Interview
We get to know better the winner of the 'Design Your Cycling Jersey' contest, in support of the Spanish Red Cross and Italy's Protezione Civile, with a story linking track cycling and fashion.
“My name is Loris Gobbi (personal website). I’m 37 years old, I come from Italy and I live in the San Marino Republic. I was a track cyclist, a member of the Italian national team during the 2004 Athens Olympics cycle. I took part in several UCI Track World Cup rounds, and as soon as I knew I wouldn’t enjoy a chance to turn pro, I quickly turned my efforts towards my other big passion, which is fashion. I started working on ‘fast fashion’ design for the Terranova Group company, with which I made lots of T-shirt designs, and continued to evolve to later become a fully-fledged fashion designer, 14 years ago. I’m currently working for a brand called Calliope.
“Cycling is my whole life. As a junior, I raced for the Saeco youth team, in those famous times when Mario Cipollini changed jersey designs for almost every race. I’m from the Emilia-Romagna region, close to the hometown of Marco Pantani and even closer to the place where Valentino Rossi was born. Those two influences are crucial to understand my life and have been a proper boost to my creativity. As I started working for DAFNE FIXED (you should watch their videos here), I designed our own cycling kits, just for fun, and as people liked them more and more, I started doing collaborations for them. I’ve also been working for the last two years as brand manager for the Granfondo Squali, one of the most renowned sportives in Italy.
“To design the Movistar Team / Alé’s Charity Jersey, I followed the brand’s indications for the contest: adding some colour to people’s life in these grey, often dark times, grim ones. The meaning of this jersey is to add some light, to bring a rainbow up to the minds of those who follow us. Lighten their lives up and draw a path for solidarity, riding together towards the end of this difficult situation. In order to show you how much inspired I felt when this competition was launched, you can find above the 40 sketches I used before launching the definitive candidate for the jersey.
“My wife, who will be giving birth to our first child this week, helped me choose the final composition. It’s a psychedelic effect, sort of a trend in these times, and I feel like people will find a positive sign in seeing this rainbow after the hard tims we’ve been through, it’s some good hope for what’s to come. It may mark the end of struggle, the ability of the mankind to surge from such difficult situations, and seek for new opportunities, new ways to build hope.
“I live and breathe cycling since my parents took me to the Giro d’Italia to see Marco Pantani in the flesh. Those are unique emotions, which you can’t easily forget. I’d love to join the team when the jersey is used at a race. I’ve watched the Movistar Team documentary on Netflix and it’s made me really love what they do. I’ve become a big fan of the team.“