Pitau Wearable Art Jersey

The story behind PITAU

I was asked by the exhibition founder to put something in this year's He Kete Kotahi exhibition. I said yes before I'd really thought it through.

I'm not a painter. I run a custom cycling kit business out of Rotorua and spend most of my week working on custom kits, with the family, or out on the bike. The last time I held a brush with any seriousness was way back in high school in the early 90s. But I bought a canvas and a handful of acrylics and spent a few late nights at the coffee table working on a horizon piece — deep blue sky bleeding into pale sand, sand bleeding into a band of volcanic red at the base. Across the whole thing, in white, the Pitau: the white fern frond mark that Zoe Sizemore at Case & Point designed for GreenMonkey a few years back.

When I finished it the first thing I thought wasn't "good, exhibition piece done." It was "that's a jersey."

So I made one. Fifty numbered editions. The original painting hangs at He Kete Kotahi at Te Aronui o Te Ao in early June, and the kit it became ships from Rotorua a few weeks after that. Each jersey is numbered by hand, one to fifty. When the fiftieth one ships, that's the edition closed.

Daniel - Founder @GreenMonkey Velo

• Full-front YKK zipper 

• High-Performance Fabric - ultralight, moisture-wicking fabrics

• Maximum Storage

• Three deep rear pockets 

• Versatile Fit: Designed as a "Training Jersey," offering a comfortable but streamlined fit that transitions perfectly from epic trail missions to the post-ride café.

• Only 50 jerseys world wide will be made - with #1 to #50 on the back pocket.  Once all have been claimed, there will be no more made. Truly a unique piece of wearable art.