Is Cycling a Fashion Show?
Moderators: robbosmans, Moderator Team
Lately I've noticed that there is an absurd amount of largely social media driven apparel companies selling fairly basic jerseys for upwards of $175 a piece. Most of the Australian brands (Black Cat, Attaquer) come to mind and almost none of these companies actually have any serious experience designing and utilizing textiles. Essentially they know how to source production, which isn't expensive, and have a few graphic designers to produce what are essentially fairly plain kits with flowers or dots on them. I like a lot of them at first glance honestly. It all started with Rapha but at least (IMO and experience) they make some high quality products that they actually repeatedly test and re-design.
Until I consider that you're not really paying for anything but the design. Coupled with the absurd amount of people that now produce socks, accessories, and pretty much market entirely through Instagram and it seems as if appearance on social media and aesthetics are now what we are paying for. Leg vein pics, kit grids, coffee shop photos, and the like seem to have taken precedence over all else in a lot of cases. I don't know how many #sockdoping pics I see and how few of actual ride scenery. Its more about conspicuous consumption and what you have on than anything else. Moreover its driving the cost of an already expensive sport even higher for what amounts to some very basic products.
Until I consider that you're not really paying for anything but the design. Coupled with the absurd amount of people that now produce socks, accessories, and pretty much market entirely through Instagram and it seems as if appearance on social media and aesthetics are now what we are paying for. Leg vein pics, kit grids, coffee shop photos, and the like seem to have taken precedence over all else in a lot of cases. I don't know how many #sockdoping pics I see and how few of actual ride scenery. Its more about conspicuous consumption and what you have on than anything else. Moreover its driving the cost of an already expensive sport even higher for what amounts to some very basic products.
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The pro cycling thread is depressing and straight up weird. Its like a female figure model message board, except with dudes, bikes, and even worse eating disorders.
I agree with most of the first post, although not having used any of those brands myself so can't comment on the real quality.
But just my 2 cents on the subject; the market is offering what people want...?
But just my 2 cents on the subject; the market is offering what people want...?
- Samuel Sanchez Gonzalez
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Social media is big, no surprise cycling is involved in some fashion show. It's our society, you either enjoy your ride/training with your pal and had enough fun, or you also live through the "likes" and kudos you receive after posting an Instagram or a Strava ride. Some people will do both. It becomes worrying if you only enjoy the latter.
In the end, it is the internet, whether you post a picture or your point of view on a forum, it's calling for attention and sharing.
Fact that there is a fashion marketing through Instagram isn't surprising. Free advertising. I like the fact that there are more and more cycling garment brands, I used to ride crap ugly team gears. Now that I don't belong in a club I enjoy wearing what I like, and appreciate the very wide choice we have now. I ride what I can afford and it's certainly not Rapha or Café du Cycliste although I like what they do.
I would not criticize the "opportunists", either sock sellers or Raphaesque brands, if there is a market, good for them, it's never easy to start up your brand, even when you're taking advantage of a niche market.
In the end, it is the internet, whether you post a picture or your point of view on a forum, it's calling for attention and sharing.
Fact that there is a fashion marketing through Instagram isn't surprising. Free advertising. I like the fact that there are more and more cycling garment brands, I used to ride crap ugly team gears. Now that I don't belong in a club I enjoy wearing what I like, and appreciate the very wide choice we have now. I ride what I can afford and it's certainly not Rapha or Café du Cycliste although I like what they do.
I would not criticize the "opportunists", either sock sellers or Raphaesque brands, if there is a market, good for them, it's never easy to start up your brand, even when you're taking advantage of a niche market.
Australia seems to have a bit of a flood going on at the moment with small boutique brands popping up everywhere. Attaquer, Black Sheep, Pedla, MAAP & Fiasco to name but a few. Dont really know why, alot of it reflected in the current 'hipster' movement.
I havent tried any of their gear, mainly due to the price, but some of the designs are refreshing from the standard 'black ninja' clothing that the main brands seem to churn out.
http://cyclingtips.com.au/2015/03/whats-cool-in-cycling-kits-in-2015/
I havent tried any of their gear, mainly due to the price, but some of the designs are refreshing from the standard 'black ninja' clothing that the main brands seem to churn out.
http://cyclingtips.com.au/2015/03/whats-cool-in-cycling-kits-in-2015/
The consumerist attitude is really bad.
Pursuing happiness through retail therapy will never end well. But i think it's fine as long as it's done in moderation.
You know, whatever gets you riding. There are worse things one can blow their money on.
Pursuing happiness through retail therapy will never end well. But i think it's fine as long as it's done in moderation.
You know, whatever gets you riding. There are worse things one can blow their money on.
This sort of stuff caters to the newer cycling markets in my experience, ie, the ones where cycling has only become a popular sport recently, which are by far and large countries with quite a high disposable income and not much of an existing cycling "infrastructure" or culture.
Here in ITA I've passed three people wearing Rapha on the road in five years. Everyone else is wearing their club kit or sportful/castelli/assos etc. of varying price levels. People don't care about wearing pro kit here, either. There's a lot of older cyclists who look as if they haven't bought any new equipment in 20/30 years.
The faux heritage some of the modern brands try to sell is completely lost on the Italian market, it exists and always will; there is no borrowed nostalgia here. I'd get a lot of questions/comments if I turned up on a group ride in a wool jersey...
Here in ITA I've passed three people wearing Rapha on the road in five years. Everyone else is wearing their club kit or sportful/castelli/assos etc. of varying price levels. People don't care about wearing pro kit here, either. There's a lot of older cyclists who look as if they haven't bought any new equipment in 20/30 years.
The faux heritage some of the modern brands try to sell is completely lost on the Italian market, it exists and always will; there is no borrowed nostalgia here. I'd get a lot of questions/comments if I turned up on a group ride in a wool jersey...
I just want a good solid black kit that doesn't cost me $500.
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IchDien wrote:The faux heritage some of the modern brands try to sell is completely lost on the Italian market, it exists and always will; there is no borrowed nostalgia here. I'd get a lot of questions/comments if I turned up on a group ride in a wool jersey...
To me it feels lie it's lost on every country that actually has a long-standing cycling heritage. My club is over 100 years old - I won a handicap that was in its 101st year just last month - yet there is still a distinct lack of real heritage of the sport in this country. It seems to hold to for most English-speaking countries (Great Britain, USA, Canada, etc) as well.
Those like Italy, Belgium, France, etc. just seem to have moved on and don't see the need to romanticise a period they experienced for long enough and have evolved away from.
As for cycling on Instagram...mates will put a nicely taken pic of an S-Works with gum side walls and three times the 'likes' as a sensational shot of countryside. It breaks me. But if that's the market, then that's the market...
It is like there are two extremes in our sport. You have the "Freds" type crowd on one side, then you have the "fashion show" riders on the other side. But I guess whatever makes them happy, even if their taste in cycling and cycling related stuff isn't the same as mine. At least they are outside riding their bike.
"Marginal gains are the only gains when all that's left to gain is in the margins."
I'm glad they're riding, but not that, as Sean Blurr said, its now half a paycheck to get a complete low-key kit that doesn't look like it was either designed by a dude that lives in Portland that got Photoshop last month or is a leftover rejected design from an early 90's ski apparel catalog.
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Might be a market for good quality kits that look very high end, but that don't have the price tag of high end kits.