Gary Fisher Gets Artsy

Since 1979 Gary Fisher Bikes intertwined mountain biking culture, its riders, and artistry. Aside from its bikes, Fisher may best be known for its contribution to the culture of mountain biking.

So with a nod to that heritage, Gary Fisher asked some of his favorite designers to re-imagine the classic Fisher "Riding Marlin" icon. The result is this limited run of t-shirts that will be distributed at Sea Otter from the Subaru-Gary Fisher booth.

The Fisher "Riding Marlin" is a classic mark used on Fisher bikes in the mid-90s. It immediately became iconic, showing up on everything from apparel to tattoos on die-hard Fisher fans.

Gary Fisher asked a hand-picked group of artists to reinterpret the Riding Marlin. "Reimagine" was the only direction given. The designs that came back from our artist friends were each fantastic in their own right and all were wildly different from each other.

The artists included in the Marlin Redesign Project included longtime Fisher creative agency, Planet Propaganda (http://www.planetpropaganda.com/), frequent contributor Okay Bro (http://www.okaybro.com/), Fisher in-house designer who goes by Analog Forest (http://www.analogforest.com/), freelance sniper Lefty Lexington (http://www.leftylexington.com/), and longtime Fisher racer with an amazing design style, Jesse LaLonde (http://www.jesselalonde.com/).

Each design was placed on its own tshirt and will be sent out into the world with a hangtag letting everyone know who designed their t-shirt. The shirts will be available at the unofficial kickoff to the mountain bike season, Sea Otter. If you're not in Monterey, California, to swing by the Gary Fisher booth to scoop up your limited run t-shirt, you may be out of luck. Reprints of the shirts are not planned.

So in case you miss it, in the image browser are the designs of Fisher's artist friends. Of course, they'll look much better in full-size, full glory on the shirts. Hopefully you can pick up yours at Sea Otter.