INTERVIEW
Covering ground, from leather shoes for Eroica and the urban commuter to breaking out with gravel, why white road shoes rule, riding and producing in Taiwan, and signing Geraint Thomas.
Full disclosure: Quoc, the man, is my friend. And I wear QUOC, the brand's cycling shoes, the latter because of the former and because, well, they're really, really good. These two things might combine to sway this piece to the positive, but honestly, with Quoc the man, it's hard to be any other way. I've read countless pieces about him over the years that focus on how stylish he is—and he is. I always feel lumpen and disheveled whenever I see Quoc on screen or in person. But because he's also impeccably polite and, as I've found, kind to a fault, any feelings of sartorial inferiority are always my own. This focus on style, though, risks obscuring something more important. What most observers of the rise of QUOC the brand miss, especially when they speak of it as if it were an overnight success, is Quoc's tenacity, single-mindedness and stubborn refusal to take the easy route. Whether road or trail, QUOC shoes mirror the path of its charismatic founder.
Having started the brand with the idea of making cycling’s equivalent of the classic English Dress shoe – think a Sanders or Church’s – with the ‘Fixed’ range, a shoe that would prove popular on the Eroica circuit, and a range of dedicated urban cycling shoes with neat clipless compatibility, it was nevertheless the gravel Gran Tourer that propelled QUOC into the popular imagination and established it as a serious player. Given the seismic shift this single silhouette had for the brand, it seems only fitting that we start there, at the trailhead of QUOC’s continued, ever-growing popularity.
“It was around 2015 when I had the idea for what would become the Gran Tourer trail shoe, and 2016 when we made our first production run,” says Quoc, beaming in from his office in Taipei. I could have sworn it was 2018, but so much for memory. And there it is, to the side of Quoc, placed in rows on attractive, free-standing shelving, in various colors and iterations, the shoe that brought QUOC from the feet of a fevered few (is there anything else to call Eroica entrants?) to the many. To his other side and beyond, there are what look like breakout areas for design work that bring to mind broad strokes and big pens. It’s a chic and warm space. I expected nothing less. But there are also some early models on show, without which, Quoc admits, he couldn’t have developed the Gran Tourer.
“When we first started, we spent a lot of time trying to create a market for leather cycling shoes and an urban commute sector. It was a lot of hard work, and we soon realized that within the niche of cycling shoes, we were trying for yet another niche.” A change was needed, which began by dropping ‘Pham’, his last name, from the brand (Quoc is British-Vietnamese). “I come from the fashion world, so for me, it felt natural to use my full name, like an Alexander McQueen or Stella McCartney,” he says. “But what worked in that world didn’t work in the world of cycling. We needed to simplify.” And with that simplification came a harsh assessment of the brand’s urban commute shoes. “I joke with the team that those shoes were like the reversible jacket of the cycling world – in the end, people were confused, do I use it for this or that? Which is perhaps why reversible jackets never hit it off! Once we rebranded and refocused on offering the most beautiful and most comfortable cycling shoes for gravel and road – the riding we were most interested in – things started to come into focus.”
And getting off the beaten track was Quoc’s experience at the time, heading out, as he says, for single-night camping expeditions or long weekends. “At the time, the only real options in terms of gravel cycling shoes were mountain bike shoes, but my friends and I found those too techy, too complex, while their design spoke of their origins and not the aesthetic that we felt reflected the true spirit of gravel.” It’s easy to forget that back then, there was a real thrill in the rediscovery (lest we forget, the French ‘randonneurs’ were at the gravel game over a century ago) of taking a drop-bar bike beyond the lines of the road to the fields, paths, trails and leaps of imagination that might lie ahead. It was bliss, and still is if one can forget the overuse of the adjective and its adoption by big brands, many of whom would go on to shamelessly steal designs from small players who couldn’t afford to defend themselves, like boutique bikepacking bag makers and sell them as their own – names withheld because we don’t want to be sued.
