We met In’Bô, a brand creating sports products made entirely out of wood, namely longboards and mini cruisers.
How many people are involved in this adventure? What role does each person play in its realisation ?
We are 5 engineers newly qualified as such from the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Technologies et Industries du Bois (Epinal, eastern France). We all take on distinctive responsibilities : Antoine handles fabrication for eyewear, but also general marketing, Quentin is in charge of the longboards and the financial issues, Pierro deals with fabrication for our bikes, Robin works on the product R&D and stock gestion and Aurele is our company’s spokesperson, in other words controlling all commercial matters.
How did it all start ?
We all met at school and our project flourished in 2013. Our goal was to create a company that would match our principles. Our passion for sports and for woodwork conducted us to create products designed with raw materials only (wood, bamboo and linen fibre) and exclusively manufactured in France. We then made the choice to start out the adventure with longboards, wooden eyewear and bamboo bikes.
How did you choose the name of the brand ?
In’Bô, to be pronounced ‘Uhnnn Boow’, means something between ‘wood’ and ‘forest’ in patois, a French dialect. So you see, we’re staying local, even with our name!
A French touch; we like that ! So do you also make your products in France ?
Absolutely, we make our products in an atelier in Vosges, towards Epinal.
Where does your passion for wood come from ?
We met at school, at École d’Ingenieur du Bois, in other words, a school dedicated to the study of wood! Sort of self-explanatory. Working on a noble and renewable material was what we wanted to do since the beginning.
What’s your philosophy ?
An African proverb corresponds to our mindset completely: alone we can go faster, but together we can go farther. To unite passion and work: that’s what we strived to do, but also managed to achieve through our In’Bô mission!
Do you practice any outdoor sports ?
Wall-climbing, long-boarding, street slaying, biking, skiing, surfing, paragliding, sailing, kite surfing, wake-boarding… But that’s for the five of us, so I guess it’s still reasonable…
The French celebrity you admire most ?
Coluche !
What’s your best memory ?
When found out that Thibaut Lhenry, a racing cyclist we’ve been sponsoring with In’Bô bamboo bikes, became world champion of fixed-gear bicycle !!! An indirect victory, but a victory nonetheless !!
CHECK OUT IN’BÔ’S WEBSITE