At Ryde, we don’t do fashion: we create moments.
You’ve heard me say that before, but it’s time to explore it a little further. At Ryde, we believe that the clothing doesn't make the person: it’s you that makes the person. A member of the Ryde Community is made up of experiences, moments, disruptions, failures & handshakes built from a lifetime of exploration; these are the things that we believe make a person what they are.
What we do believe is that part of exploring is developing your own personal style.
Whilst we don’t do fashion, Ryde does give you the tools to create your own personal style. Fashion is set by the thinking of groups who are removed from your passions and beliefs: style is determined by you.
So as you’re out exploring, we encourage you to ignore what “fashion” says you should be doing or wearing and to listen more to what your instincts tell you. If you want to combine a bucket hat, a quarter zip and swim shorts…do it, but don’t just wear them: wear them boldly as you step towards being even more unashamedly you.
The difference between fashion and style is clear: fashion is about conformity; style is about a lifetime spent exploring opportunities to be you.
Early March, 2022. I’d been itching for a mix up to the rhythm I’d been getting so used to. That mix up was to be found outside city limits. So I packed the car and headed east out of San Diego to find some snow, solitude and a bit of newness. Camping in the parking lot of a Best Western near the base of the mountain, I wrote this in my journal…. “adventure is a muscle that needs to be exercised. The more you exercise it, the more willing, adaptable & rewarding it becomes. The less that you do and the opposite becomes true. Comfort and domestication become more attractive and the adventure spirit soon withers.”
The next 18 hours went a little bit like this: bundled up car sleeping, hotel breakfast at a hotel I was not a guest of, a morning of average snowboarding with afternoon beers and burgers before making it back home to catch sunset at the beach. It wasn’t the grandest adventure of all time but it served the purpose I had intended it to. To break up the rhythm of routine. To change the pace and smell fresh air. To “train my adventure muscle.” And I count that a win. When I think of the spirit of adventure, I imagine it the same as a muscle. As we train, exercise and push our bodies, we become stronger. We become more adapted to the stimulus of exercise, thus making us willing to go further, harder, faster, longer. This concept obviously goes the other way as well. As we neglect our physical training, our bodies and muscles become weaker. Less adapted to the training we once were used to. And the longer we go without training, the harder it becomes to get back into it. The easier it becomes to make excuses. Comfort becomes more attractive because we know that getting to our goals will require pain, sacrifice and commitment. And the longer that continues, the harder and harder it becomes. It’s the same concept for adventure. It’s the same concept for anything really. Business, relationships, education, etc. But we like to focus on adventure here.
Maybe it’s my ADD, or my inability to sit still or stay put for more than a few weeks. But the exploration spirit inside of me is alive and well. And I plan on exercising it till exhaustion. I find life a bit sweeter with this cadence of routine adventure. And while I do believe that great effort yields great joy, I have also found that distance traveled isn’t always linear to the feeling that we’re chasing. Sometimes a couple hours drive or a local adventure is all that’s needed to satisfy this itch. It’s just another rep in the fight to keep our adventure spirits alive and healthy. And this cadence keeps staleness and boredom at bay. There’s a constant freshness between my time dedicated to productivity, and my time dedicated to exploration, both grand and local.
Ciao for now,
Blake
Blake Wilson is Ryde’s Inspiration Engineer and is based in San Diego. He is also currently responsible for some of Ryde’s US Collaborations.
The past couple months have seen us head to a couple new markets. The Stirling Laneway Markets and Mildura Night Markets, we absolutely love heading to new places, meeting you legends in the Ryde Community that we hadn't met before and meeting those of you that had never heard about Ryde before. Our upcoming market locations and dates are below, we can’t wait to see you there; come and have a chat.
NOVEMBER
4th - Campbelltown Moonlight Markets - 5.30pm - 9.30pm
5th - Vergeside Markets Jetty Road at Largs Bay - 10am - 3pm
20th - Gilles Street Markets 9am - 3pm
27th - Glenelg Sunset Markets 11am - 8pm
DECEMBER
3rd - Renmark Riverfront Markets 4pm - 9pm
10th - Murray Bridge Marketplace Pop Up shop 9am - 3pm
11th - Glenelg Sunset Markets - 2pm - 8pm
17th - Renmark Big 4 Caravan Park - 9am - 2pm
The teams at Ryde Clothing and Red Cacao are excited to announce their new collaboration: Creating Moments. Launching today, Ryde and Red Cacao will be working together to provide a range of unique experiences as we endeavor to create more meaningful moments for our communities. Working together to ensure that taste and style sit together to create moments for your pallet and your wardrobe, the teams at Ryde and Red Cacao are proud to embark on this journey together to continue to provide experiences for their communities that far exceed expectations. To celebrate this announcement, use the following link to sign up to their newsletter and get 10% off their online store! https://bit.ly/3LXWTFl
We’re excited to announce that our inspired line, will launch in December.
A line a little different, and one we’re so stoked about.
