shuilong

Introduction
It seemed too good to be true. 28 days turnaround time for some of the best performing kit on the market. Fully customizable and accepts individual orders. Marcin Bialoblocki wore Nopinz kit when he broke the 100mi record. Ollie from GCN is wearing a set to break the 1 hour record. And I see a team wearing their kit at almost every big international amateur event from the Taiwan KOM to UCI Gran Fondo events. With that knowledge in mind I decided to commission an artist to design my 2020 racing outfit before contacting Nopinz. An unnecessary step, but something I really wanted to do.

The Problem
The order was placed on December 14th.

That's about where the smooth parts of this process start and stop. Nopinz could not use the supplied art files, they only use vector files and cannot convert anything else--including Photoshop files. This was not stated clearly anywhere on their website. The artist I commissioned didn't respond until a week or two later, and that's when he supplied vector files. I was eventually told those files were "unusable." And now had to wait for the entire jersey to be designed from scratch. The designer did an amazing job, though.

Contact with the designer began December 19. The design was finalized January 10th.

The next step were measurements. I was measured by three local tailors and 3D scanned at one of them. Since I'm a few thousand miles away from the UK I had to use their supplied forms and send over the measurements. Their tailor misread the numbers and thankfully asked for clarification. After a little back and forth, my correct measurements were finally recieved.

Contact with the tailor began January 10 and stopped January 13th.

And then nothing. This is where my negative experience lies. Nopinz will respond quickly to potential customers but once the payment is made they cease responding. They went on holiday a few times through the process and never made it known that production was stopping. After a week of waiting for any update, I contacted the tailor requesting a status update with no avail. Her response was that she asked a co-worker for an update, but I was given complete silence after that.

Findings and conclusion
February 3 I finally heard an update.

"Your suit is currently being made," and a question about what type of pocket I wanted. The verbage sounded as though the suit was finished and just needed pockets sewn on. The status changed to "Printing and Cutting." I needed the outfit in January, that's what was expected with 28 days turnaround time. At the time of posting it's February 18th. Communication has been nearly non-existent through the entire process. If the product is really being worked on, I haven't seen it.

If waiting 4 to 6 months is an option, go for it. Otherwise look elsewhere. Finding a white skinsuit and getting the custom design printed on is a much quicker option. Nopinz also offers regular production outfits, but those are also made to order. Customer service is not reliable. The prices are equal to all other high-end offerings. And the wait is far greater than the advertised "28 days." So far the wait is at 65 days and showing no signs of completion anytime soon.