“I wanted to create something inspired by the dressy world, with a single upper, not stitched together from several small pieces,” says Quoc. “Ultimately, we wanted to make a shoe that would look a lot better, feel more comfortable and have less chance of suffering an issue down the trail. And that’s what we did. The Gran Tourer represented simplicity, with its one-piece upper, laces, border protection for abrasion resistance and its thick rubber gummy outsole for hike-a-bike grip.” In other words, the Gran Tourer was a world away from the mtb shoes of the time. “One of the other key differences was that we wrapped our fabric around the mid-board, and made the toe area a little softer,” he notes, an innovation that aptly illustrates Quoc’s understanding of the market at the time, that carbon fiber stiffness and its associated metrics meant very little in the new world of gravel cycling. “We weren’t designing for Tour de France cyclists, but people like myself, 80kg and above, who just love cycling and want a true experience.”
Looking back to the brand’s start, how important were those ‘reversible-jacket’ years to QUOC’s later product line and new wave of success? “We had to spend a lot of time working on the comfort of those shoes because they had to work on and off the bike. I think the balance we struck that made those cycling sneakers popular – within the niche, at least – gave us a tailwind for the Gran Tourer and the models that followed, as did various other learnings, from dealing with factories, production and so many other processes that were in play but which would become magnified once we become more popular as a brand.”
This streamlining, and the philosophy of simplification QUOC leant into for the Gran Tourer, dovetailed into all aspects of the business, but perhaps found its greatest expression within the nexus of people, place and production that exists in Taipei, where both QUOC and Quoc reside. “Factories will make or break you,” he laughs. “We had tried to manufacture in the UK, but found ourselves struggling at every turn. There isn’t the ecosystem of industry and the wider specialization that we can find on our doorstep here in Taiwan, often with immediate availability. For example, if a shoe is made in the UK, where market trends lean toward tradition, it will commonly use a welt construction method, made on a machine more than 100 years old. And that’s fine for what those products are, but we needed injection moulding, carbon fiber, and access to modern materials and manufacturing methods. And it’s all available here in Taiwan and the wider ecosystem of partners. You want a carbon fiber supplier? Here it is. A micro-fiber supplier able to create at a thickness of 1.2mm? You can have it. And fast. Being here, having learned our lessons, made good connections, we just needed a standout product. And in the Gran Tourer, we finally had it.”
QUOC PHAM
Around the time the Gran Tourer started hitting the market, COVID kicked in. Quoc goes on to talk about one of the few upsides of the lockdown period, when the rest of the world downed tools, but Taiwan kept on. And in Vietnam, where QUOC shoes are made, “we only lost two weeks of production time – a game-changer in terms of our ability to meet the moment and beat the big players whose offices were a world away and didn’t and still don’t have their feet on the ground.” Even just being in the same time zone helps, he says, the immediacy impacting every element of the business for the better. “For footwear, it’s really all about Taiwan.”
We’ve stayed on the rough stuff so far, but QUOC sits astride two worlds, gravel and road. Are there challenges in designing for such different markets? “In the beginning, I thought it would be hard,” he admits. “Road, of course, is more traditional, whereas the gravel community is more playful, which is why you’ll see those shoes often mixing pinks and browns and irreverent design elements.” Still, for a time, Quoc sought to introduce non-traditional colors into the world of smooth asphalt and skinny tires (but not as skinny as they once were – road bike rubber is truly the reverse Ozempic) until he found that road cyclists wanted white shoes and that was that. And then realized that they are often the same customer but want different things for each discipline. “Equipment really counts. For the road, that’s light weight, carbon fiber and white, and for the trail, less conservative designs, comfort and resilience but similarly, there’s a growing segment of the gravel community that wants racing speed, too, not just footwear for more sedate bikepacking, but fast, against the clock, in any weather, which is why the GT line has evolved to meet that need.” Most shockingly of all, Quoc lets me in on a little secret: gravel cyclists might even want a bit of white themselves.
