Phil Burt and the Ergonomistry Revolution
In cycling, comfort is often mistakenly treated as secondary to performance. But for internationally renowned physiotherapist and ergonomist Phil Burt, comfort is not just a matter of enjoyment—it's a gateway to sustained performance, injury prevention, and long-term participation in sport.
Through a ground-breaking collaboration with performance apparel company Endura, Phil has pioneered a new category of innovation: Ergonomistry—a science-led, athlete-tested approach to solving long-standing ergonomic problems in cycling. The flagship result of this approach? The Women’s Pro SL EGM Bibshort, featuring the revolutionary 800 Series ConForm EGM Pad, created to directly address the all-too-common—but rarely discussed—issue of women's saddle discomfort.
Saddle discomfort is a challenge faced by many women cyclists, often in silence. Speaking openly about issues like saddle sores remains taboo, creating a barrier to innovation and resolution. According to Phil Burt:
“It can be really hard and distressing to talk about saddle sores and their causes. We don’t know how many women give up cycling and are lost from the sport. The ones we know about are the tip of the iceberg.”
Recognising this gap, Phil spearheaded an open, inclusive development process—gathering insights from elite athletes like Lucy Charles-Barclay and Denise Schindler as well as a diverse pool of amateur women cyclists. Their candid feedback formed the backbone of the product design.
Phil Burt’s extensive background—spanning over a decade as Head of Physiotherapy at British Cycling and five years with Team Sky—was instrumental in designing a medical-grade, rider-informed solution.
His innovation lies in treating saddle comfort as a multi-factorial problem. As he explains:
“Saddle sores are caused by four specific things: heat, water, pressure, and friction. So we developed a complete system to address each of these elements.”
Key Innovations:
This systems-level thinking underscores Burt’s ergonomist mindset: treating comfort as a holistic, bio-mechanical challenge that requires precision design and real-world validation.
For Burt, the connection between comfort and performance is not theoretical—it’s practical and measurable:
“If you are thinking of your saddle pain, you can’t focus on your training or race performance… Good shorts allow you to sit where you want to sit and achieve the position that allows you to perform to your best.”
Suboptimal riding positions adopted to alleviate discomfort—such as sliding back or sitting more upright—can have profound negative effects on both biomechanical efficiency and injury risk. The new bibshort design empowers riders to hold their optimal position confidently and pain-free, enhancing both short-term results and long-term development.
Products emerging from this collaboration are not merely released—they are earned. The “Ergonomistry” mark is reserved for those products that pass through a rigorous cycle of concept, ergonomic design, iterative testing, and athlete validation. It is a mark of excellence in comfort science and performance enhancement.
Phil Burt’s signature approach to innovation—human-centred, medically informed, and performance-driven—has set a new benchmark for how the cycling industry tackles comfort-related challenges, particularly for underrepresented rider groups.
The Women’s Pro SL EGM Bibshort is more than a piece of apparel—it’s a statement. It signals a future where comfort is a critical part of the performance equation, and where innovation is driven by empathy, science, and deep listening.
With Phil Burt’s leadership, Ergonomistry isn’t just a product development method. It’s a movement—one that challenges conventions, breaks taboos, and most importantly, keeps riders on their bikes, doing what they love, pain-free.
