FOND OF & muli-cycles: next-level lifestyle, straight outta Ehrenfeld

With FOND OF and muli-cycles, two of Germany’s most forward-thinking brands in sustainable lifestyle and urban mobility call Ehrenfeld home. But why here, of all places? Let’s find out.

Dr Oliver Steinki, founder of FOND OF, had no idea he’d end up shaking up an entire industry when he and a few friends launched the first ergonomic school backpack, the “ergobag”, back in 2010. Fifteen years later, it’s hard to find a classroom in Germany without the iconic backpack.

The FOND OF universe also includes “satch”, the go-to backpack for secondary school, and “Affenzahn”, known for its playful preschool bags and kids’ shoes. Their sister brands AEVOR and pinqponq now cater to a more grown-up crowd – with backpack concepts so well thought out, it’s no wonder they’re loved across the board. All proudly designed in Ehrenfeld.

FOND OF: brand and community, building things together

Lunch break at “The Ship”, FOND OF’s headquarters on Vitalisstraße, right on the edge of Ehrenfeld and Bickendorf. Today’s menu at the staff restaurant, fondly called “Bügche” (a local twist on “little diner”), features Asian bowls, fresh salads and salmon. A few folks from Jan Böhmermann’s team – he produces “ZDF Magazin Royale” just across the street – have popped over, too.

The whole neighbourhood drops by “The Ship” – exactly what the creators had in mind when one of Germany’s smartest office buildings opened here in 2019. A nursery, a gym, bright meeting rooms – all included.

Built to the gold standard of the German Sustainable Building Council, “The Ship” isn’t your typical company HQ. It’s the beating heart of a business that puts real effort into workplace culture. At pinqponq and AEVOR, people aren’t just customers – they’re part of a community.

“We want to give people a platform for co-creation – and inspire them to be themselves, so they can help shape shared experiences,” says Yannick Markowsky, Marketing Manager at AEVOR. A passionate cyclist himself, he’s part of the AEVOR Cycling Club – and has put the brand firmly on the radar of the amateur cycling scene. Not through traditional ads, but by teaming up with influencers and independent cycling crews. The idea? Brand and community create new products together.

Recycled textiles: the next big thing

Upstairs, Aline Lamm is deep into planning the next pinqponq collection. She handles sourcing, knows the suppliers and oversees production. It takes around six months for a new collection to hit the shelves – two of those months the goods are in ocean freight. “That’s more sustainable than air freight,” she explains.

When it comes to supplier relations, pinqponq doesn’t compromise either: human rights, supply chain transparency, CO₂ reduction and circularity are all non-negotiable. Every direct supplier – and every sub-supplier – is traceable at all times. By 2030, each brand aims to offer at least one fully circular product. The benchmark for new developments: 80 percent recyclability.

To push sustainability even further, FOND OF is now letting go of a principle that laid the foundation for its success 15 years ago: using recycled PET bottles as the base material for “ergobag” fabrics. In 2024, Affenzahn and “satch” introduced textiles made from post-consumer waste for the very first time. If the process can be scaled, it could mark another leap in backpack design, with its roots in Ehrenfeld.

muli-cycles: kickstarting the cargo bike lifestyle

In 2016, brothers Sören and Jonas Gerhardt were building bikes in their grandma’s barn in the Westerwald. The funds? Crowdfunded on Kickstarter. Jonas is a mechanical engineer, Sören a product designer. For his master’s thesis, Sören developed a cargo bike concept that outperformed almost everything else in terms of everyday usability. The twist? A foldable steel basket and a compact wheelbase – slim enough to fit into any underground lift.

The concept took off – so much so that by 2018, the brothers were wondering how they’d keep up with demand. It was time to professionalise, and the choice of location was clear: Cologne. “We really wanted an urban base so our team could cycle to work,” says Sören Gerhardt, as the welding robot hums away behind him on the factory floor.

Need to move stuff in the city? mulis handle 95 percent of it – up to and including your washing machine.

Final assembly of the mulis takes place entirely in Cologne. The steel is recycled, sourced from North Rhine-Westphalia, cut by regional partners and then delivered to the factory. “These are people we’ve worked with for years. If something goes wrong, we just pop over – no need to fly 15 hours to Asia,” Sören Gerhardt explains.

In a blue shipping container turned into a test lab, Henrik Höhle straps freshly welded frames into his testing rig. As a development engineer, he spot-checks frames coming off the production line. “We can simulate the entire lifetime of a bike in just six days,” he says, as the robot pushes the frame through a full-force pedal simulation.

When sustainability drives production

Producing in Germany is always something of a tightrope walk – especially when sustainability is a core part of the process. At muli, that means frames that don’t pass quality control due to paint or welding flaws aren’t discarded. If they can’t be fixed on-site in Ehrenfeld, they’re stored and later sent in batches to local partners for paint stripping and repair.

With WDR2 on the radio, mechanic Enrico Adam inspects the frames coming in from production. He cleans up the threads, presses in the bearings, and preps each bike for the next of three assembly stages.

The current production setup is the result of direct feedback from the mechanics. They rotate stations weekly to keep the work from becoming too monotonous or physically draining. The general rule: everyone builds half a bike. But for those who want more ownership of the final product, there are dedicated workspaces where they can assemble an entire one. Night shifts? Not a thing. The team starts at 7 a.m. and clocks off by 3 p.m. At muli, sustainability isn’t just about materials – it’s about people, too.

“muli EU” – setting the industry benchmark

The latest model, the “muli EU”, takes the concept to the next level. Think of it as a limited-run feasibility study – 500 units in total – that shows just how far the team in Ehrenfeld can push sustainable cargo bike production. 90 percent of its components are sourced from within the European Union.

Grips and pedals come from Ergotec in Wickede (Ruhr), the lighting system from Busch + Müller in Meinerzhagen, and the motor from Bosch. Could the “Made in EU” factor be pushed even further? Sure – but at the expense of affordability. As it stands now, in Jürgen Roder’s final quality check, the bike comes in at a solid 6,000 Euros.

Roder has worked as an electrician, carpenter, product designer and self-taught maker – but it’s only in the last three years that he’s become a bike mechanic at muli-cycles. And that, he says, is exactly what he loves about the job: “I can ask all the ‘stupid’ questions because I’m not from the industry. Most of the time the engineers go, ‘Damn, Jürgen – we should’ve thought of that!’” He gives the bell a final twist, slaps on the quality check sticker – and off it goes to make someone’s everyday a little greener and a lot more mobile. Made in Ehrenfeld.