After finishing my bachelors in Publicity and Culture in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, I started to follow the passion that I had found besides my study: cooking in restaurants. After I had worked in several good restaurants in Amsterdam, I soon got the opportunity to start my own restaurant, together with two partners: Blauw aan de Wal in Amsterdam. From the beginning in 2000 this restaurant was a big success. Late 2007 I had the view that we achieved everything that was possible and I was ready for a new challenge. Something really different. So I bought a track bike and became a bike messenger. Through the love for these bikes and my other interests in popular culture I felt that I could do more with that: set up a small shop in fixed gear bikes and street fashion.
Mid 2008, I suddenly had the possibility to relocate to Brisbane for a couple of years. After wandering around for a while and enjoying the relaxed Ozzie lifestyle I felt the need to do something useful and exciting again and picked up my shop plans and decided to develop them here. Early 2009 GEAR opened its doors.