In June 2016 Britain voted on whether or not to remain in the EU. Whilst we are still waiting to see the full medium and long term effects of that vote, the impact on most small businesses in the UK was instantaneous. The cost of importing rose dramatically on that night and has remained high ever since.
Across the board from helmets to clothing & accessories to bikes, the majority of what we consume here in the UK as cyclists is made on international land, simple as that. It is still cheaper to make high quality cycling products abroad than it is in the UK but nevertheless it is significantly more expensive now.
The cycling industry has reacted. Brands have already begun to raise their prices in order to stay above water. Sadly, it is a necessity for most cycling brands, especially those with distributors to consider. They have 2 genuine choices…. raise their prices or adapt in some way.
Where possible, we at stolen goat will choose adapt every single time.
Dissecting the development costs
What we did was to look at the costs of producing our clothing. Our kit is made by Belgium based Bioracer and we want to keep it that way despite having to pay for it in Euros.
We aren’t willing to compromise on quality or features.
You will of course appreciate that there is a cost involved in terms of actual production. But it’s not the only cost involved. You also need to consider the development costs – for us that’s about design time and creating the range, this on it’s own represents close to 100 man hours for a season. Then you have the cost of photography, samples and so on. And finally the cost of marketing and advertising the products to actually sell them.
Stripping it all back
We entertained the idea of reducing the features on our products for about 15 seconds.
Remember, we aren’t willing to compromise on quality or features.
What we realised is that if we stripped out the design and development costs to the bare minimum we could create a mini range at the same price as pre-Brexit without losing out on quality or features.
Core means core
To us, “core” doesn’t mean fewer features, it means all the features. So all our Bodyline ONE bibshorts are now core products – with the price frozen. And we have introduced a brand new range of core cycling jerseys and gilets. These are a very simple, clean and understated set of colourways with all the regular features that you have come to know and love in our existing Bodyline range.
The way we make this work financially is that we have designed them once and they are here to stay for the foreseeable future. We’ll keep them stocked – so quite simply, if you want an outstanding jersey and a fantastic price without the extra design individuality of our limited edition pieces (more on those below) then the stolen goat core range is for you! For men and women, this range centres around the jersey. Combine them with the Bodyline shorts and a gilet, spice things up with some socks and you’re good to go. Premium kit at sensible prices.
BROWSE CORE >>Looks great, but I want a little more…
We love the core range and it’s here to stay. If fits perfectly, feels great and looks super sharp and clean. But we also love designing one-of-a-kind type things, to be honest it’s kinda what we get off on.
As adventurous humans we, like you, are looking for that extra level of individuality when we ride. Great looking kit that sets us apart from the crowd. So this year, other than the core products, we have also released limited edition designs with an absolute maximum on production quantities. This means that you’ll be part of a hyper exclusive club that owns any particular non-core design.
BROWSE LIMITED EDITIONS >>#AdventureMore