The story of a penny and a rubber band
What started with a penny and a rubber band led to a revolution in woman’s cycling.
Since June 2014, Penny in Yo’ Pants has received world wide attention and gained over 3.3 million hits on it’s first video.
This is our story.
The team attend CycleHack
June 2014
At the first Global CycleHack based in Glasgow, the team come together to look at the issues around woman cycling and marketing. CycleHack brings citizens together to prototype ideas to solve cycling barriers.
A simple hack is born
June 2014
Sitting next to an elastic band and a 2 pence coin, the team recognise a skirt can be pulled together to form an ad-hoc pair of shirts from a skirt. It is tested, dresses are pulled together and we stress test it on some bikes.
Making THAT video
June 2014
As a general principle of the hack, the team make a short video, done in one take with no script and shoot it on an iphone. A domain is bought, a website pulled together and the video goes online. The team moves on to other hacks.
#pennyinyopants emerges
July 2014
Less than a week from the CycleHack we start noticing our knees and skirts making the rounds on twitter under the hashtag #pennyinyopants. Before too long, we’ve seen links in Spanish, Russian, Greek and Bulgarian. We hit 100k hits on our video.
The press get onboard
July 2014
Week two, we are picked up in national press all over the globe and bike blogs. We’re featured in Huffington Post, Slate, The Telegraph and STV. We reach 1 million hits, and it keeps growing.
The memes begin
July 2014
A few weeks into the #pennyinyopants growth we start noticing memes, animated gifs and innovations in the use of different currency around the world. We find out the internet is a funny and daunting world, especially when it comes to knees.
Cosmopolitan baby!
July 2014
“The one fashion hack that will change your summer” says Cosmo. Our girl (and guy) hood dreams come true. We’re proud - not only because we find a way to bike in skirts, but we taking cycling into a mainstream woman’s fashion magazine. We prove that solving small barriers can have a very large impact in cycling.
Ladies around the world unite
July 2014
Three weeks into our #pennyinyopants tag is in full swing and we start receiving videos and photos from ladies all around the world sporting their Penny (or nickel) in use. The community calls it a ‘revolution in woman’s cycling’.
Penny on television
August 2014
With a slightly wonky ear piece and beamed via London from Glasgow to your home (or cruise ship) we talk about pennies and pants with a very serious face BBC Worldwide. It goes out to 360 million viewers.
3.3 Million Views
September 2014
After the wild two months that was Penny in Yo’ Pants we plateau at 3.3 million hits on our one video. We re-group and consider what to do next. Then we have an idea!
Penny for Good
November 2014
Inspired by Afghan Cycles from the outset and the amazing woman that cycle as part of the national team everyday, we decide to create a Penny product with a percentage of profits going to the team. We hunt down Shannon Galpin who made the documentary and confirm our link for 2015 with the team.
Prototyping begins
November 2014
The team begins testing and trialling out different concepts. We consider elastic loops, plastic pucks with bands attached, faux leather pucks, all kinds of shapes and materials. We keep iterating until we find the right design.
Setting up the crowdfund
July 2015
We start filming a crowdfund video to launch our penny product on Indiegogo. We film two. The first one doesn’t pack the punch we had first time around. It is unscripted and involves us doing handstands, dancing around and saying Penny in Yo’ Pants on camera without trying to giggle.
Penny in Yo Pants Product
November 2015
After some back and forth with manufacturers to get our prototype right, we’re here. Here’s to the next step of the journey.