A Note for Brands

We’ve been approached by a couple of cycling brands looking for us to try out kit, bikes, or get involved with a campaign. This is super exciting and we love trying out new things! We’ve had to have a think about how we can use our privilege to advocate for the cycling culture we want to see, and put our money (or our freebies) where our mouth is. We are both disabled, and find things like big conversations, and emails totally exhausting, but this is important! so we have put this wee page together so brands can check out whether they meet these criteria before they approach us, and so we have something to refer people to if they contact us.

You can always get in touch with us to chat at lilithandabi@gmail.com. We’re very open to conversations, and to explain why these things are important to us, but won’t always have the energy and resources to respond immediately, so please bear with us.

First up, our ‘Must Haves‘ are our minimum requirements for brands who might want to work with us:

Must Haves

  • A clear and tangible commitment to Black Lives Matter, and to supporting BIPOC in cycling, obvious examples of this are signing up to the WTF bike explorers cycling industry pledge, or the Diversify Outdoors CEO pledge , divesting from police bike contracts, and meeting the demand of the Defund Bike Police campaign.

  • Trans-inclusive – in principle and in practice. In case you didn’t know, Lili is trans and non-binary, so we’re not interested if we can’t fundamentally agree that trans women are women, trans men are men, and that non-binary people are non-binary.

  • Fat positive. In case you didn’t know, Abi is fat and weighs anything up to 20 stone. We’re not interested if your bikes have weight limits that mean Abi can’t ‘safely’ ride them or if your cycling kits only fit Lili. Whilst Abi is happy to be part of efforts to diversify your feed, we’re not interested if she can ride your bikes but not fit into your shorts. We also aren’t here for talk about burning calories, losing pounds, or dropping inches.

  • Queer positive. We’re an unapologetically, unashamedly queer couple. It’s in the name. If you don’t explicitly support LGBTQ+ folxs, we’re not sure why you’re here…

What else do we want from brands, beyond our non-negotiable bottom line?

Wants

  • Affordable options and a commitment to access for low income folxs. This could look like a whole bunch of things.

  • Gender neutral – so you’ve got a men’s and a women’s section, but where does Lili fit? A great example of how sizings, cuts and fittings can be gender neutral, but still specific can be seen at Gender Free World.

  • A commitment to sustainability and environmental justice.

  • A commitment to social justice, ethical production, slow fashion, and fair labour.

Finally, we don’t do things half arsed, so if we’re trying out stuff, we put lots of time, energy and effort into doing the best possible job! So, whilst we will consider working with anyone who fulfills our must-haves, we will prioritise folx who fall into our below ‘dream’ criteria. 

Dreams

  • Queer owned or led.

  • BIPOC owned or led.

  • WTF owned or led.

  • Community owned or led.

  • Independent.

  • Local to us (Scotland!)

  • Vegan.