DJ BRANDT FINDS PERFECTION IN THE CHAOS OF IMPERFECTION WITH NEW WABI-SABI YOUTUBE EDIT

Progressing the sport—or simply your own riding—is a messy thing full of chaos and cased landings. But those imperfect moments are what lead to perfection.

Embargoed until 4:00pm CEST Wednesday, 20th August 2025: Wabi-sabi, as any quick Wikipedia search will reveal, is Japanese for the appreciation of beauty that is "imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete".  

Admittedly, tempting fate whilst hucking your meat might not immediately strike you as an example of traditional Zen Buddhism. DJ Brandt, however, just launched a video, fittingly titled “Wabi-Sabi”, proving that the sum of our messy attempts to spit in gravity’s eye can be a beautiful thing to behold.  

Pushing his limits aboard a Canyon Torque on the unforgiving cliffs and scree slopes of Utah, USA, Brandt gives a clear-eyed and compelling view into the process of making the impossible possible.

But, spoiler alert… it’s not a simple, one-take kind of affair. However, it’s the near misses, tumbles and triumphs that show what it truly takes to achieve your own kind of perfection on the bike. 

The new video is a collaborative effort between DJ Brandt, filmer Jasper Wesselman, and Canyon Bicycles.  

“One of the things I learned a while back,” says Brandt, “was you can’t try and force life to be what you think it should be. Just show up every day, do your best, and life will kind of put you right where you belong.” 

“I related what DJ wanted to share with this piece to the Japanese aesthetic philosophy, Wabi-Sabi,” explains Wesselman.

“We had a really hard time shooting this one. Life didn’t go easy on us. But that process of remaining consistent through a litany of imperfect moments of dissatisfaction compounded in a result that I'm sure someone, somewhere would call perfect. When it was all said and done, we just had a super good time chasing the dream.”

What does the two-wheeled version of Wabi-Sabi actually look like? See for yourself here:

1. The embargo expires at 4:00pm CEST Wednesday, 20th August 2025.
2. For more images, visit this link.