photo credit Mark Gray
We have been offering custom cycling kit as an option for big and small groups for 3 years or so now but this year that section of our business has really grown. Given that we have spent no money on advertising our custom offering this may come as a surprise.
If you’re a Stolen Goat customer then you already know that we create great quality products at sensible prices. But there are a lot of custom cycling kit providers out there and many of them also produce decent products. That being said, there are a lot ways that we add extra value to the custom process and some of these things are completely unique to us. Here’s a few of those…
A selection of our custom customers
1. Expert custom cycling kit design
Let’s talk about design because frankly it’s the cornerstone of our entire business. We create graphically inspiring pieces in our main collection and that carries through to custom because we use the same design team and process. Sometimes a club, event or company will come to us and they know exactly what they want. But more often the client has a vague idea or maybe no idea at all of what they want the kit to look like. The Transatlantic Way is an excellent example, they have an amazing ride and knew they wanted to create something special for their riders but weren’t sure what that should look like. The end result (above) is a shining example of what happens when we get the chance to create something unique that speaks about the event.
2. Realistic order quantities
All custom cycling kit providers will have some kind of minimum order or quantity threshold to get to before you get the green light. We are no different in that regard, for reference our minimum order typically comes in at around £1000. The reality is that custom is a lot of work, from design to logistics to manufacturing to aftercare so it’s tough to make money at the lower end.
However, most providers put minimum quantities on all products. We offer a little flexibility here because quite often you get a smallish group that’s mostly men but with one or two women in the mix. If you are strict about those minimums then either the women have to make do with mens kit or the group can’t be served in entirety. So we often relax our minimums in these cases because we want to create the best offering we can to make sure everyone in the group is happy and ideally wearing Stolen Goat kit.
3. Global Logistics
Some of our custom projects are for groups that are dispersed around the globe. A great example of this is are the various Zwift groups we serve. Team Aeonian, Bikealicious and most recently Phoenix Rising are some of the zwift groups we have created custom kit for. Given that Zwift is online, by nature these groups are always spread far and wide. For these kind of groups we create a dedicated area on the website, a mini-shop, for each member to order and pay in their local currency and choose the shipping method. Once ready, each member then gets an individual package no matter where they live.
This method also works really well for bigger entities that need to serve a wide reaching audience. For example Audax UK who have over 9000(!) members wanted to create some custom kit for their ever growing audience. Naturally, they don’t want to handle kit in house so they chose to keep some stock with us so that anyone can order what they need, whenever they need it. We take care of the rest.
4. Marketing
We’ve said it for years – a good event jersey should sell the event, not the other way round. In our minds, a jersey shouldn’t be an up sale on the event it should add value to the event and maybe even entice people to doing the event. A great example of this is the Heavy Metal Truants collaboration we did this year. Once our fans got wind of the design we created they started signing up to the event itself meaning a good chunk of extra money was raised for charity.
Most custom cycling kit providers focus on just churning out custom kit. As a result they don’t have much reach in terms of marketing an event or particular collaboration. At Stolen Goat we are very lucky to have such a loyal and active audience – The Herd. You guys quite often are so keen to get the jersey that you’ll sign up to the event just to gain access – we love it!
5. Bespoke stock management
If you’re a small club or team and just need to receive a box of kit then of course that’s no problem. But take Chase the Sun as an example, their amazing annual coast to coast event welcomes literally thousands of jersey wearing cyclists across the country. Chase the Sun need a bulk shipment – ordered by size and gender – dispatched to the various event locations but they also allow entrees to buy direct from us, all year round. This means that if you did the event but didn’t buy a jersey at registration there is still an option for you post event. As it happens the jersey is so pretty (see main image at the top of the post) that many of our customers buy it without doing the event so we maintain the inventory year round. As far as I know, no other custom kit supplier will do that.
6. After care & support
The reality is that if you create enough custom cycling kit, there will always be a small percentage of people that run into issues. Maybe someone ordered the wrong size, or perhaps they had a crash and ruined the kit (hopefully that’s as serious as it gets). Our policy here is to always look after you. I’d like to think that other custom kit suppliers have a similar policy so arguably we aren’t unique in that but what we do have is well over 7000 positive customer reviews, many of which have come specifically from custom kit customers. So I’d like to think we have plenty of evidence to back up our statements.
Conclusion
Custom cycling kit can be a complex process but over the years we’ve gotten pretty good at it and that is starting to show in our growth figures. Thanks to everyone that has ordered custom kit from us, we look forward to serving you and hopefully adding a little more value than most wherever possible. We believe we offer a truly great service and product combo, if you’d like to find out for yourself then head over to our custom cycling kit page for more info and next steps.