Rain-bow featured in Dutch newspaper Het Parool

English (quick ;)) translation from Het parool, 11-1-2021

Spanish Amsterdammer Oski Collado (52) sells “Rain-Bow” fenders, made from bendable plastic samples that were normally thrown away. His clientele consists of cycling enthusiasts from the US to Taiwan, who order a set of mudguards via the webshop, and then assemble them themselves.

“They are often ordered by people with a Brompton folding bike, Eeyo Bike or a Cowboy Bike, a hip, electric bicycle from Brussels, the first models of which were delivered without a mudguard. I buy online Gazelle Kwikstep folding bicycles from the sixties, which I fix up in my style and sell them in a pop-up shop in Amsterdam. ”

Collado pimps bikes – from fixies to electric folding bicycles – with bicycle saddle covers and handlebar tapes with handlebar caps, which he makes from old leather, corks and inner tubes. Cost: between 100 and 500 euros for a complete overhaul. “In this way I give worn out bicycle saddles and handlebars a new life.”

For years he was a photographer, among others for music magazine Oor; he had many artists in front of his lens, from metal band Korn to Coldplay, but the photography work was gradually ending. “I’ve always worked with my hands, built things myself. As a child in Barcelona I asked for a drill or a hammer instead of a toy. Later in the punk scene, we did everything ourselves, from building a skateboard halfpipe from recycled material to a stage for a band. A great source of inspiration is Gaudí, who believed in simplicity, minimalism and let nature do its work. ”

Collado’s bicycle saddle covers made of leather from found sofas are an ode to his father-in-law, artist Joop Rooijers, who died a year and a half ago. “He always reused everything. He made bicycle straps and rubber bands from car inner tubes and also made bicycle saddle covers from old leather, which he attached to the saddle with shoelaces.

He’s not a hoarder, he says. “The trick is to find a balance between what you find on the street and what you can reuse. Good side effect from the coronavirus pandemic it is that we realise that we have to treat the earth differently. The world we live in is fragile. We have been thrown back to ourselves for the first time in ages. Recycling and making things yourself are now more appreciated, instead of keep buying new things. ”