company had already matched the total turnover achieved in the whole of 2018. Since its foundation in 2013, woom has not only established itself as the most popular children’s bike manufacturer in the German-speaking world, but has also expanded worldwide and is today present in 30 countries.
The number of staff working for the company has doubled since last year. “Our goal is to create a bike world for kids and to share our passion for cycling with as many young people as possible around the globe,” says woom CEO Marcus Ihlenfeld. Asia is set to be one of woom’s next target markets.
In 2013 Christian Bezdeka and Marcus Ihlenfeld founded woom in a garage in Vienna. The company is 100% focussed on developing and manufacturing bicycles and bicycle accessories for children. When children feel comfortable on a bike, they enjoy riding more. Children learn to ride up to three times faster on woom’s award-winning bikes.
It all started with Christian’s and Marcus’ search for the perfect children’s bike, which led them to consider the individual criteria that make up such a bicycle. They spent the next six years looking in detail at the world of children’s bikes. Today, woom has an 80-strong team. Each member of staff is a specialist in his/her respective field, from designers and product developers to engineers. They all share a passion for bicycles and a mission to share this love of cycling with the next generation.
As a qualified biomedical technician and industry designer with years of experience in the bike industry, Christian Bezdeka spent a lot of time looking at the anatomy of children and developing specialist size tables for fitting children’s bikes. Children are at the heart of all our developments and form the basis for the lightest series-production kids’ bike in the world. This stands in stark contrast to the majority of other bicycle manufacturers, who simply make smaller versions of their adult bikes. woom bikes is always searching for ways to further improve its children’s bikes, an attitude reflected in the forward-looking and function-driven design of its products.
This hard work has resulted in six woom bikes for children between one and a half and fourteen years of age. Made with great attention to detail, woom bikes are ideal for all-round use and suitable for any weather or terrain. Bikes whose quality shows in the fun children have riding them and which become faithful companions on all their adventures.
At the Eurobike fair, woom presented its brand new e-mountain bike for the first time. The name remains top secret. E-bikes for adults have experienced a huge boom in recent years. Now woom has developed a new e-mountain bike for children so youngsters can keep up with their parents out on the trails. The lightweight, smooth drive system produces a natural, safe battery boost for more pedal power when out and about exploring. The motor, including the battery, can be removed, thereby enabling the bike to be used as a normal mountain bike. “By developing this all-terrain e-bike we want to give families the chance to expand their horizons and spend more time having fun together in nature,” explains woom CEO Christian Bezdeka. Release 2020
woom’s new mountain bike invites children to test their limits and overcome obstacles. Compared with other mountain bikes, the woom OFF stands out from the crowd thanks to its incredibly low weight and solid design – qualities it shares with the other woom bike models. Despite its lightweight construction, the bike is tough enough for off-road adventures and has lots of clever components for style-conscious explorers aged from six to fourteen years.
The mountain bike is equipped with a light carbon fork, high-quality tyres with maximum grip (even in high-speed corners) and minimum rolling resistance, hydraulic disc brakes with excellent modulation, and a special chainring designed to keep the chain in place on all terrains. The strong frame can be relied on not only out on the trails but also when bunny-hopping the curbs in the city.
The woom OFF will be available from late summer 2019 in timeless black and silver. In spring 2020 there will be a version of the bike with an air suspension fork.
At woom we have based everything we do on one simple understanding: kids are not just small adults. This was the key idea behind our new clothing line for young riders: WORN TO BE WILD. The collection can be worn any time and any place, while the individual items are durable, breathable and comfortable. For all those who like uncomplicated clothing but still want to look stylish – in the forest, at the playground and on the city’s cycle paths.
Sustainable materials and resource-friendly production help maintain our planet’s wonderful diversity for the next generation. Timeless unisex design and outstanding durability make our clothes a favourite not only with today’s wearers but also with their younger brothers and sisters!
The entire collection is available from autumn 2019.
More information about woom can be found at: