Our first sandal collab ever is a special one. Now live - our the limited edition Ultra-Tulip sandals and bike bag collab with long-time Bedrockers and purveyors of neoclassical bicycle luggage & components of Ron's Bikes. Read all about it below.

The origin of this collaboration story is Ronnie of Ron’s Bikes - though we’ve known him by many monikers over the years - Ultraromance, Poppi, Benedict, LaRon- the list goes on. An early Bedrock convert, Ronnie has been a unique champion of our freedom-feeling’ adventure footwear, advocating by accidental example a simpler way to ride, pack, and even dress for the occasion of bike rides, both backyard and cross country. Over the years he’s penned a handful of entertaining takes on the subject for our blog, like No shoes, No Chamois, No Problem!and we’ve had the pleasure of sponsoring his directorial debut in the Super 8 film, California Gold.

Ronnie’s alt-bike empire, for a lack of a better word, has grown from that of leagues of online admirers and subsequent evangelizers to that of a neoclassical bike luggage and component enterprise, Ron's Bikes. Ronnie and partner Arya, operate Nutmeg Needleworks in Waterbury Connecticut, where they now design and make their famed Fab’s Chest bike bags alongside other luggage for the bike industry. There too you’ll find additional business ventures of Ronnie, such as Ultra Dynamico Tires or the occasional custom bike frame. If your interest is piqued we highly suggest an internet rabbit hole into Ron's world - a google search is all it will take but his but Alt-Cycler's digest or Youtoob would all be a good place to start.

With his thousands of miles saddle miles logged in our Y-strapped sandals and likely thousands of people he's given the nod/okay to pedal in Bedrocks to, we rightly came to Ron to make our first sandal collab happen. The tulip motif, which in various ways adorns most of their bike bags and accessories and may even be considered their company logo(?), was the obvious choice for a collaborative webbing pattern and one we knew would look damn good on our sandals. Together, we designed up several repetitious iterations before landing on the aesthetically fresh brown tone tulip motif. We used the webbing for two sandals styles with a total of 300 units for the limited run.

First up is the Ultra-Tulip with our Cairn PRO II platform, Ron’s favorite Bedrock style and now his long awaited pro model. 

 Then, for those who like our 3D footbed and appreciate even more matchy-matchy brown tones, we made Ultra-Tulip in Cairn 3D GEO.

And finally, with 50 units available exclusively on Ronsbikes.com is the accompanying bike bag to this collection, the small Fabio’s Chest with matching Ultra-Tulip webbing - also launching 10AM MT / 12PM ET.

About the collaboration in Ron's Words:

"Last winter during peak hide your toes weather Bedrock reached out about a summer collaboration project that had us instantly dreaming of sandal season. If you haven’t noticed, it is now peak let your toes out season, and in a rare successfully actuated timeline, we have this sumptuous pairing of sandal and bag to tantalize both your bicycle and feet. The nucleus of this collaboration consist of the “ultra tulip” print straps that Bedrock have incorporated into their PRO and GEO cairns sandals, and that we’ve (Ron's Bikes) used as webbing on a (take a deep breath) special edition brown and tan cotton faced X11 x-pac small Fab’s Chest handlebar/saddle bag.

I have been a Bedrock evangelical since their early days nearly a decade ago, and have found them to be the most comfortable, best performing, lightest, and best looking (for a sandal) footwear out there. On that January day last winter, we thought how could we make them better?? The answer was clear — ad some Ron's Bikes tulips! After passing strap ideas and colors back and forth a few times with the Bedrock bunch, we settled on several shades of brown, and this cool tulip pattern that looks like camo from afar, and flower power up close. A muscular hippie — the archetype of both our brands.

The next step was matching the webbing and incorporating it into a limited run of 50 of our best selling bag, the small Fab’s Chest. Using Connecticut made cotton faced x-pac laminate in brown and tan, we made the body and pockets of the bag and used the 1” tulip webbing to contrast on the main extendable flap. The inside of the bag is lined with a special brown and tan tulip pattern. These bags are a fashion and function forward addition to nearly any bike, and will last you a lifetime of travel and grocery runs."