One day after about thirty years of living with a color, I woke up and decided to walk away. The red and white Richard Sachs paint scheme, selected almost by accident when I had to match bicycles I was making for my racing team - matching them to clothing already produced by the apparel supplier Le Coq Sportif - a pattern that has had more tonal changes, ink revisions, decal sizes and placement combos, but has remained essentially red and white since 1982, is now part of my past.

For the last several seasons I looked at what I had and considered the project done - mature. But mature in the sense that I couldn't change another detail and still feel content, or that I was going forward with fine design. The current version has been the same since 2009 and I had nothing left I wanted to give to it.

With that as a sentiment, I thought about what's next. In the time it takes to strike a key, my plan became clear. I wanted a wholesale departure from my past so that I could cross a line on a certain day and step into my future. There was only one place my trust would be placed for such a leap: @houseindustries.

I contacted @richroat, expressed a fantasy for a Queer Eye For The Atmo Guy ordeal for my identity program, and asked that he and his staff guide me. The hash marks were simple; I wanted to bury the red and white think, lose as many connections to the look that I had worked around and with all these years, and emerge with something uniquely House Industries For Richard Sachs.

After some twenty months, we are walking up to that line and crossing it together. Rich, and all at House Industries, have created my future, and it begins this fall. The Richard Sachs Cyclocross Team with start the season and show off the creations that House has designed. Graphics. Colors. Racing kits. Accessories. Maybe even stickers. Well, maybe not.

The year 1982 was my foray into race sponsorship, and I've managed teams ever since. That won't change, but everything you see will.
The above ^ my 2013 summation of Operation Reskin. Rich wanted me to tee off on his idea that, “…this project was financed by the currency of mutual respect and regard.”