One full calendar year before any collection comes out, Ardith (Co-Founder & Chief Designer) meticulously hangs a beautiful board of curated imagery in the middle of Bandit HQ for all to soak in. Over the course of the months to follow, Ardith and team sketch and color into their ideas for new product silhouettes inspired by the imagery on the wall. In the mood board below, you'll get a sense for some of the palette, shapes, patterns, fonts, and constructions that will appear in our upcoming Summer 2025 Collection.
Every patented Ardith mood board is accompanied by a poetic expression of what inspired her thinking for a given collection, always inspired by where the runner may metaphysically be as they exit one season and enter into another.
Without further adieu...
Piecing it together
The daily commitment of many small, consistent efforts
Block by block, piece by piece
Each run, each step, each bead of sweat, each mile completed is a vibrant tile that, when placed together, forms a beautiful mosaic
Telling a story of early morning runs, the sweat and struggle, of triumphs both small and large
Creating a stronger runner through both dedication and resilience,
Each tile a testament to the journey taken and the goals achieved
What was once a collection of disparate pieces now forms a stunning image of growth, perseverance, and achievement.
Inspired by the colors of early summer light along the coast of Portugal, the palette is luminous, including color influenced by golden hour light against aged building facades. Clear, crisp blues imbue a sense of tranquility while earthy trans-seasonal rusty browns and warm sunbaked clay ground the collection.
“These images practically have summer oozing out of them... the texture of someone being drenched, whether from sweat or a seaside swim is something I’m always drawn to...there is something inherently undone and vulnerable about it, which is really attractive to me...”
"Striated gradients that lended a sense of movement and allowed us to dig into the full color palette"
Bridget Riley
"The concept of a Mosaic, through a runners lens:
The daily commitment of many small, consistent efforts: block by block, piece by piece
Each run, each step, each bead of sweat, each mile completed is a vibrant tile that, when placed together, forms a beautiful mosaic
Telling a story of early morning runs, the sweat and struggle, of triumphs both small and large
Creating a stronger runner through both dedication and resilience,
Each tile a testament to the journey taken and the goals achieved
What was once a collection of disparate pieces now forms a stunning image of growth, perseverance, and achievement."
" I love how this can be interpreted visually, but literally and more conceptual (the layered faces, the bodies that fit together like a puzzle, mixed media artwork using organic shapes)"
" To me, Lisbon felt almost candle lit....there was an undeniable glow to me, as if every hour were golden hour. I loved the idea of injecting that same warmth in the collection through color"
"Color. From my trip to initial trip in Lisbon last year - a smattering of iPhone photos... the sunbaked facades, to the clear blue skies, the color palette. It unfolded in front of me on day one. I’ moved by color and how it can make you feel. The beauty of these colors ... they were all a bit lived in. Very dynamic... with lots of high-low contrasts in texture, color and the aging of the materials."
