Five minutes with: Alé

In our latest series, we’re getting to grips with the brands that you deal with every day. The ‘Five minutes with’ series presents a company with five short, sharp and to-the-point questions about who they are and what they do. This week we’re joined by with Alessia Piccolo, Alé’s general manager and President of the Alé-Cipollini Team.

1. Can you tell us the history of the company?
Alé is an Italian cycling clothing brand that was born and bred in the outskirts of Verona 30 years ago. Designed for both men and women, our products are manufactured in Europe to the highest quality standards. At our headquarters, we have our factory on-site where we provide consumers with two types of cycling clothing: ready-to-wear collections and bespoke custom apparel.

For the past three decades, our company has challenged the norms to provide cyclists with vibrant and striking designs without ever compromising on fit or craftsmanship. We are really proud to be a part of the core of cycling; beyond clothing we channel our passion and resources into team and event sponsorship, evident in the likes of the Alé-Cipollini Team, FDJ Team, Bardiani CSF and the Alé La Merckx Gran Fondo.

2. What are you ultimately trying to achieve?
We really want to give cyclists a full cycling experience and pass on our passion and dedication for cycling clothing to the consumer. We want our riders to feel comfortable, but also feel powerful and unlimited – we try to achieve this through our attention to technical details, as well as our famous bold colours and graphics.

3. What gives you an edge over other brands in the industry?
Our products are not only technological and performance enhancing, our designs are strong and statement-making – without losing focus on the performance aspect. Brands can tend to focus on one or the other and visual design can often mean sacrificing technological advances, but we don’t sacrifice one for the other. With Alé, performance and creative design go hand in hand.

4. What innovations in the industry are exciting you at the moment?
As a brand that encourages its consumers to take to the saddle, we really care about road safety. It’s a hot topic worldwide and we think it’s fundamental to train and race in safe conditions. It’s for this reason that all our garments feature reflex inserts for a better visibility on the road.

5. What does the future hold for the company?
Our aim is to expand further internationally and continue conveying our passion through our products. We are cyclists, so if we can inspire more people to cycle and enjoy it as much as we do, then we know we are one step closer to achieving our mission.