Becoming Pedal Happy

Scott Lelikoff of Pedal Happy Designs makes beautiful and functional art for the leisurely adventurer. An Architecture graduate of Cal Poly, Scott turned his love of form and function into leatherwork, creating leather growlers and wine carriers with every strap and buckle placed just so in a way that makes you think “this is genius”. Every customer that sees a Pedal Happy Design in the store can’t help but turn it over in their hands and question whether they should start brewing their own beer just so they have a reason to buy the growler (Don’t worry craft breweries will fill it up for you- which saves you precious beer drinking time). Read on to learn more about Scott, running a small business, and why two wheels are better than four.

Running a Small Business

I’ve always had a desire to run my own business. This business was started with the original leather growler carrier.

I was doing a bike tour from Seattle to San Diego and knew I’d be passing a lot of breweries along the way. I actually plotted out on the map all the breweries that were near our route so we knew each day if there was one near by. I wanted a way to carry a growler so that we could have it filled at local breweries from the nearby towns we were camping in each night. So I made the carrier in order to attach it to my bike without taking up precious pannier (a basket, for us non-bike experts) space. On the ride it got a lot of attention so when I returned I refined the design and put it up online and grew from there.

Finding Inspiration

I try and keep things simple, elegant and aesthetically pleasing while still maintaining function. When relating to bicycles I like the classic bicycle style and I think leather is a great material to go along with that style. The products themselves are meant to be fun and compliment your bike and make you feel good about riding so the design should reflect that and enhance that. There are many ways to carry a container of any sort on your bike, I try and do it in the nicest and most fun way possible.

Love of Leather

As you can probably tell by my product line, I love to work with leather. Each piece I create is hand-cut, hand-dyed, hand-stitched, and hand-assembled by me. Each (handcrafted) piece has a different feel to it, almost a soul. I’d like to get into canvas as well since it’s a material that can be enhanced by leather.

Two Wheel Obsession

I’ve recently gotten into motorcycles quite a bit both street and off road, I guess I’ve got a thing for two wheels. Riding motorcycles also helps clear my mind. Normally my mind is constantly thinking about design and the business but when you’re on a motorcycle you’ve got to be 100% attentive to that task so it does not allow my mind to stray. And I still ride bicycles a lot too.

Becoming a Craftsman

I was in the mood to learn something new and passed by a leather shop with free classes. The classes turned out not to be what I was looking for, it was mostly carving and tooling but once in the shop it got the idea rolling. So I picked up some basic tools and started playing around. I’ve always been pretty good at working with my hands so it came pretty naturally. Once I had a design or product I wanted to make I’d just learn as I go either from trial/error, the Internet or talking to people at the leather store.

The Design Process

I can visualize the design entirely in my head. From there I’ll do some rough sketching, then move to physical prototypes. I like to start the very initial design completely without thinking about the process of making it. This allows the design to be the least restrictive, and then I’ll work out how it will be made. Sometimes you may have to draw back the design a bit but I always keep the initial vision in mind and work to achieve a final product that is in line with the original idea.

Handmade Appreciation

I appreciate handmade goods for the time and care that goes into making them and the effort it took for someone to learn and perfect a craft. Not always but often handmade goods are made to last. When you put more time into the production of an item you have even more reason to build it to last. This is also what I like about leather; it is a very durable and long-lasting material, not only that, but it often gets better with time. In addition it is a material that can usually be repaired easily giving a product a new extended life.

Keep Pedaling

When I came up with Pedal Happy Designs, I wanted to come up with something that spoke both to the bikes and beers/wines without going overboard with that portion, but I wanted to get across what I made these products for, to make the user feel happy and proud of their bike and have fun riding.

I’ve been making things for as long as I can remember. I’ve been making Pedal Happy products since 2012. I really enjoy what I do and take great care to put forth the best work I can and I hope that shows through the design and quality of the products I put out.

Check out this video we made about Scott to see more of his studio and work in action!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iuyAsHv9HK8&feature=youtu.be

by: Priscilla Spradlin