THE QUESTION
Where it started
Our founders went through a difficult period trying to conceive.
During that time they researched the environmental and lifestyle factors that can affect fertility. It wasn't one study. It was the same theme surfacing again and again: chemical exposure, including the kind found in everyday clothing and performance sportswear worn against the skin for hours at a time.
As keen cyclists, they ride several hours at a time, with their skin pressed against synthetic kit for the full duration of every ride. It had never once occurred to them to wonder what that kit was actually made of.
WHAT WE FOUND
WHAT'S ACTUALLY IN STANDARD KIT
- PFAS
- Formaldehyde-based finishes
- Toxic dyes
- Plasticisers
Not rare exceptions. Standard practice across performance apparel manufacturing.
Chemicals like these are absorbed through the skin during exactly the kind of prolonged, sweat-heavy effort that cycling produces. Hours at a time, regularly, for years.
They found themselves asking what the cumulative effect of a chemical load like that might be, worn routinely, by the same people, for years...including for reproductive health.
Nobody making cycling kit was asking that question.
Not the brands, not the riders, not them, until they had a reason to.
THE DECISION
WHY WE BUILT THIS
That research changed how they thought about what they were putting on their bodies, not just what they were putting in them.
A family went through something difficult, traced part of the cause to something as ordinary as sportswear, and decided that should not be true for anyone else who did not have to find out the hard way
Rider health is not a brand value we chose for positioning. It is the reason NUL Standard exists.
Built in Yorkshire, shaped in Denmark, by people who already knew they were going out regardless of the weather, they just wanted what they wore to stop working against them.
WHERE WE STAND NOW
What that means in practice
Every material we use that comes into contact with skin meets Oeko-Tex Standard 100. That is our floor, not our ceiling.
The certification exists to protect the rider. The planet benefits too.
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Oeko-Tex Standard 100
On every material that touches your skin.
NEXT
We publish every material decision we have made, including the ones where we could not hit zero, and why.