Photo by Ellen Wight
My Unattached Rider jersey, the finest use of Helvetica since Crate and Barrel, arrived this week and I couldn’t be happier. Carlos did a great job. My only disappointment is that there aren’t more people on the lakefront path to admire it.
UPDATE: The Unattached Rider kit made its competitive debut Saturday when Ryan Gingerich (Unattached) wore it at Campton Cross, where he finished an impressive 8th in the 4A’s (above).
Unattached had a pretty impressive showing in the 4’s placing 1,2,4,6,8,9. That’s 6 in the Top 10 of the As. I think every other team in Chicago area should be humbled (or get these people on their team)... :)
I saw the one and only Luke Seemann in one of these kits on Sheridan today. I don’t know how his team, xXx-Athletico, feels about him wearing it, but I bet the fashion police won’t be writing him a ticket! It looks great!
Well… look at it this way: if you’re going to be running red lights and attacking no-drop group rides without implicating your team, this is the kit for you. Plausible deniability.
Actually, I’m one of the “Men in Helvetica”: I was trying to evade autograph seekers and USADA vampires.
Forget how his team feels. I bet the sponsors that provide product and money to support XXX Racing enjoy seeing a rider race/train in a kit that is not supporting the company back. Shame on you Luke.
The rider racing in the UR kit is genuinely unattached. He’s beholden to no sponsors.
Myself, I raced Saturday in my XXX kit, just as I would expect every other XXX member—and any member of any team—to do.
But yes, I did go on a solo training ride in the UR kit on Sunday because I think it’s a hysterical get-up. I feel no shame about it, but it’s a good point: As members of teams are we compelled to wear our jerseys on every single training ride?
Team policies will vary. Personally, I don’t think wearing non-team apparel disrespects sponsors in any way, especially when many new members may own only one or two jerseys. I have only six jerseys to my name, after all, and unless I do laundry after every sixth training ride—perish the thought!—I’m going to have to resort to wearing non-team kits on occasion, be they generic or otherwise.
I say until they start paying you the big bucks and you quit your day job to focus on cycling, you can train in whatever the heck you want. Except Primal Wear.
Seriously lighten up jim. I bought a UA kit and also belong to a team. I will always race in my team kit, but a solo training ride or fun ride is a different story. I support the team by buying sponsor products. I try to support cycling in any way, not just whomever sponsors my team. Not even pros use only sponsor products.
How I understand, sponsor is somebody who is paying for privilege of commercial advertising. Since majority of you guys are paying good money for your “sponsor” uniforms (sometimes much more than best product from Colorado Cycling catalog), I really don’t know why some of you are getting so excited about that. Those “sponsors” are using your having nice advertising for free. 99.9% of you will never see even one penny of the money being paid for imprints on the jersey you are wearing. UA idea is very HEALTHY!!!
Don’t get me wrong, I love all my sponsors, and I will promote them as often and as enthusiastically as I can. XXX is extremely lucky to have its current set of sponsors. I just can’t afford to wear a current kit every time I hop on my bike, and I don’t expect anyone else to, either. (I also wouldn’t characterize their logos as “free advertising.” I don’t think we’re unique in that our sponsors contribute generously in order to get on our jerseys.)
And although I love the Unattached Rider concept, it’s mostly for its punchline, the equivalent of changing your name to “None of the Above” and running for political office. Chicago Bike Racing is on the record as being a strong proponent of joining teams. In fact, that is pretty much the site’s raison d’être: To teach unattached riders about the local scene and get them hooked up with teams—and their awesome sponsors.
The point of this site is make information available to the Chicago cycling community and not to promote XXXRacingAthletiCo, but they get some coverage in due to the writer’s bias from being a current member. I assume Luke is trying to portray information on this website in a non-biased manner, just like any good news site, and is shared his wearing of an unattached kit with us to help out an old Chicago athlete and potential entrepreneur (and I think they are the only CBR sponsor).
If you want to see a bunch of thankful XXX-AthletiCo’ers sporting their proud sponsors, check out http://www.xxxracing.org and goto the photo gallery. I don’t think you’ll find anybody wearing an unattached kit there or any promotion of the jersey (unless they are brand new and haven’t gotten their XXX kit). XXX Racing-AthletiCo is very proud and thankful of the sponsors they have had helping them out all season and their website reflects that.
Just think of all the people that shell out $$$ for official Discovery Channel or CSC jerseys. They aren’t sponsored athletes, they’re just fans of the team. No different than me going out and buying a Brett Favre jersey (Go Packers!). For most of us wannabes, wearing a club jersey is way of saying we’re a club member and a fan of our team.
P.S. I have yet to find a Green Bay Packers cycling jersey!
I got my kit to advertise my status as a bachelor. What is all this talk about teams?
Tim, I think the objection from the commenter (whoever he is; the e-mail is bogus) is not that I use CBR to promote UR but that I would wear something other than sponsored clothing on a training ride. It’s a fair point. I just happen to disagree, respectfully so.
(This, by the way, is why I keep my identity and team affiliation in the background here, only bringing it up when I need to be transparent about my conflicts of interest. In retrospect I regret reacting so defensively, but I take a slur like “Shame on you” personally and seriously.)
And with that, the comments here are closed. If “Jim” would like to comment more, he’s welcome to e-mail me.
Nov 2
2007
12:10 pm
.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
Sweet digs.
It is also a very nice use of Helvetica.
But, we all know what the best use of Garamond is in recorded history.