INSIDE GOBIK | Sergio Muñoz

Inside Gobik November 29, 2023

“We started working with regional champions and the growth has been continuous and steady. Today we still work with all of them, but we also find ourselves with teams like Movistar Team and as part of the boom in women’s cycling,” Sergio Muñoz tells us, who in a football club would be something like Gobik’s “member no. 3.”

He joined the two founders, José Ramón Ortín and Alberto García, ten years ago, at 26 years old and with the unprecedented experience of opening the door “and seeing no one in the factory.”

One anecdote from back then: “I started working at the end of November and at the company Christmas dinner there were four of us. Today the company dinner brings together almost 200 people.”

Sergio smiling at the camera in the Custom Works design studio

The first designer

Sergio had known José Ramón for some time, and they had even worked together. When he returned to Yecla after his design studies, he wanted to start a small studio on his own, but then came the call from the “newcomers” at Gobik: “It could have been some kind of interview, but it was nothing like that. They asked me what I was doing, they needed a designer, and that’s how it all started, from scratch.”

Sergio can say that “at Gobik, especially with Alberto, we have made ourselves. We didn’t come from the clothing world and we started from the very beginning, always growing, as a result of that curiosity we have never lacked, both on a personal level and as a brand, always looking for how to improve.”

Part of exponential growth

An illustrative example: “When we were doing the design and I was preparing the patterns, I would take each piece down to the factory for pressing. Back then I used the plotter to print once or twice a week. I remember it was on Tuesdays and Thursdays, in the afternoon. Today, we have several plotters that never stop printing 24 hours a day.”

What remains of that Sergio?

“Gobik has changed me completely; it has shaped me as a professional and as a person. I have learned many things at Gobik. I joined when I was very young, I was taking my first steps here, and today I have a job that I feel very proud of. I look back and see the journey with its tough moments and others that were deeply rewarding, such as getting to know people like Alberto Contador, Carlos Coloma, Pauline Ferran Prevot, Bec Henderson, or Alejandro Valverde, important figures in this sport that we work with, who come to the factory and are interested in learning in detail what we do.”

Sergio leads the design department, the “core of Custom Works,” among other things. Working with him are 22 professionals whom he “admires, very proud to see how they work on each project. Their technical and graphic level is top. It’s a rush to watch them work.”

He describes the process for us: “We receive the client’s information, we prepare the proposals, and changes are made until we reach the design the client expects, always trying to leave our visual imprint.”

“We like big-name, high-profile projects, but also cycling groups. They bring joy and enthusiasm, and that comes through in the emails and phone calls. They want their project to turn out well. The company is recognized and loved, and that makes me happy,” he continues.

This is how they see Gobik

“In every project, we work together with the client in an atmosphere of collaboration and cooperation,” Sergio explains. “They see us as a quality product, with bold colors, gradients, and very distinctive geometric shapes. We work for people who are passionate about their sport.”

He’s into loose-fitting apparel, enduro and downhill: “More about going down than going up, pushing the limit in every turn, focused only on the trail, without distractions.”