1Tom Kelly, Deià Studios, 2026
Deià Studios was born on a bike. Together, co-founders Tom Kelly and Tom Wintle cycled the Camino de Santiago, the 500-mile path across northern Spain that ends on the Atlantic coast, and along the way they reached a shared conclusion. Good cycling kit was expensive, often unflattering, and didn’t last.
A few years later in 2023, they launched Deià Studios – a cycling collective grounded in London’s riding culture and inspired by the small Mallorcan town that gives the brand its name. The vision was that cycling and fashion could sustainably co-exist. Working with European ateliers, the founders set out to fuse modern aesthetics into responsibly made performance wear. To help make it a reality, they turned to a stack of PayPal products they knew they could trust.
Tom Kelly, Co-founder, Deià Studios
Deià sells premium cycling jerseys, bibs and base layers, all handmade in Verona from carefully sourced materials. A full kit runs to three figures, with the price reflecting the craft and materials that go into it.
But browsing high-end items in an online store can give some shoppers pause for thought: cyclists typically want to feel the fabric and check the cut before they commit to a considered purchase, and a boutique label can’t yet lean on the years of recognition that more established competitors can.
“Being a small challenger to some of the larger ecommerce incumbents, people often need to see it, touch and feel it to believe it,” says Tom Kelly.
Deià didn’t want to compromise on their products or discount their way around the problem. They needed a way to help make their gear feel reachable without simply cutting margins.
Deià has run on PayPal since the start: PayPal Checkout on their Shopify storefront, PayPal POS at in-person events. Adding PayPal Pay Later messaging extended their stack further upstream, to the moments in the journey before customers are ready to pay.
PayPal Checkout gives Deià a payment experience their customers already recognise, even when the brand itself is new to them. “The value proposition centred around trust is a genuine asset for us,” says Tom Kelly. With a familiar name, a smooth checkout flow, and Buyer and Seller Protection, a three-figure order can feel like a safer call for both customer and merchant.
That’s how PayPal Checkout earns its place at the payment stage.
PayPal Pay Later – specifically PayPal Pay in 3 – earns its place a few moments earlier in the Deià online journey.
With Pay in 3, customers get to split a purchase into three interest-free payments, the first taken at checkout and the remaining two over the months that follow.² Deià gets paid upfront in full, and PayPal manages the repayments and credit risk.2
That can help turn a budget-conscious browser into a ready buyer of Deià’s Mallorca-inspired kit.
It’s also the timing that matters. With Pay Later upstream messaging, the Deià team highlight the PayPal Pay Later option on their product and cart pages, in the moments when a customer is still making their mind up.2 “Pay Later messaging is a super important touchpoint when visitors are deciding whether to buy our kit,” adds Tom Kelly.
Upstream messaging also cost almost nothing to add: “We didn’t need our developer to set things up. It was just a simple download in the App Store and a few minutes of configuration.” For a lean team, the user-friendly setup on Shopify, with no developer work, no setup fees, and no monthly cost,3 meant they could get Pay Later messaging up and live during a coffee break.
With PayPal Checkout handling trust and PayPal Pay Later handling payment flexibility, Deià has a setup that works across the customer journey. The result is a brand that can price its products confidently, stay true to its values, and bring more riders into the community. For a young label built on quality materials and responsible manufacturing, that confidence matters.
Co-founders Tom Kelly and Tom Wintle are building Deià as more than an online shop – they’re bringing together riders and ambassadors who share their vision of community, sustainability and aesthetics. With PayPal supporting the commerce side, Tom and Tom can focus on what they set out to do: make cycling kit that their community is proud to wear.
Learn more about PayPal Pay Later.
Add and optimise Pay Later messaging through the PayPal Pay Later Messaging Centre or your ecommerce platform dashboard settings.