About Us
About Us
About Professor Neil Barron
Neil Barron is an industrial design graduate from the Royal College of Art, London with over 30 years of professional experience formerly as a qualified Aeronautical Engineer (Rolls-Royce aero engines) and latterly as an industrial designer and innovator.
He founded Gusto, a design and innovation consultancy, and through it has worked with a number of diverse clients including Boots, E.ON, Intel, Lego, The Body Shop and Unilever on the design and development of award winning products for international markets.
As well as this, Neil is an avid cyclist. After having a number of bikes stolen on the streets of London and continuously having to carry around heavy bike locks, the idea for Litelok® was born. Neil then started Zeal Innovation Ltd at the end of 2013, with marketeer Will Riley, whom he met at Southampton University many years before, to develop and commercialise the Litelok® lightweight bike lock idea.
In addition to running Gusto and Zeal, Neil is involved with multiple Universities in the UK and abroad. He has held multiple visiting academic positions including Royal Academy of Engineering Visiting Professor of Innovation at The Royal College of Art Innovation Design Engineering department with Imperial College and Visiting Professor at Queen Mary University London. Neil has run design, innovation and enterprise projects around the world collaborating with many diverse and world renowned institutions including Tokyo University in Japan and National Institute of Design in India.
Building Better Security for Bikes
The issue with most bike locks is that while bikes are getting lighter and lighter, secure locks are getting heavier and heavier. That’s because it’s the thickness of the metal chains and tubes that provides the additional security, however it also makes them cumbersome, heavy and impractical.
Neil and his team harnessed the unique security properties of multiple innovative, lightweight materials to create a composite strap called Boaflexicore®. Each layer provides additional security, meaning that it can withstand sustained attack to the highest level from tools like bolt croppers and hacksaws. Read our FAQs.
Our Supporters
