4_DiscoverBenelux_Issue17_May_2015_Q9_Scan Magazine 1 28/04/2015 13:08 Page 9
Discover Benelux & France | Design | Roetz-Bikes
‘We need to get back to the Roetz’ Sometimes it is the down-to-earth kind of man who makes people think: why don’t we all just use better materials, better foods, better everything to sustain and maintain a better earth? The man with this vision is Mark Groot Wassink, one of the founders of Roetz-Bikes, based in the country famous for its cyclists: The Netherlands. TEXT: CATHy VAN KLAVEREN | PHOTOS: ROETz-BIKES
Although Roetz-Bikes is set up in Amsterdam, Groot Wassink says it’s not bound to the city. “We can deliver anywhere. And we do, for instance in Germany where we have a growing amount of dealers. Dutch people are known to thoughtlessly take their bike to do the shopping, but,” he says, “if Germans get on a bike, they make a conscious decision and having a stylish bike is more important.” The bicycles are not typical looking, with dark colours, dark tyres and loads of accessories. Instead, they’re bright with light tyres, have handles made from cork and the fenders are made from beech wood. Groot Wassink says it’s the only bike made from as much as 70 per cent used mate-
rials. They provide three models each for men and women and the retro-feel and bright colours make it a casual but also an adventurous bike. So why Roetz? “Roetz refers to ‘roots’, we need to get back to the basics if we want to make conscious decisions,” Groot Wassink says. “And it’s a reference to ‘roetsjen’, a Dutch word meaning riding a bike is fun.” Four years ago Groot Wassink and his companion Tiemen ter Hoeven started Roetz-Bikes. “Did you know that every year a million bikes are thrown away in the Netherlands? And another million bikes are purchased? That’s why we made an
agreement with municipalities to use the bikes they collect at railway stations and from the canals and so on. We carefully pick out bicycles and pull them apart. If the frame’s good, we can make a Roetz bike.” Most of these frames, Groot Wassink says, were made ten to thirty years ago, but they were created to last a lifetime. “We clean it, coat it, make imperfections go away and we put the thing together. We also hire people who have difficulty getting a job. They are the ones who make the RoetzBikes.” If that isn’t sustainability, we don’t know what is. www.roetz-bikes.com
Issue 17 | May 2015 | 9