Villy Custom is an American

lifestyle brand A lifestyle brand is a brand that attempts to embody the values, aspirations, interests, attitudes, or opinions of a group or a culture for marketing purposes.page 16 Lifestyle brands seek to inspire, guide, and motivate people, with the goal of ...

specializing in a luxury custom fashion designed

cruiser bicycle A cruiser bicycle, also known as a beach cruiser or (formerly) motobike, is a bicycle that usually combines balloon tires, an upright seating posture, a single-speed drivetrain, and straightforward steel construction with expressive stylin ...

s for adults. Based in Dallas, the company was founded and is privately owned by entrepreneur Fleetwood Hicks, a former menswear fashion designer, and health enthusiast, and it was chosen by

Entrepreneur Magazine ''Entrepreneur'' is an American magazine and website that carries news stories about entrepreneurship, small business management, and business. The magazine was first published in 1977. It is published by ''Entrepreneur Media Inc''., headquarte ...

as one of the 100 Most Brilliant Business Ideas of 2010. The company also aired in season 3 of

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

's show '' Shark Tank'' according to

WFAA WFAA (channel 8) is a television station licensed to Dallas, Texas, United States, serving the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex as an affiliate of ABC. It is owned by Tegna Inc. alongside Decatur-licensed Estrella TV affiliate KMPX (channel 29), ...

History

In 2006 Hicks discovered

beach cruiser A cruiser bicycle, also known as a beach cruiser or (formerly) motobike, is a bicycle that usually combines balloon tires, an upright seating posture, a single-speed drivetrain, and straightforward steel construction with expressive styling ...

bike riding on Venice Beach while in

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on a business trip. After renting a beach cruiser for a scheduled one-hour ride, he brought the rental back 6 hours later and was hooked; relishing the simplicity, comfort and style of the bike and the fact that you could wear street clothes and look stylish riding. Two years later, Villy Custom was founded in 2008 and began as a

brick and mortar Brick and mortar (also bricks and mortar or B&M) refers to a physical presence of an organization or business in a building or other structure. The term ''brick-and-mortar business'' is often used to refer to a company that possesses or leases r ...

retail store (selected by Daily Candy as “Sweetest Things” 2009) specializing in sales of Felt Cruisers, Hawk Classic Cruiser bikes, specialty accessories and apparel. After experimenting with minor bike customization, Hicks soon realized he could infuse fashion, texture and unique color combinations to create a customizable luxury fashion bicycle company. The Icon of the Brand is the owner's

Bullmastiff The Bullmastiff is a British breed of dog of mastiff type and large size, with a solid build and a short muzzle. It was developed as a guard dog in the nineteenth century by cross-breeding the English Mastiff with the now-extinct Old English B ...

dog, named DeVille. The Brand is known for its unexpected product features, such as powder coated handlebars, neck stems, seat post, seat post clamps, fender braces, seat hardware, and wheels in a multitude of colors.

Innovation

Villy Custom is a “fashion” brand of cruiser bike. Villy Custom uses an e-commerce platform with a 3D Flash-based user interface, allowing customers to change, add and remove features and colors.In June 2010, ''

Entrepreneur Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value. With this definition, entrepreneurship is viewed as change, generally entailing risk beyond what is normally encountered in starting a business, which may include other values t ...

'' magazine awarded Villy Custom with one of the 100 Most Brilliant Business Ideas of the year. OrangeVillyCustomsFender

Logos

The official company logo is a shield including a graphic of DeVille's (nickname “Villy”) head wearing a starred collar. The color scheme is Gold, Black, Red and Silver.

Company headquarters

The company's warehouse and assemblage facility is located in downtown Dallas, Texas. Villy Custom also has a few bicycles showcased at the Omni Dallas Hotel.

Mentions in the press

# Selected by ''Entrepreneur'' magazine as one of the 100 Most Brilliant Business Ideas for 2010 (June 2010 edition) # Feb 2011 featured on national T.V. by NBC's First Look # Full feature by the Dallas Morning News as the Sunday “Entrepreneur” feature (Sept. 2010) business section # AOL National feature story # ''Modern Luxury'' magazine (April 2011 issue, Page 121)

References

External links

Official website
{{Shark Tank , state=collapsed Cycle manufacturers of the United States Manufacturing companies based in Dallas