When did 'colourway' become a thing?
 

It's all I hear from cycling media, regarding bikes and kits.

It used to be colour scheme or paint work or paint job. Colourway... sounds like some BS dreamed up by some hipster beardstachio wannabe cyclist.

Over a decade ago by sneakerheads on the other side of the pond.

My guess is it was created by the same idiots that came up with the matching "cockpit" ideology. I don't need my stem brand to match my handlebar, seatpost, etc.

When the marketing department had the chance to go home early but didn't.

It's not just the cycling industry.

My wife is a big knitter and pattern designer in her spare time and she watches a lot of knitting podcasts. I hear the term 'colorway' at least a few times a day.

Just like bikes and bike clothing, yarn no longer comes in simple colors but only in colorways.

It comes from inside the retail trade and been around a long while.

Store buyer: “thats a nice blouse, we want to stock them”

Clothing rep: “they come in 4 colorways and small thru xxl”

Store buyer: “we’ll take a dozen each size and colorway but the fuschia”

And there’s no “u” in color.

;>)

Whoa... back up the truck there.... Matching 'cockpit' has been a thing as long as I've been riding (44 years). It was a thing of beauty back in the 70s-80s-90s to have Cinelli or TTT bars/stem. Likewise, on my XR1 it's Fizik. But the term 'cockpit' for a bike is... well, puzzling.

Just checked my Oxford dictionary... yes, yes there is. ;)

Why does the brand name of the products need to match? I pick bike components for their function not because they are the same brand.

It's not about matching (to me), it's about having a system of products that have been engineered to work perfectly together. Similar idea to shifters and derailleurs from the same manufacturer.

They don’t need to match; it’s a vestige from the (perhaps) pre-MTB era when the number of suppliers was fewer, and most were still family owned. Add to that, components came in a much wider range of sizes and lengths, and it was simply the norm to match within brands.

Good to hear from one who knows style when he sees it. I always thought I was breaking some rule by using FSA shallow bars with Fizik, Deda, Zipp, and Easton stems. Glad I'm OK after all. ;)

PS. I think you can blame Rapha and the British cycling explosion for 'colourway.' And I still wouldn't use that term in a Red state.

I don’t necessarily need to have the same brands but at would at least prefer them to be same “colourway”

I cannot imagine being crabby about the term "colorway." Might be time to turn off the internet and walk around the block for a minute.

LOL word:hello: