Club kit

petemadoc

Does anyone have any recommendations for getting club kits made. It's a new club so the numbers will be small, maybe 10-20 kits.

Thanks

smidsy

We get ours done by Velo in Italy, very nice gear but can take a while to get it (you know what the Italians are like, sorry Ugo). They also do stuff in Windtex Fabric which is really good for colder days.

Not sure on UK suppliers sorry.

Garry H

Port Wheelers?

Club currently uses Imp Sport in the UK and the quality is good. Not sure about minimum run numbers though.

Used to use an Italian maker (Reartu) and it was so so. Agree with the poster above about Windtex though, it's excellent and makes a very good gilet.

petemadoc

Yeah I've had experience with Italian suppliers before. Good stuff but slow.

I think we'll need something faster, looking at getting kit before May and that includes getting everyone to pay up and decide what they want.

bondurant

Provision do decent stuff

Lycra-Byka

Try impsports they do most local clubs and very good stuff too.

colinsmith123

After years of using Impsport, we swapped to Mstina as we felt the quality and price of the kit offered better value for money.

http://www.mstina.co.uk

majormantra

My team went with Champion Systems who seemed to be amongst the cheaper options for small orders. I'd give them a qualified recommendation. Their design people seemed pretty rubbish so it's better if you have a very precise idea of what you want. Also, quality is typical lycra club kit - you can't expect Rapha type stuff for this sort of money, but it's good enough.

My old club uses Impsport and their stuff is nice, although not very cheap. They previously used Reartu which was cheaper, but a bit crappier, and apparently dealing with them was a bit of a nightmare as they tended to promise more than they could deliver.

jordan_217

Kalas. Not sure about min orders and they are a little more expensive than Endura Team kit but the quality seems really good and you can specify a mid or high end Cytech pad in their shorts/tights.

schweiz

We have Pearl Izumi, not sure on how they are with small quanitities though.

g00se

Haven't used yet, but remember hearing good things about Velotec. Says they will do small orders and not expensive:

http://www.velotec.co.uk/

jimmythecuckoo

Halfbb are doing small runs now...

www.halfbb.com

markos1963

Our club uses Castelli through a UK importer but it has it's problems with lead times and delivery. Kit is lovely as you would expect but we had quality problems with their skin suits. Now looking to use Champ Systems for the skin suits only.

mroli

Champ Sys are good if you can do your design and 10-20 is not a problem, they are competitively priced and offer a wide range of kit. The kit itself is "ok" - it isn't the "best" - but it is perfectly adequate for most things you will do with it. Quick ordering and delivery process (made in far east, but you deal with a UK based company/people). They'll send you sample kit so you can have a look at sizing etc in advance and the actual sublimination process is pretty good.

If you look at the blog in my sig, there are lots of pictures of what I had done - basically bib shorts, shirt (full length zip), gloves and a couple of jackets.

ugo.santalucia

My former club used Inverse and then Dekka. None of them is very reliable... they have a lot of delays and stock issues.
I always found the all club kit thing a waste of time. It is often of lower quality than stuff available online at the same price point, it smells corporate when really, you just want to go foar a ride with your mates. In any case, i would not go further than one summer jersey... my club had the all lot, from Arm Warmers to winter jackets and 3 types of bibs... it was all mediocre junk.
There is nothing wrong in wearing different outfits, it defines us as individuals.
We ended up arguing a lot about club kit, which I am not sure it was the point of being a club

Rodrego Hernandez

Bioracer and Giordana. Excellent quality and delivery times are realistic and not missed.

Recommend both equally.

g00se

Bioracer do our club kit and it's decent quality. not sure what the minimum order is though.

Monty Dog

Another big up for Mstina and Prosport Distribution run by Gianluca Capello.

They've done a couple of team kits for my club and I personally placed an order for 90 commemorative bike jerseys at the end of last year. Quality of response and product was first rate - everyone was impressed, even those who'd never even considered having a bike jersey before.

Previously I've had team kits from Biemme, Sportful and Nalini - Nalini and Biemme were rubbish, wierd sizes too. Sportful was good quality (they own Castelli) but delivery took a while.

We did have an issue with some of sizing of Mstina skinsuits last year due to our change in a design to a concealed zip - this was all resolved efficiently with little fuss.

Don't under-estimate the need for a back and forth dialogue over design details - Mstina were very good at picking up details on things like colour matching and detailed design issues I'd failed to notice - things that would be impossible to rectify after the event. Many companies are simply dealing with a manufacturer in China where the ability to provide a service would be virtually zero.

ilm_zero7

Castelli and Giordana - both good - yet to try MSTina, but have seen good reports of them

gloomyandy

If you are looking for a UK supplier you may want to try force gb (http://www.forcegb.com/). They manufacture in the UK (in Yorkshire). My club switched to them from imp sport. They are literally just down the road from me, so for us it makes a lot of sense to have a local supplier. We've been very pleased with the kit so far.

Sir Velo

Both my cycling and triathlon club use Champ Sys and they seem ok and as mentioned the kit is medium quality and is reasonably priced.

But before you go designing, ordering and buying kit what is you new club planning on doing? If it is just a social ride then as Ugo says you may want to ditch the idea of full style kit and maybe just go for a basic design in s/s and then just wear it over the top of winter kit when cold.

However, and it is an important "however" if you have aspirations about racing on a formal basis (as opposed to some friendly inter club challenges) then you will need to have your kit design registered with British Cycling and there are certain criteria that it will need to comply to. Nothing onerous to my knowledge but I think I wold be wise to contact them first if you want to 'formalise' your cycling activities.

Post up your design when you are sorted then we can keep a look out for you on the road, track, cyclo-cross, etc.

SV

gsk82

My club used imp sport too until this season. The jerseys were fine 2years ago but the shorts and gilet were appalling. I got a new jersey last year but it had elasticated sleeves n feels rubbish. They do one off items tho which is a plus.

We're in the process of changing back to Carvalho whom the longer standing members recommend.

petemadoc

Thanks for all the advice. I will continue to look into it.

How did you guys come up with a design? I've had a play with the kit designer on impsport's site but my creations were a little pants.

majormantra

In my team we all found pictures of kits we liked and tried to combine some ideas, without making it too busy. Ended up with this:



I have seen some truly awful 'designed by committee' kits which were basically a mess of clipart and random fonts, so if you aren't confident doing it, find someone who is.

gsk82

MajorMantra wrote:

In my team we all found pictures of kits we liked and tried to combine some ideas, without making it too busy. Ended up with this:



I have seen some truly awful 'designed by committee' kits which were basically a mess of clipart and random fonts, so if you aren't confident doing it, find someone who is.

our club fashionista asked for ideas on our club forum. i suggested the beligian national kit and by all accounts the design is going to be very similar to that but in baby blue, navy and yellow. the actual design work has been done by a local designer in beverley, i've had nothing to do with it though so have no further info.