Q36.5 Brand Guidelines: 36.5 Degrees

Q36.5 engineers kit around body temperature.

Q36.5 is a lesson in science as a design language. Founded around 2013 by Luigi Bergamo (its CEO and head of R&D) in Bolzano, South Tyrol, Italy, the ultra-premium brand engineers apparel around a single number: 36.5°C, the ideal core body temperature its kit is designed to help riders maintain.

Its brand identity is ultra-premium, technical and thermoregulation-obsessed — an in-house “Q LAB,” hand-made-in-Italy construction, hyper-local production, and the Red-Dot-winning UNIQUE™ single-woven bib short. It also title-sponsors a pro team (the Pinarello–Q36.5 squad from 2026).

(Honest notes: the name refers to 36.5°C body temperature (confirmed); we don’t assert what the leading “Q” stands for. The pro team is a UCI ProTeam, not a WorldTour team, and it’s a separate entity from the apparel brand. Bergamo’s Assos background is widely reported (attributed here). And there’s no official brand hex, so the tones here are an unofficial interpretation.)

Q36.5 lives in an engineered, thermo palette. Click a swatch to copy the hex.

Q36.5’s identity is engineered, cool and precise — an ink, a thermo red, an ice grey, a nautica blue, and a snow. The palette pairs a thermo red with ink and a cool nautica blue — the register of thermoregulation, a climatic chamber and precision engineering. It signals science, technology and premium craft rather than lifestyle softness. The honest caveat: with no published brand hex, these tones are an original, unofficial interpretation, not first-party values.

The lesson is an engineered, thermo palette signals science-led premium. Q36.5’s world is a Q LAB and a body-temperature graph. For designers, it is a reminder that a thermo red with ink and a cool blue reads as technical and precise — right for a brand built on the science of 36.5°C. The takeaways: use a cool, engineered palette with a warm thermo accent; keep it precise; and treat any single hex as unofficial — using ink for small text so the red stays a thermal signal.

The register is an engineered sans — precise and technical.

Q36.5’s identity carries an engineered, precise, science-led spirit — thermoregulation and Italian craft. An engineered sans captures the mood: it is precise and technical, the register of a lab and a spec sheet. Set in an engineered palette, the engineered sans feels precise and technical — exactly the personality Q36.5 carries. It is machined rather than soft, mirroring lab-tested kit. (Q36.5’s real wordmark is a trademark we describe but do not reproduce, and the exact brand typeface is not ours to use.) Because the mark is not ours to use, the honest description is “an engineered sans spirit,” shown here in a stand-in. The type behaves like the brand: engineered, precise and science-led.

Q36.5 stands for engineered thermoregulation.

Q36.5 is a lesson in making science the identity. An engineered palette, an in-house Q LAB and a name built on 36.5°C make thermoregulation science the whole brand — precise, technical, ultra-premium. The science is the differentiator. The differentiator is an engineered, thermoregulation-led, premium identity.

For designers and brand-builders, Q36.5 offers a clear takeaway: a single scientific idea can be a brand. The lessons: own one concept (36.5°C); back it with real R&D (a lab, body-mapping); and let the name carry the meaning. It is also a reminder to stay accurate: the name is 36.5°C (don’t claim what “Q” means), the pro team is a ProTeam (not WorldTour), and the palette here is an unofficial interpretation. Q36.5 made science the brand — proof that an idea can be the difference.

Keep Q36.5’s identity on hand — save it to a board in the Made Good inspiration library.