🎧 80. Luuk de Leeuw

Quality and Innovation Manager at Swapfiets

Episode 80: Luuk de Leeuw, Quality and Innovation Manager at Swapfiets
auf Spotify / auf Apple Podcasts

I didn’t plan this, since I’m actually on holiday. But one morning after a little run around the village some guy stopped me right in front of my house. Turns our he’s a fellow runner and in desperate need for a Garmin charging cable. No worries, I got that. So we also have a coffee together–him, his lovely wife, and me–and we started talking. And when he told be that he was doing design at Swapfiets my ears perked up. We kept running into each other and granted, it’s a small island but I took it as a sign. I couldn’t let Luuc just vanish without having him on the show, now could I?

Luuk in front of his beach home on Koh Phangan, Thailand

We talked about the bike shop he used to run, about how the design process at Swapfiets works, about e-bikes, about his personal goal to design a fully circular bike by 2025, and about the best way to open a beer bottle without a bottle opener.

We recorded on a tropical beach, Singha in hand, around sunset and all I had on me was my iPhone so that had to do. But I have to say I was pleasantly surprised by how it sounded, with all the ambiance vaguely in the background. And I guess it just goes to show that you don’t need all the latest gear to make something.

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👤 My guest today:
https://www.instagram.com/luukdeleeuw/
https://www.instagram.com/swapfietsde/

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🔗 Topics:
2:28 – The origin of the name Swapfiets
4:06 – How the design process as Swapfiets works
5:21 – How to open beer bottles
10:11 – Sustainability
13:15 – E-bikes vs. pedal bikes
16:07 – The adaption of e-bikes
17:28 – The up and downsides of e-bikes
21:18 – How Luuk opened a bike shop with his hair dresser
24:54 – Luuk’s path to Swapfiets
26:01 – The story of Swapfiets
27:50 – Why Swapfiets bikes have a blue front tire
36:32 – Luuc's future

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🤝 Weekly sneak-peeks for supporter:
https://patreon.com/ohnedenhype

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Off into the sunset