It gets a little foggy when we try and remember exactly when Dirtyhabit started out. It wasn’t until we were sitting at a show last year that we realised we’d actually been doing this for 11 years now! The first actual Dirtyhabit product – an embroidered T-Shirt, got produced in 1995, with a batch of 20 shirts going mostly to friends and family.
People seemed to like what we were doing so we stepped it up a bit, made our first range of t-shirts and headed out to a few races and events. A few products got in the mags and we hooked up a few riders with some shirts. Things went OK and we’ve followed a pretty similar pattern ever since…”
“We’ve been riding bikes all our lives. We got into MTB’s back in 1988 when the first Marin’s and Kona’s hit these shores. We rode around on bikes 4 sizes too big for us with U-brakes under the chainstays that clogged continually in the British mud. We rode Biopace chainrings, bought shiny expensive things made by Ringle and drilled holes in our components to make them lighter. We eventually learned the error of our ways.
Around 1990 we got involved with BMX, drawn by its resurgence and heavily influenced by Hoffman’s legendary ‘Head First’ video. Luckily with Hastings and Backyard only 20 miles away we got to ride with some of the best and also in turn filmed our first BMX video called ‘Guilt trip’.”
“We always had a big attachment to MTB’s though and have always ridden our big bikes like overgrown BMX’s. It wasn’t a pretty sight seeing a 22lb Kona XC bike with flat bars hitting up the trails, but those guys at DMR hadn’t got round to making the Trailstar yet… “
“Dirtyhabit might have been around for a while but we’re still about as small as you can get. There’s just the two of us designing and producing the products, but recently our good friends at Upgrade got involved to help us get the products out to the shops. Their warehouse was much bigger than Dan’s flat anyway…”
“We don’t have any message to force down your throat, no corporate backers or shadowy investors telling us what we should do. We try to keep the cheese at bay and be honest and truthful to who and what we are. At the end of the day we’re just a couple of guys making the stuff we always wanted when we started out riding.