Across the QUOC road line, the M3 silhouette has become the go-to for the independent-minded road cyclist, and like QUOC’s gravel range, it has morphed into different versions, such as the Air and the Pro. How did they come about? “For the Air, a lot of our customers in Asia were asking for a lighter and more breathable product with a special focus on extreme aeration,” he explains. “Whereas the Pro is for more of a European environment.” Beneath the details, though, whatever the terrain, what most cyclists don’t realize is that the last of a QUOC shoe, the mold, that wooden thing you might have seen in films or in classic shoe stores, is hand-worked and shaped by Quoc and his team for each of the brand’s models. Unlike most cycling shoe companies, which use off-the-shelf molds to save money, QUOC invests heavily in its designs, giving them a unique feel and a truth that transcends marketing. “Our foundation comes from traditional shoes, which speaks to our heritage with the Fixed range of shoes,” says Quoc. “Later, we adapted it to a purer cycling shape, and of course, we listen to the factory for their insights, too. But what’s important to remember is that everything we do is 100% ours. We not only open our own lasts but also our proprietary outsoles. Nothing is standard.”
And if that risks sounding a touch too strident, Quoc is quick to bring himself down to earth. “There are two ways you can make anything: listen to everybody and do it as told, or do everything yourself, make a million mistakes, but along the way, truly learn and grow. We took the latter route, and yes, it has been very painful at times!” Unlike the experience of wearing QUOC shoes – which, my bias aside, is exceptionally comfortable – footwear that keeps you in the moment by simply staying out of your mind, neither catching your eye nor your ire. “When I get on the bike, I don’t want distractions, just comfort. If cycling exists to take us on an adventure, and away from some aspects of life, for freedom, for our mental health, for the thrill of speed and good health, a QUOC shoe has to stay out of your way. If we accomplish that, we’ve been successful.”
No chat with Quoc would be complete without asking about the brand’s signing of Geraint Thomas, a move which attracted a lot of headlines and some surprise from the wider industry. But Quoc is pretty clear about why the brand had to go after the British rider. “On a business side, when we released the M3 Pro, we had to get a big name riding it. If it truly was a competition-grade piece, we needed to illustrate that. And on a personal side, I’m a strong believer in the power of manifestation, so a few years ago I wrote down in my little book that one of my goals was to sign a pro cyclist by a certain date. Lo and behold, a short time later, we got an email from Geraint’s agent asking us to be part of the bidding process as his shoe partner, alongside five other brands. Of course, I didn’t think we had a chance of signing him, but I knew he needed a 42 and fast, so I signed the bottom of one of the shoes as it came off the production line, and wrote ‘Geraint, let’s do this!’ on the bottom, took a photo and sent it to his agent. Maybe it was the personal touch, but he chose us. Later, we found out that he valued our British roots, our sensibility, and our marketing approach. For us, he really is the perfect person to represent us. Geraint is great. It works both ways.”
As we sign off, I ask Quoc about riding in Taiwan. “Well, it’s 95% road here!” he laughs. “And not just road, but mountainous road, dressed like carpet. You could use 23mm tires, and it would be smooth sailing. And then there are the facilities, with stores everywhere, even in the mountains, often with shower facilities, which makes credit card bikepacking quite popular. And the climate is tropical, so you can ride for 10 months of the year. Most importantly, Taiwan is so safe that I often leave my bike unlocked outside of our office. People really believe that what you do to someone, good or bad, matters, so they are careful not to do anything that might come back and bite them in the bum!”
As we say goodbye, I ask Quoc if he could recommend some of his favorite routes, which he was good enough to supply – check them out below. A super comfortable place to ride, with good manners and all of the affordances a cyclist could ask for? Taiwan sounds like the geographical equivalent of a QUOC shoe.
Three routes, as recommended by Quoc.
