Did you know that Michael Ball, the founder of the sassily elegant Rock and Republic clothing was a star cyclist in the late eighties? But later he was in an accident that rendered him unfit for sporting and he launched himself full time in designing the exquisite Rock and Republic Jeans and Apparel with Andrea Bernholtz. And we know how that went—the skyrocket way.

Ok, I really want to get down and dirty about Michael Ball in this article, but before I do let me just get this off my chest. He’s really cute!!!! And so not gay for a head designer of USA’s reining brand.

I guess Ball was really rich (his Wiki article does say multi millionaire without any explanation, that should mean ‘reaaaaally’ rich!) by the time he launched Rock and Republic in 2002 to make it what it is today. For starters he did team with the best of the best in every endeavor. Much has been said about his firm’s president Andrea Bernholtz who worked in the fashion industry for several years before recognizing the business potential in starting Rock and Republic with Ball as their passions for music and the rock and roll lifestyle matched too much.

Here’s a picture of the both of them.

Well received and well applauded Rock and Republic’s real elevation to star-dom, sorry star-wardrobe happened when Victoria Beckham happened in Michael Ball’s life. No silly, they didn’t hook up or anything but they did something much more fabulous! Victoria took to herself to design the butt grabbing line called VB Rocks in 2004 which totally rocked the markets beyond anybody’s expectations.  I should say it was a pretty eye catchy line and beginning at $300, VB Rocks maintained the high end status all along….till it’s termination two years later. There was no good reason given before the split but soon later, Victoria sued Rock and Republic saying they did not pay her enough Loss of Earnings according to the line’s indomitable success.

Later Michael Ball founded the bicycle racing team Rock Racing in 2007 to relive his passion for racing. It was known that Ball used to design apparel for his own team when he was still racing. Ball used the immense popularity of Rock and Republic to publicize his racing team and vice versa because of which he received a ton of flak. Mario Cipollini, the famous but retired cycling champ fondly referred to as Super Mario, surfaced to race for Rock Racing but later criticized Ball saying, “I’m trying to get Michael Ball to understand the difference between marketing a brand and being successful in European racing. You can’t run a team on marketing hype and polemics.” The team is currently dysfunctional.

Well, it has certainly been a great ride for Ball since 2002. May he start more daring and rocking endeavors!