Bally fell under the sway of biking for Spring. "Everybody s always whizzing around town on the bike, leaving the car," said Michael Herz, its co-designer. "You can t park." As so often happens with a hundred or so years of brand history behind you, a relevant analogue from the archive presented itself: As it turns out, Bally sponsored the 1952 Tour de Suisse. And so they were off. Herz and Graeme Fidler structured their presentation in three parts: city biking, off-roading, and racing. All of the bags, right down to the crocodile iPad case, were designed to fit on, or snap onto, bike frames. A new shoe, a replica of the 1952 cycling shoe, debuted, though the latter-day version is sneaker-y enough for everyday wear. Which is the nice thing about Bally s entire collection, for those last few of us not whizzing around. The bike coats (né car coats) and blousons in bonded leather and washable, water-repellent techno-suede require no wheels. Nor do the shoes with newly developed FlexTech engineering, which allows for a super-flexible sole on a Goodyear welt construction.
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