MY NAME IS GUIDO

a look behind the curtain

By VITTI Cycling

October 31^st, 2023

Since the start of VITTI people have been curious about the people behind the brand. So here is a look behind the curtain to tell the story of who and how and why we began.

My name is Guido Vitti. I am the Vitti in VITTI Cycling.

I tend to not talk about myself or put myself in the front of the brand because I’m a bit of a private person. I don’t really want the attention. For me people are important, ideas come first, creativity comes first, the brand is just an extension of those things, it’s a vehicle for them. I do this for love not vanity, I know it sounds lofty but it is nonetheless true. What we stand for and how we go about creating and executing our ideas matters most.

Before launching the brand I spent a long career as a photographer. I still am one but mostly these days I do it for the brand. The reason it’s named VITTI is to pay respect to my family, to the country we are from and to the heritage and ideals I grew up with.

My family is from a tiny hilltop village in Italy about an hour and a half east of Rome called Settefrati. You get there like all other hill towns, via a very steep, very winding road and into the square where there is a cafe named, not surprisingly, VITTI cafe. The locals sit around drinking coffee and smoke cigarettes and talk amongst themselves. The cemetery on the outskirts of the village is where a lot of my family is buried. When my father was a boy he rang the bell in the church in the square every Sunday.

I love cycling. I can’t remember a time when I didn’t ride my bike. For me cycling was always about freedom and friends and exploring the world. I also love photography and film and of course I am deeply in love with Italy, the food, the people, the landscape and the way of life. I wanted to make something that would celebrate the things I loved and combine them all into one.

I started the brand modestly. I don’t need to take over the world. I only always want to make beautiful things, it’s the only thing that really matters. We don’t chase trends or do things that we don’t believe in. I say what I mean and mean everything I say. For me it’s always more important to be honest than clever. It’s how I was brought up; it's a guiding principle for the brand.

We don’t take shortcuts when it comes to quality, it’s my family name after all and it has to be the best it can possibly be. The devil is in the details and for us those details matter most. Quality and fit and performance are important, it's not just something we say, it’s everything.

When I was a child my grandfather told me a story. He used to have a donkey and everyday after working in the fields he would slap it on the backside and it would walk into the barn. He used to say to me… “A donkey only knows one way”. That story always stuck with me. The idea that there was always another way to be. I’ve always made my own way. I do things that are important to me that resonate with me on a personal level with the hope that those things I do will resonate deeply with others as well.

I grew up dreaming of the big world. When I began traveling as a young photographer shooting for some of the biggest brands my grandfather told me, “Non Dimenticare Chi Sei”, don’t forget who you are. He said that to make sure I understood where I came from and who my people are and that no matter where I was in the world or in my life that my family was always the most important thing, that I would never be alone. As the years rolled by it became something I returned to again and again when challenges arose and life got overwhelming.

Cycling centers me, it gives me space to remember who I am and what I’ve done and what is important. Cycling reminds me that life can be simple, turn the pedals and breath and be in the moment. It reminds me to appreciate what I have, to remember the lessons from my family. It reminds me to be honest and open to the world and to be at peace.