Then
Now
25 years of the bike life
The Nzo story stretches almost as long as mountain biking itself. We’ve been living the bike life for more than five decades, learning plenty along the way.
Nzo began in 1998 with a small shop on the main street of Rotorua—the town that would go on to become the mountain biking capital of New Zealand, if not the Southern Hemisphere. Life partners Glen Anderson and Gaz Sullivan left their design careers in Auckland for the big steam, making gear out the back and selling it out the front. Early adopters of this new sport rode in Nzo kit and helped shape every design.
We started Nzo to share the ideas we had about the gear we wanted for the riding we loved. From day one, our focus has been simple: make the best stuff we can for the bike life: gear that’s durable, comfortable, high-quality and, whenever possible, multi-purpose. We don’t change things for the sake of it; with every new batch, we refine what can be improved.
Being part of the Rotorua scene has been one of the best parts of the journey. It’s the only town on earth to host a UCI World Championship, a UCI World Cup, two Singlespeed World Championships, a 24-Hour World Championship, and Crankworx—and Nzo has supported them all, along with countless other events. Watching mountain biking explode in New Zealand has been incredible, and we’re proud to have played a small part in its rise.
Way before the birth of mountain biking, Gaz had been a cyclist. Doing skids and wheelies on a one-speed coaster on the way home from school progressed to racing bikes on the road and the track. National titles and representation were highlights of a very enjoyable career before he retired from bike racing to pursue a path in graphic design and illustration.
Glen has never been what you would call a cyclist, but she has ridden a bike a lot further than most people. Two six-week long bike packing trips are the big bike adventures, but in the other world travelling escapades there were bikes hanging on the back of the vans that were homes on wheels decades before #vanlife.
Her work life was devoted to developing as an apparel designer and patternmaker. She had success with her own brand of street wear, an international swimwear brand, and developed the apparel section of a globally important triathlon brand before starting Nzo.
Glen and Gaz commuted to work on bikes when they lived in the big city.
These days they walk across the yard.