Mikkeller and Femmes Régionales launch new sports brand
Press Release January 2019
Microbrewery Mikkeller and design firm Femmes Régionales launch the new athletic clothing line Final Gravity on January 24, setting its own standard in the running world.
Running, fashion and beer: this is the recipe behind the brand new running apparel line Final Gravity, which has been developed in a collaboration between the world famous Danish microbrewery Mikkeller and Danish design agency Femmes Régionales.
The man behind the idea is Mikkeller owner Mikkel Borg Bjergsø – who, around four years ago, saw proof that he had gained a few too many pounds around the middle. He had been working too much in day-to-day operations, enjoying life in the sweet world of gastronomy and exercising far too little. His time as a young elite runner lay suddenly far in the past, but this did not make it impossible to get back into a sprint.
Together with his friend Søren Runge, he made a plan. They would start a community that could motivate both of them to keep running. This became the Mikkeller Running Club (MRC) – a running club that combines beer and running.
FINAL GRAVITY
The name Final Gravity derives from the terminology
of brewing and means: “The measured specific
gravity once fermentation has completed”.
If one takes the words on their own, each has the
following synonyms:
Final: finishing – closing – concluding
Gravity: pressure – force – weight
“Gravity, or gravitation, is a natural phenomenon
by which all things with mass are brought toward
(or gravitate towards) one another, including
planets, stars and galaxies”.
The formula from Newton’s Theory of Gravity
is used in the design as a graphic detail, and all
styles in Final Gravity’s collection are inspired by
the Periodic Table.
The first collection ’The Bluest Shade of Black’
is a runner’s wardrobe boiled down to the most
essential needs. The collection consists of 17 styles
of which five are unisex.
www.final-gravity.com
NEVER COMPLETELY SATISFIED
Today, Søren Runge leads two running clubs: Mikkeller Running Club (MRC) with
220 chapters worldwide, and the Hechmann Mikkeller Racing Club (HMRC),
which has become an important part of Mikkeller’s profile and has stormed to the
forefront of the Danish running and athletics world.
With the success came the interest of the major sports brands; running clothes and merchandise became an important factor in establishing the running club’s profile.
“I was just never completely satisfied with the clothes we got and used. We wanted to have something more unique that suited us, and that set us and our runners apart from the crowd”, explains Mikkel, who spends approximately half of his day in running clothes at the office, and therefore also wanted sportswear that was nice enough for one to go about wearing, even when one wasn’t running.
He persuaded design agency Femmes Régionales to come on board with his idea
and they became partners in the new clothing line. “What they do in design is pretty unique, and they have a humorous and offbeat approach to things which works well with us”, says Mikkel.
WITH THE GUT AND THE HEART
Femmes Régionales designed Mikkeller’s very first bar on Viktoriagade in 2010, and
since then have cooperated with the beer company several times. The designers took a little time to think, but were ultimately convinced of the “peculiar” idea. “Mikkel takes decisions with the gut and the heart, and we like that very much”, says Caroline Hansen, Creative Director of Femmes Régionales. She elaborates: “Mikkeller’s running club and Mikkeller as a brand are at once a middle finger to the establishment, and at the same time enormously inclusive.
This is what Final Gravity will signify. In our part of the industry, one often does not design clothes for the people who will actually wear it, but rather from an idea of a kind of persona whom everyone has agreed is the coolest. We want people to have a good experience with our collections – because they feel that they look sharp – and not necessarily because they just walked out of a fitness video, or have the ‘right figure’ for Instagram”.
Download press images here
MIKKELLER
Mikkeller is first and foremost beer – a Danish
micro brewery showcasing all possible styles and
ingredients; a world of hops, malt, barrel ageing,
spontaneous fermentation, licorice, coffee, passion
fruit, cherries, chili, cocoa etc., exporting to over 50
countries across the world. Mikkeller also run a beer
festival, restaurants and a worldwide running club
and have established itself as one of the most
innovative and cutting edge breweries in the world.
mikkeller.dk
@mikkellerbeer
FEMMES RÉGIONALES
Femmes Régionales is a Danish design agency
founded in 2005 by Mie Albæk Nielsen and Caroline
Hansen – both graduates in Fashion Design from
Kolding Design School. Femmes Régionales works
with creative direction and concept development
for the fashion and lifestyle industry – including
branding, visual identity, event and show production
and interior design. Among their clients are
Copenhagen Airport, IKEA, Maria Black, Mark Kenly
Domino Tan, Merlette NYC and Resume. In addition,
they have collaborated on products with Kvadrat
and Normann Copenhagen.
femmesregionales.com
MIKKELLER’S RUNNING CLUBS
MRC (Mikkeller Running Club) was founded in
2014. It is a community that is open to everyone,
and currently has 220 chapters and about 20,000
runners worldwide. MRC organizes weekly training
sessions in the local ‘clubhouse’: the local Mikkeller
bar, or a cooperating bar.
mikkellerrunningclub.dk
HMRC (Hechmann Mikkeller Racing Club) is
Mikkeller’s elite club for running talent, founded
in 2017. The training is based on coach Claus
Hechmann’s principles. HRMC has won three
Danish team championships in 2018.
hmrcracing.dk
