Paco Rodrigo and María Jesús Uranga founded Etxeondo in 1976. With the company now approaching the half-century mark, their children have already spent several years in positions of responsibility: Patxi, 36, is the managing director,  and Amaia, 43, the head of design and product development.

Amaia grew up watching her mother draw. She was fascinated by the way María Jesús played with colours. From an early age, in fact, she was interested in conventional art and other forms of visual expression. She was a keen classical ballet dancer until she was eighteen and then moved to Madrid to study Design and Fashion. She had planned to go to London to discover the fashion scene there…

“…but my mother told me: ‘If you want to go to London, that’s fine — but first you get a job and pay for it yourself.’”

In the summer of 2005, at twenty-two and fresh out of university, Amaia began working at Etxeondo with her mother and with Soledad Jiménez.

“My mother knew a great deal about graphic design, Sole knew a great deal about garment construction, and between them they brought about an important shift at Etxeondo: they moved from producing individual kits to designing full collections. There were other women in the company who were experts in sewing and pattern-making, and I realised that I had creative ideas but lacked the technical side. Etxeondo gave me a wonderful opportunity to continue learning. I studied pattern-making in depth, because it’s essential. And I worked very well with my mother — she was always learning. The two of us progressed together, technically and creatively…”

While studying, Amaia had no intention of working in the family company. But having dipped her toe in the water, she took the plunge. 

“I realised that cycling also had room for fashion — that there was space to be creative, to bring in different ideas… And I learned an enormous amount on the technical side. Here it’s not enough to design a beautiful garment: it also has to be a jacket that keeps you warm and comfortable for four or five hours of winter riding, or a jersey that breathes well and is aerodynamic, or a waterproof piece… The evolution has been incredible. In the past wool was practically all they used; now we have an immense range of yarns and fibres with different properties. The way fabrics are woven and how the Lycra fits the body has changed completely.”

In 2006, shortly after Amaia joined the company, Etxeondo digitised the production of its garments. Instead of marking and cutting them by hand, they began using a computer-controlled cutting machine.

“We had to raise our game. I’ve always liked developing — I always want to be the best designer and the person who understands cycling pattern-making better than anyone else. When I finish a collection, Haimar Zubeldia comes to try on the clothing and I see how beautifully it fits him… wow, that’s what gives me the most satisfaction. Or when someone I don’t know — whether it’s a professional rider or an ordinary customer — tells me: ‘This is the best pair of bib shorts I’ve ever worn.’ That’s my biggest reward.”

Patxi Rodrigo also started very young at Etxeondo.

“Amaia and I grew up with incredibly hardworking parents who built a company from nothing and devoted their lives to it — that’s what we’ve always known. There was hardly any separation between home and Etxeondo; we grew up here. When I was seven I used to come with my dad to put vinyl decals on things. I loved poking around the factory, soaking everything up… When I was eighteen or nineteen I started working here in the summer with a friend to earn a bit of pocket money, putting kit into bags or whatever needed doing.”

“When I was younger I helped out now and again too,” Amaia says. “I remember one time I came to tidy up some embroidery and do some printing late at night because everything had to be prepared urgently for a big sportive ride. I had a great time.”

Patxi studied Business and Marketing. He also raced bikes up to amateur level. For him, working at Etxeondo was a natural step. 

“Like Amaia, I felt that I could contribute something. I began doing things that hadn’t really been done before — the collection catalogues, for example. I also prepared press releases and phoned newspapers… The people working in the company taught us a lot in every area. I spent periods with them in the warehouse, then helped Amaia with marketing, and gradually became more involved in the commercial side of things…”

Patxi was initially in charge of sales in the Basque Country, then across Spain, and before long he began looking further afield.

“I realised we had a lot of work to do internationally. I caught the bug and started travelling around Europe to understand the market in each country and see how Etxeondo might enter it…”

Amaia specialised in design and Patxi in sales, but for years they have worked side by side on product development.

“We both have a certain commercial intuition,” says Amaia, “because when we were young we travelled with our father to international trade fairs. And we both have design instincts too — I focused on fashion, and Patxi is very creative and contributes to the collections.”

“I know the market and what customers are looking for,” Patxi explains. “I see that we need certain kinds of products, with a price range that starts here and ends there…”

“…and I know the materials our suppliers offer, the aesthetic trends, I keep an eye on what’s happening in other countries… and I give everything I’ve got to build a well-structured collection.”

“In the past we produced extremely large collections, with lots of different bib shorts, jerseys and jackets… We wanted to offer as many options as possible. But the garments overlapped. This was something Paul Santen, the Dutch expert who advises us, helped us correct. He told us we were like restaurants putting forty dishes on the menu just in case. And he taught us how to structure the collections. You don’t need thirty-five types of jacket — three or four, arranged in a clear scale of quality and price, are enough. That made things clearer for the public and more efficient for us. As you can see, we never stop learning.”

“The key to our work,” says Amaia, “is finding a happy medium between two apparently competing forces: what the customers currently want and what we think is the direction of travel.”

With an expansive commercial strategy, partnerships with elite foreign teams, the boom in cycling participation in many countries and the growth of online sales, Etxeondo internationalised quickly. Paco Rodrigo, the company’s founder, worried that along this path of expansion the features that had been Etxeondo’s strength — its solid heritage, identity and commitment to quality — might be neglected.

“That’s why,” Amaia explains, “the profits from that expansion were reinvested in the factory: updating the machinery so we could keep producing and checking the product ourselves, improving the sewing workshops, expanding the warehouses… The goal has always been maximum quality.”

In recent years many new cycling apparel brands have emerged, cashing in on the sport’s growing popularity. Amaia recognises that many of them have been rewarded for their outstanding marketing: they have effectively positioned and sold themselves, projecting an image of exclusivity, elegance and prestige, despite their limited manufacturing experience and products that don’t always live up to the grandiose sales pitch.

“Looking ahead, I worry that marketing might become more important than product quality. But then I see that some of those brands quickly lose their position, because others appear serving up the same stories — in the end they’re marketing wars. I like to think that those of us who offer knowledge and quality are more stable. After all, we’ve been here for half a century.”

As Etxeondo approaches a generational transition, Patxi and Amaia are clear about the challenges ahead.

“We want to keep growing in other countries,” says Patxi, “but always in a sustainable way, maintaining control of our capacity to produce good kit. We have to grow without betraying who we are.”

“I love the idea that our clothing reaches other countries,” Amaia says, “but not just for the sake of expanding or for the numbers. What excites me is convincing new audiences of our quality. Yes, we have to present ourselves well and tell our story — but what we sell is the real thing. What matters most to us is that the rider feels comfortable: warm, cool, protected — whatever they need at every moment. Etxeondo’s obsession is satisfying the cyclist.”