The history of tokyobike is quite simple—the name says it all. In 2002, founder Ichiro Kanai created a perfectly minimal bicycle for exploring his hometown of Tokyo. With clean lines, sporty geometry, a strong CrMo steel frame and superior components, the bike was both a pleasure to ride, and pleasant to look at. As a result, it caught on quick, both around Asia and eventually in Europe too. But it wasn’t until a decade later that tokyobike found a route to the Americas, by way of rather serendipitous circumstances and a couple from New York.
Long after first finding tokyobike in Japan, entrepreneur Dean Di Simone emailed tokyobike’s founder inquiring about how to buy a bike in New York, to which Kanai replied—months later—that he’d been looking for a partner to aid in expanding operations to the U.S., and proposed they meet. A few days later a deal had been struck. Dean and his wife Juliana Rudell Di Simone, a Brazilian-born model with a graduate degree in international marketing and strategy, were officially partners in tokyobike in the Americas. The two quickly got to work, and in 2014 opened tokyobike’s first physical presence Stateside in New York City.
Now running the show on her own as Dean focuses on design brand OTHR, Juliana has extended tokyobike’s presence to Los Angeles, with another showroom opening in Mexico City later this month. As it turns out, the aesthetic-driven design of tokyobike is a language appreciated, if not spoken, around the world.
We recently caught up with Juliana to learn more about what makes tokyobike so special, how she approaches collaborations, and why the tokyobike belongs in cities around the world. Read on for the full interview.

Juliana Rudell Di Simone, photographed by Jean Laurent Gaudy
What does Tokyo Slow mean to you?
It’s mostly a mindset, and it doesn’t have to do with actual speed, but more with absorbing everything that’s around you at a different pace than your everyday. Instead of just walking or riding your bike past a place, Tokyo Slow is about taking a step back and really looking up, looking down, smelling the scents, and just really taking it in, instead of just passing by.
So with tokyobike, the foundation is Tokyo Slow, where it’s not about getting on a bike and going from point A to point B, but about everything that happens in between points A and B, and why it makes point A and point B so special and so important.
Once people understand what it means, our product, and story and heritage, it all starts making even more sense.