Why is Apple one of the most successful companies in the world? Because they’re innovative? Yes of course! But maybe it’s also because design and engineering sit at the same table. Aesthetic is as equally important as function. Steve Jobs cared about how a product looked on the inside as much as the outside, obsessing over detail, famously rejecting the original logic boards that were inside the Apple II as the ‘lines were not straight enough’. Apple also took an existing product that had been around for a number of years (first mobile phone first developed in 1973) and completely revolutionised it. Making the iPhone more compact and beautiful but also faster and smarter on the inside.

In my opinion a lot of this DNA can be found at Dutch bike company VanMoof.

You don’t have to move to Amsterdam to know that cycling is the most common (and convenient) way of getting around the city.

When I moved here nearly one year ago from the UK, my first priority was finding myself a bike for the daily commute and for generally exploring my new city.

I didn’t hang about, and on my second day in the Netherlands I bought a traditional refurbished fiets (that’s Dutch for bike). It was heavy, had a step in frame and it definitely wasn’t the prettiest thing I’ve ever purchased. Despite all that it still set me back around €170 (which is common for a second hand bike in Amsterdam).

Cycling around after a few months, I noticed the paint started to chip off, the wheel covers were bending beyond recognition, little bits of rust would appear here and there, the lights stopped working, the wheel lock had started to jam, I experienced not one, but two punctures and generally the love for my fiets had faded.

During these months I had started taking note of a particular brand of bike called VanMoof. Their owners looked happier than the average commuter, not only was the bike aesthetically pleasing, when I started researching the brand and some of the other models such as their Electrified S and SmartBike I soon realised they cared not only about how it looked, but how it functioned. My belief is that VanMoof’s mission is to encourage more people in cities to use a bike as a mode of transport over anything else by revolutionising the industry.