EventServices

First of all, our clothing vendor has been great to work with. But a lot of clothing manufacturers are 'guilty' of creating a needlessly complicated method for ordering team clothing.

At what point did it become necessary to have ... no exaggeration...20 different options for short sleeve jerseys?
Wy vendor was very sympathetic with our plight. We have 300 members overwhelmed by the options even though we pared it down to 8.

When I started in this sport, there was one cut, and it came in 5 sizes. And you wore it.

Now, there are 20 different choices in SS jerseys and in 11 different sizes.

And why can't there be a standardization of sizing?
A medium jersey in any of those 20 different cuts can fit . . . not kidding. . . 15 different ways.

What's the point of having all those options if your members aren't able to try on every single size in every cut to figure out what they want?

Anyone know where this got out of control?

mike868y

can't say i've ever really found kit ordering to be that complicated. the two companies i have experience with (verge and castelli) both offer two different fits, a standard and a "pro" fit. buy the one that fits your needs/price range and be done with it.

Ygduf

what vendor has 20 different short-sleeve styles?

And it's your fault for leaving 8 open for selection.

canuckbelle

...as soon as "aero" entered the lexicon of kit.

Also, as Fudgy says: don't leave open that many options.

topflightpro

Uggh, I hate setting up the kit order. (Still, it's not as bad as doing the design.)

Hincapie probably has that many options. I think they have five lines with two fits per line, then you have some with short sleeves, long sleeves or sleeveless.

Fortunately Hincapie eliminated the minimums, which means everyone can get what they want, they just may have to pay more for it. I will add, that the best thing Hincapie ever did was create an online system in which each person goes in to submit their order and pay with their credit cards, which means I no longer have to front the cost and hope no one bails on paying leaving me with their kits.

This year, they also started direct shipping.

canuckbelle

We dumped Hincapie because of constant production delays and shenanigans by our rep. The fit also has problems (jerseys are often too long and become baggy in the front). We're with Castelli now.

Wylde06

We went with Hincapie this year. Not only do the kits all fit great (fit kit ftw), but it was super easy to order. From the time we placed the order to arrival was less than expected, which was nice.

EventServices

The problem is that we have 300 members. And yeah, we try to push them into three categories: Racer - Club - Tent and Awning.
But even within those categories, the manufacturer makes several different options.
For instance, within one of those categories: Performance. Summer weight. Relaxed. And semi-form fitting.

We can section it off, but even then we're shooting in the dark.
And some riders demand the tissue-weight mesh jerseys (even though we get just 5 days in the 90s each year)
Some refuse to wear shorts. Some refuse to wear bibs.
The 'cross racers want thermal skin suits.
The tourists want lightweight long sleeve.

I think i just answered my own question. That's where it went wrong. Everyone wants what they want. Not what's offered.

mattm

The easiest choice is when you don't really have one.

Trying to please 300 people sounds like a losing battle!

Also, people still wear shorts and not bibs??

TheKillerPenguin

^ That would be members belonging to the parrothead category

TMonk

Back to Pactimo this year for the first time since 2009, and man, there are too many choices!

carpediemracing 

Our club has kit factions. There's a Verge faction, a Hincapie faction, and our main clothing supplier is Craft. I'm partial to Verge myself, Hincapie is nice but some of the more outspoken riders don't want to support that company, Craft is expensive but technically our main clothing supplier.

So get all those choices and multiply by 3.

I've avoided all this stuff by not ordering kits for a few years.

mike868y

that's absurd.

i'm allowed to say that because i know most the guys on CDR's team.

fwiw the craft kits we got my last year on expo where the nicest we'd ever had IMO.

i don't get the people who complain about expensive kit. ponying up an extra $30 is worth it when you spend so much time in the kit.

that being said, our team has castelli and i didn't go with their "race day" kit as the rep was pretty insistent that the kit was incredibly fragile so it just didn't seem worth it to me.

carpediemracing 

I think (I'm not up on the kit stuff) there is a current Hincapie order right now, also Verge, with the reminder that the "real" Craft order goes in at some point.

Personally I really like the Verge race stuff, but I have to be under 160 lbs for the kit otherwise I'll be arrested for disrupting the peace or something because BMI is high. I have a size M I got as a gift for helping the Danbury Crit and it's a great, great, jersey when I'm under 160. No shorts from that group, but the size S from years past are fine for me.

My Hincapie size S shorts are huge, ditto size M jersey.

mike868y

yeah hincapie fits at least a size large, if not two.

EventServices

We had Craft last year. They were impossible to work with. They're stuff is pretty good. And we got a deal on their base layers - which is where they really excel. But they totally botched our colors - the color shown in the final approval wasn't even close what they sent us - and they refused to correct them.

therhodeo

Does anyone else have trouble with your version of race cut not being your clubs version of race cut?

topflightpro

We looked into Castelli a few years ago, but half the guys on the team wanted to stay with Hincapie, and the pricing and fit wasn't sufficiently better to justify the switch. But yeah, Hincapie stuff does run big. I started buying the Velocity Plus bibs, which are definitely worth the additional cost, though they run a bit small compared to regular Velocity stuff.

My wife used to manage a women's team, and one year they ordered in five or six fit kits. They spent close to $1,000 in fit-kit shipping fees that year. It was pretty ridiculous. Every woman on the team wanted to try a different brand out. They ended up sticking with the same provider they always had.

caloso

My beef with Castelli is that their sizing is inconsistent year to year even if you order the exact same item.

therhodeo

Cycling stuff is so inconsistent brand to brand it makes it even more frustrating when they're inconsistent within one brand. I've got a race fit Castelli medium jersey that fits like a skinsuit and a LG race fit medium that fits like an old t-shirt.

happybday29475

That is one of the reasons our team dumped Castelli - people got really fed up with the incessant size changes over a couple of years.

The reason is apparently Castelli has changed chinese manufacturing plant from year to year. Not only has the sizing changed, but so has the quality. Also, from what I hear, the "good" Castelli is what's sold in Europe, and the "****ty" Castelli is what's sold in the US - they're rumored to be different products.

therhodeo

The Castelli stuff I own is made in Morocco.

gsteinb

doper.

therhodeo

Don't know if you're serious or not but I 100% refuse to buy or wear his crap. Just another one that kept his mouth shut, played up his nice guy image, and gets to ride off in the sunset with his money, business, and worst of all a development team.

hack

I've had team kit orders with Jakroo and with Castelli.

The Jakroo experience was very good. Sales rep brought out all the kit options and went through all the items that were available for us. No minimum orders and what you do order arrived in about two weeks. The kits were good, but the bibs were cut much higher in the front than I liked. While there were quite a few options, everyone could get exactly what they wanted due to the no minimum piece requirement.

Castelli has been okay and I really like their product. We have a small team, so the store front options are pretty minimal (one bib option, two jersey options, and maybe a skinsuit). The only downer is hitting minimums, ordering everything in one go, and then waiting like 3 months to get your kit. With a lot of the other providers moving toward a shorter order to arrival window, I am hopeful Castelli follows suit.

Cost between Castelli and Jakroo were very similar.

I'd really like to try Capo's custom process as their non-custom stuff has been great.