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The entire 11,500 Santander-sponsored London hire bike fleet is to be fitted with Blaze lighting following a successful trial.
Utilising the Lazerlight – already a massively successful aftermarket product – Santander has paid for an is now fitting the unique projector style lights that beam a cycle icon onto the road six metres ahead.
Back in March, Blaze secured £1 million in funding to expand its operations.
To help promote the roll out – and make Londoners and visitors to the capital more aware of this new safety feature – Santander has produced a Star Wars themed short film starring Jessica Ennis-Hill and Jenson Button that shows rebel alliance fighters and stormtroopers face off on Santander Cycles, using their Blaze lights. The below film, entitled ‘Santander Brings Light to the Dark Side’, also features a cameo from Rory McIlroy.
The entrepreneur behind the Blaze Laserlight, Emily Brooke, also features in the film. Emily developed the concept during her final year at Oxford University following a Santander Universities’ funded trip to entrepreneurship school in Boston, where Emily decided to ‘give her idea a go’ and turn the lights into a business.
Commenting on the short film, World and Olympic Champion, Jessica Ennis-Hill said, "The film is great fun and I loved leading the Rebels! It will all help promote a great new innovation on Santander Cycles that I hope will encourage more people to use them to get around, get fit and ease congestion in the capital."
