We're thrilled to announce that we are now the official performance apparel sponsor for Danny MacAskill’s mountain biking projects. The Scottish street trials pro and YouTube sensation now acts as an Endura Brand Ambassador riding our MTB products and he will be part of our testing pool, supplying invaluable product feedback.
Danny became famous through his street trials video for Inspired Bicycles, filmed by Dave Sowerby, receiving several hundred thousand views overnight on YouTube back in 2009 and quickly becoming the first cycle video on the online channel to rack up over a million views. To date this video has been watched over 36 million times and the ground breaking riding round Edinburgh's urban landmarks remains an inspiration to riders young and old. His latest video hit, “The Ridge”, published seven months ago, showcases the breath-taking scenery of the Isle of Skye with Danny riding blood-curdling lines along the Cuillin ridges. It has already achieved over 34 million views on YouTube and a BBC documentary on "the making of" was shown on TV.
The cycle-clothing brand and the street trials star have got a lot in common, sharing a proud Scottish heritage, strong mountain biking roots and a constant but unassuming desire to improve, ensuring the deal is set to be a perfect match.
Endura’s director of product, Pamela Barclay, said: "There is a self-confidence in the combination of a rapidly growing Scottish brand linking with a Scottish living legend in the bike sector. We believe it is a powerful partnership for both sides but also great for Scotland and reinforces this wee country’s position as a hub of biking excellence."
Pamela did a mini interview with the pro rider from Dunvegan on the Isle of Skye:
- Q When did you first realize that you had superhuman powers?
- A “I suppose when I was about four years old and able to fly down a 20 foot nylon rope from my garden without burning my hands.”
- Q Did you have a vision for how you wanted your talent to develop, or did it just unfold?
- A “No not at all, my kind of trials riding has really developed very naturally over the years when I grew up riding my bike to school every day and having various curbs and things that I jumped off on the way home. It kind of slowly developed; I started jumping off higher walls and trying to ride along centres and things, and really to this day it’s been a very slow progression. I never had a goal of being a professional rider although I had my heels in riding. There’s definitely been no plan to it at all, and there still isn’t, I just see what I can do on my bike and maybe film it from time to time.”
- Q What do you want to achieve in the next five years?
- A “I’ve got a number of different projects in mind; I’m constantly thinking: What can I do next? Not necessarily to better what I’ve done previous to that because it probably would drive me mad, but it’s more a case of trying to do something completely different. So I have a few big projects in mind. At some point I’m probably going to try to do the sort of best video I could ever do filming on my trials bike, maybe go back to the streets and really try to put something down that I can look back on and that I couldn’t do better than. So that’s the plan.”
- Q If you weren’t doing this, what would you be doing?
- A “If I wasn’t riding my bike professionally I’d be most likely tuning a professional mountain biker’s mountain bike. Just before I was turning professional myself I had looked at joining the Downhill World Cup circuit as a bike mechanic, and that would have been a way for me to see the world through bikes, like I get to now being on my bike which is quite cool, but I think either way it would have been a fun time.”
- Q You also said you wanted to run a bike shop?
- A “Yes that’s still something that I’d like to do, and something I see myself doing sometime in the future is starting my own bike shop and running it, or maybe getting someone else to help me run it because I’m terrible organising myself.”
- Q You’ve obviously got a big portfolio of sponsorship deals with really impressive brands. What was it about Endura that made you think that we could be working together?
- A “From working in the bike shops, Endura has always been the brand on the shelf that’s been the most reliable kit, and I think it makes a really good sync, especially being a Scottish brand as well. You have a lot of the same values as I do, so I think it’s a relationship that could work really well and also help me look good on the trails.”
- Q How important is Scotland and being Scottish to you as a person?
- A “Definitely being Scottish is a very important thing to me and it’s certainly something that comes through in a lot of videos that I’ve done over the last years. I always keep thinking to myself that I’m going to venture further afield, but Scotland just keeps delivering the goods. You know, you kind of think “There can’t be anything more here”, but then you come up with something completely different or something that’s bigger and better than you’ve done before, so I think that’s a very important thing and something that I’d like to spread around the world as well.” Fortunately Danny passed the interview and we look forward to working with him. At the time of the interview Danny was eagerly anticipating his Drop and Roll show at Fort William, “home crowd and all”, which took place last weekend.
