Fifteen years ago, I started QUOC with a shoe designed entirely for myself. I was seeking out something that added to my experience as a rider, and that satisfied my curiosity as a designer. A shoe that looked beautiful, and that I wanted to put my name on. Above all, I wanted it to stay light-hearted and fun, because riding bikes, at its best, is about enjoyment: moving through the world with curiosity and freedom.

I think about that a lot, the beginning. I was in my late twenties, wrapping up a menswear label and feeling like the fashion world had lost its way a bit. My daily escape was a red single-speed bike, riding across London, wearing through shoes that weren't built for the job. I thought: I know how to make things. I know what I want on my feet. 

So I started sketching. Visited factories with hand-drawn patterns and a beautiful English last, teaching myself shoe development as I went. Out of that came the Fixed England — a leather commuter shoe, nothing more. But it was mine, and it was honest, and it proved to me that this thing could work.

Every year since then has been about getting closer. Closer to the shoe I see in my head before it exists. Closer to the feeling I’m chasing when I ride — that state where effort and thought blur together, and you come back with something you didn’t leave with. For fifteen years we’ve been striving towards that, and every season the gap narrows a little more.

In 2026, you’ll see new silhouettes, colours and materials. This season’s theme is Haze, initially inspired by the atmosphere and sensations you might feel at the start of a morning ride. That first breath of cold air before you’ve warmed up. Layered gradients of mountains on the horizon. Everything soft-edged and not quite formed. When I’m on my bike, time stretches and contracts and I come home feeling tired but energised. The best ideas always happen in that hazy space. Between effort and rest. Between doubt and clarity. It's not a destination. It’s a feeling, and I wanted this collection to live inside that.

Haze runs through everything we’ve made this year, from a pro-level lace road shoe that pays homage to one of the first road shoes I ever designed, to our most refined adventure platform yet. Everyone on our team rides, and that shared experience shapes what we make. We test shoes the way people actually ride: over long days, in real conditions, across changing terrain. This collection came from a lot of curiosity and a fair amount of stubbornness, and I'm proud of where it landed.

Alongside our new products, you’ll notice a renewed focus on culture and connection: rides, events and stories that bring us closer together and to the way we ride. Cycling has always been more than the gear for me. It’s the people you meet, the places you discover, the conversations that happen on a climb when you’re both too tired to be anything other than honest. We’re building shoes for the community of cyclists who chase those moments. The serenity, the camaraderie, the shared suffering,that only occur on the bike.

All these years later, I still get the same feeling I had when I pulled the first prototype off the last. That restless itch to make the next one better. I don’t think that ever goes away, at least I hope it never does.

Onwards to another season. See you out on the road.

London, 2026