Revolutions is a short documentary that asks sports enthusiasts, brands, and manufacturers to think differently about environmental sustainability by putting sporting goods at the center of the conversation. The film uses the bike as a storytelling device to ask some important questions about sustainability, such as: What happens to our “toys” when we’re done with them? What happens to a bike at its end-of-life stage? What would it take to design everything with the end in mind?

With an estimated 18 million new bikes purchased each year in America alone (National Bicycle Dealers Association, 2015), the bicycle has become an important cultural text that has largely managed to elide environmental criticisms even though it ends up in the landfills with all of our other garbage. This documentary draws on research supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.