The handmade's tale

Thirteen years ago a mother and son started making pedal straps in their family home; today they run a bike luggage business with distribution across the globe. Welcome to Restrap, proudly made in Yorkshire since 2010

- EMMA COLE

'It all began because I was a very poor student who was into riding bikes and needed some pedal straps,’ says Restrap founder Nathan Hughes as he and mum Helen Griffiths show Cyclist around the company headquarters in Leeds. ‘I decided to try to make some for myself out of old car seat belts, and then I sold a few to mates. It was only supposed to be a stopgap while I figured out what I wanted to do with my life but it evolved from there.’

‘Me and Nathan – well mostly me – used to make everything,’ chimes in Griffiths, who now sits as head of human resources. ‘We had an end-terrace house with a cellar, so Nathan would be down there cutting the seatbelts and sealing them on a heated chisel while I’d be upstairs on a sewing machine borrowed from my uncle. At a push I could sew three pairs of pedal straps in an evening. Even six years ago we were still scissor-cutting around cardboard cut-outs to make bags. Makes me go cold just thinking about it.’ And no wonder, because today Restrap produces some 10,000 items per month, from bikepacking luggage to Brompton handles to, of course, the inimitable pedal strap.

It’s a meteoric rise, but as we weave our way between the huge computer-controlled cutters and banks of sewing machines and employees sifting through swatches, Hughes begins to reveal there’s more to the company’s success than just an idea and hard graft.

Staffing matters