As we prepare to launch our Spring Summer 2021 collection, I can’t help but remember our best bits from 2020.
2020 was a strange old year and one we will never forget for a few different reasons but a whole bunch of those reasons are positive and I’d love to recap some of these with you. Stick with me here, as I outline: best sellers, new products, good deeds and generally positive and proud moments for us.
A Growing Community //
In 2020 we saw a huge amount of people visit the site. I always try to guestimate the number of new users we’ll get each year but there was no way I could’ve predicted the number that we saw.
And naturally, it wasn’t just the site that was receiving a lot of traffic, our socials were too – Our Instagram is now up to 14.4 k followers (Huge kit giveaway at 15k, make sure you follow us to participate) and our Facebook page grew similarly in size (now at 24.5k). New for 2020, we created the Stolen Goat Herd Facebook group, a place where GOATS from around the world can ask questions, personally interact with SG staff and other members of The Herd…. a community group, a social hub we like to call it. We couldn’t be happier about how greatly received this page has been. It’s awesome to see you all conversing with each other, sharing stories, technical help and banter, we love the community banter that you guys have created. If you’ve not joined the group yet, we’d love to see you there – click here to go to the group>> .
As well as a growing customer base we are rapidly growing our stockist numbers as well. With 20 UK stockists ranging from Cornwall to Inverness and more in the pipeline, hopefully, we have one near you. We are expanding our European stockists as well and have some big things planned for Canada and Latin America. You can see a full list of our current stockists here>>.
The SG HQ Team Expands //
With a rapidly growing business that gets stronger and stronger each year, comes the need to bring in help. We made 3 new hire’s:
Mark // Product Development: Mark has been with us for 3 months and has got straight to work helping us build our product range…. Already, he has 1 new product that will launch with SS21 and plenty more in the pipeline! Exciting times ahead for us as we can now bring you everything that we’ve been wanting to do for years.
Eimear and Ali // Customer Service: We welcome 2 amazing goats to our customer service team. Eimear and Ali are vital members of staff and are willing to go above and beyond. Good customer service is hugely important to us here at SG… we are here for you, to help you find freedom through sport… we’re not here to make a quick buck – we genuinely want to help you escape the shackles and stresses of everyday life.
We will be sharing more info about our new goats in the coming weeks, stay tuned for their intro blog posts.
SS20 & AW20 collections and their best sellers //
2020 saw our largest collection of products to date, with new ranges being launched and existing collections expanded. We were in a very good place with what we had produced and even became the victim of our own success… we just couldn’t get stock in quick enough. If we disappointed you by not having your size, we can only apologise and hope that we’ve done a better job this year. For stock updates, it’s always good to be on our mailing list – subscribe here>>
We launched 1 new range called Climbers, which featured summer jerseys and bib shorts for both men and women. The Climbers range is like nothing we’ve launched before.. extremely lightweight and airy, this range is designed to help keep you feeling fresher for longer during those hot days in the saddle. The jersey boasts lightweight front and rear body panels made from a fabric called CoolLight which is fairly similar to CoolMax. The material name pretty much sums up its purpose, to keep cool and to be light in weight. The bib shorts are similar, very lightweight and very breathable… ideal for high temps, hard days on the bike and for indoor turbo sessions.
Not a new range but a new product and expanding upon an existing range, we launched Epic jerseys to pair with our well established Epic bib shorts. Like the bib shorts, the jersey needed to be a race fit (tight to the body, sculpted in the race position and excess material removed) for aero purposes, offer muscle support for quicker recovery times and maximum performance and to be comfortable… and boy, does it tick all of those boxes! Plus…. it was named “Top of the class” by Cycling Weekly – see a photo of the article here>>.
Something completely new to our offering was our Eco Sports Wash created in collaboration with Clothes Dr.
Available in two sizes (250ml & 500ml) this liquid detergent is designed for use on performance fabrics such as our kit and contains natural ingredients and…. is palm oil free, 100% plastic free and not tested on animals.
BEST SELLERS FROM 2020
C&C Black/ Orange
Waterproof Gloves
BLACK
Orkaan Bib Shorts
BLACK X WHITE
ThermoLite Socks
TORN
Men’s Bodyline Jersey
RAGGAMUFFIN 20
Women’s Orkaan Jersey
HINTERLAND
Mitts
Black
Epic Bib Shorts
Grudge
Women’s Climb & Conquer Jacket
Award Winning //
Stolen Goat crowned “Women’s Cycle Clothing Brand of The Year” at the women’s cycling awards – The London Bike Show.
This was a crazy time for us, we’ve worked so hard since day 1 to equally produce a variety of great kit and designs for men and women and finally, our hard work has paid off. It’s been almost 1 year ago (March) since we won this award but we are still buzzing about it the same as the day we were awarded it.
A tribute to an incredible member of The Herd //
For AW20, we launched a black and white ‘Goat Logo’ jersey called Ronny.
The jersey was named Ronny as a tribute to Ronny Jansson, a Stolen Goat super fan, friend and inspiration. Ronny was born with two club feet and his whole life has suffered extreme amounts of pain when moving, but finding cycling, has changed his life completely. Read more here>>.
Stolen Goat Cycling Shoes //
Last year, back in August, Stolen Goat teased another design on cycling shoes, the first time being back in 2018. The cycling shoes had a great response from The Herd, I don’t think the phone ever stopped ringing for at least 2 weeks after and the DM’s have never been the same since. All we can say is… they are awesome and you need some…..
Charity Work //
With covid-19 causing serious disruption around the world, everyone had to adapt and overcome but this was easier said than done for some sectors, especially charity organisations.
As you well know, charities rely heavily on events for fundraising and unfortunately, most events were cancelled or postponed… yes, some were rebranded as virtual events but let’s be honest, usually, virtual events don’t get anywhere near the participation numbers as physical events.
Stolen Goat is friends with a few charities, we work closely with Rethink and World Bicycle Relief and last year started to work with the Priest Foundation via our collaboration with The Beefeaters. Last year we also donated to Great Ormond Street Hospital, Mind and just recently auctioned off one pair of our staff only (1 of 6 pairs) Hinterland cycling shoes for Dementia UK – you can see the auction here>>.
Of course, we cannot replenish the deficit of what has been lost through covid disruption but something is always better than nothing. If you would like to contribute, please see our charity collections here>>.
Spring Summer 2021 //
Spring Summer 2021 (SS21) is packed full of exciting bits. We will launch 2nd March to newsletter subscribes and open it up for general release later on.
SS21 is one to get excited about, the designs this year have a bit more variety to them and we’ve remastered two of our all-time favourites from previous years and….. expanded the CORE collection.
Launching to newsletter subscribers first! Make sure you are subscribed – click here>>.
If you’ve made it this far, thank you! There are a lot of other bits that I wanted to write about but appreciate this is getting a little wordy.
We hope you are excited about SS21 because we sure are! And there is some big news we can’t wait to share with you soon.
Cheers
Rob
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