DETIME PEDALS INSPIRES ART AND KICKS
Alex Valcke was just a teenager when he saw a fixed gear bike for the first time. Having grown up in Paris, Alex had discovered skating at a young age and was deep into the culture by the time he traded skateboarding for pedaling. Recognizing many of the parallels between skate and fixed-gear cultures, it wasn’t long before cycling came to the forefront.
Alex’s affair with fixed gear bikes led him to bike polo, a form of polo popularized by bike messengers in cities around the world. When the aggressive sport began to take its toll on his bike and components, particularly his pedals, Alex started riding TIME ATAC and has been ever since. His journey through the sport also served as inspiration to launch his own brand of custom clipless compatible sneakers and Valcko Studios was born.
Turning everything from Vans to limited edition Off-White drops to Crocs, Alex Studios has carved a niche for itself in cycling’s counterculture.
We recently caught up with Alex to hear about how he got started and about his history with TIME Pedals:
How did you first come into cycling?
Through fixed gear, obviously. Fixed gear is so beautiful. I first saw one and asked the guy what kind of bike it was. He told me, “It’s a fixed gear” and I was like, “that’s what I’m going to get.” I was 15 and got it as a Christmas present.
I started to go around and see the places people go to do tricks and I first met the community there. I fell in love with the community, [because] you could make friends so easily. Everything was new to me!
Maybe two months later I [found out] that the Bike Polo scene is about to get a new court that’s in my ‘hood. That’s how I got into polo a bit deeply, because I could! It was so close and everybody there was so cool about it. Also, I was the youngest, so that was cool!
How has fixed gear culture influenced you?
Growing up I was able to go everywhere in Paris, but like you see a different side of it. I used to go everywhere in Paris, but through the Metro. So, like, you don’t see Paris actually. You know the stations, you know kind of where they are through the lines, but you don’t know where.
[On the bike] I was able to go everywhere! It was really a freeing kind of thing and I think that’s what opened my mind. Especially because I could travel for bike polo really fast with it. Bike Polo got me a job because my mentor in Polo knew a bike shop owner, the best one in Paris, and I needed an internship and they brought me in.
I stayed there for a month, just because it was summer, and I didn’t have anything to do. I was only playing Polo and going to (Polo) tournaments. They gave me a bike for that and then they offered me a job. After I graduated, I didn’t know what I wanted to do and I didn’t want to go further with what I was doing, accounting, so yeah that was also my first job. I was really 100 percent into it! My hope is to bike, my job is to sell bikes, and when I go out its with my bike friends so that was the whole package.
My first love with TIME pedals was with bike polo.
–Alex Valcke
What was your first experience with TIME pedals?
In fixed gear you don’t ride clipless unless you ride a road bike, and you get into it. With bike polo we started quickly to go to clipless, but we didn’t really know what pedals were the best because obviously there are no pedals for what we do. So, we kind of tried everything bro!
Then there was this trend that came from the guys in Seattle, with old school TIME pedals. And first of all, the pedals? The old school ones, you know the big ones. I was like “damn that looks nice!” right? So, I went to look for second hand vintage TIME pedals, ATAC right? So, I got some for like $15 and these pedals and the cleats that came with them lasted for a year!
That was the first thing: pedals? Clipless? TIME and nothing else! That’s it.
Tell us about the first pair of shoes you modified.
All my bike parts were falling apart every two months because of bike polo, right? The front brake was breaking every two weeks, I had to bend it back before it breaks, and I have to get a new one. And that’s when it came to the shoes as well. I broke the Chrome shoes I think in 10 months playing bike polo with them. So that’s how I got into making my first pair of my own because I was like if the shoes only last that long let me get some new ones, some nice ones that I like.
I’m a bike polo player, I work in a bike shop, I sell fixed gear parts, you know what I mean? I wanted to make my own style you know. So that’s how I ended up doing it. It [started] just casual for me. For so many years I was just doing it for myself right?
And then it kind of triggered me during COVID confinement, there is nobody in the world that does it! So, after I found that out, I was like looking all over the internet to see if anyone is doing it. There must be someone who does it, right? I just didn’t see it. I went on a quest to find something and didn’t find anything. So, I [thought] “maybe there is a market there!”
