#360business: Liv brings women cyclists to the fore in the UAE

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  • New beginning: The opening of the Liv store in Box Park on Al Wasl Road, Dubai.

    Driving down Al Wasl road in Dubai, a flashy block of stores designed as colourful cargo containers can be spotted just past Safa Park.

    That stretch of shops and restaurants is called Box Park and towards the end of it, a new cycling store called Liv can be found. Liv is the Middle East’s first ever female-specific cycling store and was founded by Bonnie Tu, a woman often referred to as the ‘Godmother of Cycling’.

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    As the chief financial officer (CFO) – and founder investor alongside chairman King Liu – of Giant Bicycles, Tu created Liv in 2007 after realising how underserved women were when it came to cycling.

    As a teenager, Tu would commute from her home to school on her bike, riding the 10km distance every day. Over 30 years later, she got reacquainted with the sport when she decided to join King in his attempt to compete in the Tour of Taiwan.

    Before taking on that challenge, Tu went on a quest to find an outfit to wear during the race but she found that finding female-specific apparel for cyclists was not an easy task. She didn’t finish the Tour of Taiwan, but at the age of 57, she still managed to complete 900km over 15 days.

    Tu has since called herself as a “reborn cyclist”. That experience reignited her passion for the sport and she began learning how to switch gears and climb hills. Her toughest challenge to date was riding up to the highest peak in Taiwan, some 3,625km, three years ago.

    While she admits she wouldn’t want to put herself through that again, her dedication to getting more women to take up cycling has got stronger and stronger and it all started with her creating Liv following her Tour of Taiwan adventure eight years ago.

    Liv’s mission is to provide female-specific bikes, gear and apparel in a welcoming retail environment with the purpose of making cycling more approachable and appealing so that it can become a mainstream sport and fitness activity among women.

    Tu, pictured right, has opened Liv stores in eight different cities and there are more than 2,000 retailers that sell her products. The store at Box Park in Dubai is the first in the Middle East and Tu believes the emirate is a perfect fit for her brand.

    Every cyclist will have a range of bicycles available at Dubai’s Liv store including entry-level road, mountain and commuter bikes and high-end offerings. With the brand entirely managed by women, including bicycle engineers, gear designers and retail specialists, the Liv experience is something that has expanded rapidly.

    “Dubai is a vibrant, cosmopolitan city, with lots of expatriates and locals. They have all sorts of levels of riding and I think this will be a hot spot for cyclists,” Tu told Sport360 following the launch of her new store.

    “I think Dubai is full of very savvy shoppers. So they know what is right and good because Dubai has everything. A brand with good value, they can identify that immediately.”

    Liv cycling's Bonnie Tu.

    Liv started off as a brand linked to Giant, but last year Tu took her project from being Liv/Giant to just Liv and she feels it was the right call.

    “When we started it was called Liv/Giant. And now after almost eight years, I think the market is mature enough to accept a standalone women’s brand. So I became independent in 2014 and split from Giant and it’s only Liv now,” she explains. “All women are entitled to independence, and so is Liv.”

    While Dubai is becoming a hotbed for cycling with the development of track and paths dedicated to riders like the Al Qudra Cycle Path and the Nad Al Sheba Cycle Park, bringing a women-specific brand to the Middle East was definitely a bold move, considering the cultural barriers many ladies face in this part of the world that could discourage them from getting on a bike here. But Tu has her reasons for venturing into this territory.

    “Actually it encouraged me because one of our missions is to try to make cycling a mainstream sport for women. So this will be a very ideal location for Liv,” she says. “I want to really work with locals to develop apparel for Muslim women.

    “I need the support from the locals, because I don’t really understand what are the limitations. So I need locals to tell me what direction I should go in.”

    Wherever she goes, Tu makes sure she engages with the community. Like most cycling stores here, Liv organise weekly community rides to foster the culture of riding.

    Liv are current sponsors of the UAE National Cycling Women’s Team, providing them – through their local agent Dubai Desert Extreme (DDE) – with both bikes, gear and apparel.

    Team Liv at the 2015 Ladies Tour of Qatar.

    They also have been supporting Afghanistan’s first-ever national women’s team, a group of ladies who have claimed their right to cycle despite it being forbidden for years, thanks to the help of Mountain2Mountain – a non-profit organisation which Tu has chosen to give a hand by supplying bikes and outfits.

    “It means a lot to me especially for the local women to take up cycling. That would be very rewarding and challenging to Liv,” Tu said of her hopes for the UAE. “Females were under-served in the cycling industry so I think I’m senior enough in this industry to start this project and to serve females with what they are entitled to.

    “All women are welcome, I don’t have any specific type of consumer. We are trying to cater for all levels of female cyclists.

    “Whether you are a beginner or a top-end rider. I want cycling to be a well-accepted sport in this region.

    “This is one of the most challenging regions for us and it is a place where I really want to cultivate the brand.”

        

    A recent study conducted by Dubai Sports Council showed that 73 per cent of people in the northern emirate choose cycling as their preferred activity of choice. While it is unclear how many of those are women, Abdulla Suwaidan, the team manager of the UAE Cycling Federation squads, believes more and more females are taking up the sport in the country.

    “It was a smart choice for Liv to open up this store here in Dubai because the UAE is starting to really embrace the idea of females on bikes,” said Suwaidan.

    “A huge portion of the population, both expats and locals will be interested in paying a visit to that store.

    “Today we have a women’s national team consisting of 10 cyclists – two of which (Fatma Mohamed and Maha Salem) have clinched silver medals at the last Arab Championships, beating out countries like Morocco, Algeria, Egypt, Tunisia and Iraq, all who have a much longer tradition in cycling.

    “In the Nad Al Sheba race last Ramadan, there were 32 Emirati women taking part in the amateur race.

    “This is a clear indication of how widespread the sport is becoming amongst the female population.

    “None of this would have happened without the support of the government who have built all these cycle paths and tracks around the city."

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