Paceline Forum Cycling Kit: Proposal and interest poll

[BumbleBeeDave]

It hardly seems like almost two years ago that we did our last forum cycling kit project. But it was . . . and now that we are The Paceline it seems like time to at least see if there’s interest in doing it again with our new logo, colors, and spirit.

So I’ve done some research on some options to hopefully come up with selections that will satisfy the wide variety of preferences among our members.

Now I need to know from you folks what you have serious interest in buying. The vendors have minimums and I need to see if we have enough interest to meet them . . .

MODERN LYCRA: These would be ordered from Verge. They and their owner are a known quantity who did a great job for us on the Serotta kit. They make it easy for us with a BikeReg.com order page with credit card ordering, then they handle all the money and the shipping. To assemble a Verge order we must purchase at least 6 of four different items. Our last order from them went over 250 pieces and went very smoothly. They are hopefully also already a known quantity for many of our members on sizing.

http://www.vergesport.com/

RETRO WOOL: for these items we would go with Cima Coppi, a company owned by a forum member and they have voiced a willingness to work with us on setting minimums and giving us a discount. Take a look at their web site and you’ll see they do some nice stuff.

http://cimacoppi.ca/custom.htm

THE DESIGNER: Jeanne, aka “Mrs. Fixed,” has agreed to once again design for us. Last time was free. This time I feel we should pay her and the prices will reflect some added so we can do that.

THE DESIGNS: We don’t have them yet. If there is enough interest from the survey to move forward, I will be asking Jeanne to work up several designs. All would be based on the colors of the Paceline logo . . . black, white, yellow, orange, and maybe some silver thrown in to give her some flexibility.

For wool it will be a retro type design in keeping with the wool style. Take a look at the Cima Coppi web site and you’ll get a pretty good idea.

For Lycra I will ask her to do two. The first will be conservative, most likely with the yellow and orange used only as accents. The other would be “anything goes” and let her really exercise her creative chops. Then we’ll see what she comes up with for each. If there’s enough interest we might be able to meet minimums for both. But I just don’t know at this stage.

PRICES: I’ve listed prices in the survey poll. THEY ARE APPROXIMATE, and at this time I can’t give more of a commitment than that.

Please indicate what you have a SERIOUS interest in and we’ll see where to go from here.

Here are the poll choices:


Lycra SS jersey—race cut—$85-90
Lycra SS jersey—club cut--$85-90
Lycra “Elite Euro” Bibs—$100-110
Lycra “Elite Entropa” Vest—$95-100
Lycra Arm Warmers—$35-40
Lycra Knee Warmers--$35-40
Wool jacket--$120-130
Wool short sleeve jersey--$80-90
Wool Arm Warmers--$31.50-36
Winter Caps with ear flaps--$26--35


Vote for the ones you are interested in and we will see what we have in a week or so.

Note that Verge also has cotton cycling caps and given the interest already expressed in caps I won't poll on those again. But ordering these from Verge will let us coordinate them with the final kit design and help us make Verge minimums.

Verge also offers a Lycra “Elite Entropa” Wind Jacket that would be $115-120. Post here if you are interested in that. The software poll feature will only let me include up to 10 choices.

Thanks!

BBD

[MattTuck]

I voted, but with the proviso that the final design will be a big determinant in how serious I am.


Any chance we could do something with a light blue base, with orange and yellow as contrast? I think that would look better than just the yellow/orange, white black.

I like the red kite prayer kit, in terms of design if you go for the synthetic material.

http://redkiteprayer.com/store/

[BumbleBeeDave]

. . . to all suggestions for color schemes.

I will be trying to balance this against what I see is a need to expedite the process to some degree. All the voting we did last time on colors and color schemes ended up consuming several months. I'd like to get it done this time so actual finished kit can be purchased and to customers by beginning of April, which seems to be a good start-of-season date for many.

But I felt I needed at least some indications of interest--or not--before moving forward and asking Jeanne to spend any time on this.

BBD

[BumbleBeeDave]

. . . that even after only five days we have more than enough interest to meet Verge minimums for . . .


Short sleeve club cut jersey
Short sleeve race cut jersey
Euro bibs
Cycling caps


I will also check with Cima Coppi to see if the wool numbers are enough for them.

I will ask Jeanne to put together the two previously mentioned design candidates.

But please continue to vote! The more data I have on interest the better.

Thanks!

BBD

[jr59]

hey Dave, It won't let me bid but one time.

I would more than likely want a wool jersey as well.

[jmoore]

wool ss jersey would be awesome.


FYI, we did a couple of sets of jerseys on RBR and the members submitted designs. The top few were selected and it was put to a vote. The winning design was produced.

This might be something to consider instead of farming out a design to a single person. There were a lot of good designs that were outside the standard kit look and they ended up looking great.