Woom – an onomatopoeic name that carries movement within itself: swing, a sense of departure, and that first moment when cautious uncertainty turns into balance, wobbling becomes riding, and color turns into feeling.
Who still remembers their first bicycle?
Mine was mauve, a colour you only choose when all the others are already taken. It was far too heavy, far too big for me, and at first fitted with training wheels that rattled and clattered as the bike swayed from side to side. It took a long time to find balance with that inherited piece of equipment. It seemed to resist me with every movement.
But then, one day in the courtyard behind my grandmother’s house, the moment arrived. A neighbour gave me a push, let go, and I held my balance—and it worked. From that point on, I could ride a bicycle. I felt like I was taking off.
But what if bicycles could actually fly? Or if they already felt that way the very first time you set off?
From letting go and taking off
In 2013, when my first son was born, Woom also came into being. The start-up garage where Christian Bezdeka and Marcus Ihlenfeld were working is only a few kilometres away from the place where I myself learned to ride a bicycle—and where my child would later take his first attempts as well.
And once again, it all began with a bulky, inherited bike that simply would not make riding work. It was quickly exchanged for a Woom bike. In blue, so it could be told apart from the many other red Wooms at the playground.
And indeed, within ten minutes the child could ride a bike. With my second son a few years later, it went even faster. He sat down on the neon coral-coloured bike and rode off, as if he had always known how. Between those two bikes lie only a few years. From four initial colours and a single model in different sizes, a whole bicycle empire has grown—now offering bikes for babies all the way to teenage mountain adventurers. The colour range is so finely tuned that even Pantone might look on with a touch of envy.
And the secret?
Perhaps it lies in the naive original idea: out of love, to create the best bicycle in the world for one’s own children. And to truly see them as children. Until then, children’s bikes had simply been shrunken versions of adult bicycles. From the very beginning, Woom shifted perspective and looked at the world through children’s eyes. The bikes are intuitive to ride and extremely lightweight. Learning to ride happens almost by itself. And when tears come, they are tears of joy. A safe environment, trust in the child, and the conscious act of taking time are, of course, just as essential as the right bicycle.
Very quietly, a milestone emerges. A moment in which boundaries are crossed. Where pride outweighs everything else. Where frustration quickly turns into joy. And, every now and then, into sheer exuberance.
Not only for the children, but for Woom itself as well. In the company’s office, people have in fact already asked themselves what it would take to make bicycles fly. Inspired by the Kids Advisory Board—a group of children who tell the brand, without filters, how they would run the company and imagine what a bicycle might look like if logic had no limits.
Of course, it is not about making bicycles fly (or is it?), but about creating that moment when everything feels light, simply because the perspective is right—and perhaps also because of the colour of the very first bike.
photos: Woom GmbH