You know I wasn’t really into making a business… I’m personally more a guy that would put some money aside and try to buy a house you know? Working in a bike shop and everything else for 10 years, you see all the problems that can come with a company, that can come with opening a store. So, I wasn’t into this mindset, right?
But when I did the Off-White [shoes] it went so wild on the internet, like the video went 170K views like that and I gained 1,000 followers just over that! [I thought] maybe the thing that was like normal for me, to have my own pair and not a cycling brand pair, is not something that is so usual. Maybe I will give it a shot. So, I bought some Vans, customized them, and sold them. That’s how I started!
Was ist dein Background in Sachen Kunst?
Ich habe Kunst im Allgemeinen schon immer gemocht. Ich habe früher viel gezeichnet. Ich habe auch gern gemalt. Ich hatte dieses kreative „Ich“, das irgendwie verblasste, als ich mit dem Skaten anfing. Das ist etwas, was ich bedauere, dass ich nicht in der Lage bin, beides zu tun und mir Zeit für Sport und künstlerische Aktivitäten zu nehmen. Aber ich habe schon immer gerne Dinge angefasst und selbst gemacht.
Wie mein Motorrad. Wenn du mir gesagt hättest, ich werde ein individuell gestaltetes Motorrad haben, hätte ich gesagt: „Was redest du da?“ Ich hatte keine Ahnung davon, aber man kann es ja schnell selbst lernen, wenn man will, oder? Ich habe das Gefühl, dass es nur eine Lebenseinstellung ist. Sogar in der Schule nannten mich die Lehrer einen „Cancre“. Auf Französisch bedeutet „Cancre“, dass du nur das tust, was du tun willst.
Wenn ich zum Beispiel nicht gut genug bin, gebe ich Null. Aber wenn ich gut in etwas bin, werde ich daran arbeiten und 100 Prozent geben. So bin ich zum Radsport gekommen; ich bin auf 100 gegangen. Ich denke, es ist nicht nur der kreative Teil, sondern eher die Methodik. Du willst Dinge herstellen, also musst du einen Weg finden, sie herzustellen. Wenn es so etwas nicht gibt, musst du einen Weg finden, die Werkzeuge herzustellen, um das zu machen, was du willst. Das hat mich dazu gebracht, mir Gedanken darüber zu machen, wie ich das Design gestalten kann, wie es funktioniert und wie ich es sicher machen kann. Ich versuche, an alle Möglichkeiten zu denken. Ich glaube, so ist mein kreativer Teil entstanden. Dass ich mir selbst keine Steine in den Weg lege und über den Tellerrand hinausschaue, um mein Ding durchzuziehen. So sehe ich also den künstlerischen Teil von mir.
Was hat dich dazu inspiriert, deine Kunst mit dem Radfahren zu verbinden?
Als ich sah, dass es für mich so normal war und für alle anderen nicht, da hatte ich das Gefühl, dass ich etwas anderes besitze. Ich wollte es zeigen, weil es den Leuten gefallen könnte und weil es ein Produkt sein könnte, das etwas in Gang setzen könnte.
Für mich sind die Kicks nur ein Schritt zu dem, was ich tun will. Ich habe eine Vorstellung davon, wie du dich beim Radfahren kleiden würdest. Auch im Internet kannst du eine Vision haben, und wenn du das Gefühl hast, dass sie etwas werden könnte, kannst du sie einfach im Internet zeigen und es wird danach beurteilt. Man wird dir sagen, ob es gut ist oder nicht. Ob die Leute es wollen oder ob sie es für Schrott halten.
Ich werde versuchen, mich nach diesen Kicks weiterzuentwickeln. Kicks wird immer mein Hauptgeschäft sein, weil ich das Gefühl habe, dass es einen großen Markt gibt, der noch nie wirklich existiert hat. Aber ich möchte eine Menge Dinge entwickeln. Du musst die Zeit finden, alles zu tun, was du nicht halb tun kannst. Ich will alles 100 oder 0 machen, denn es ergibt keinen Sinn, etwas halb richtig zu machen.
Alex' maßgeschneiderte Sneaker findest du unter https://valckostudios.bigcartel.com und mehr von ihren Arbeiten kannst du auf Instagram @valcko_studios sehen.
