Should You Wear Team Kits?

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Mario

The reproduction stuff is as tasteless as the new stuff, really. Or not. Some of it does look kinda cool in a post-modern-fixie-hipster-chic kind-of way.

You think this is tasteless?

 

[winkybiker]

You think this is tasteless?

Of course not. But it would be if YOU wore it. Wait, you're not Cippo, are you?

 

[winkybiker]

Obviously, the most appropriate thing to wear is the strip of your own club or team. Otherwise, your kit should be unadorned with "sponsors'" logos; and for the love of god, make sure your bibs are black (at least in the "functional" areas).

The exception is the obscure foreign club jersey. If, for example, you are riding in Piedmont on vacation, and you randomly meet up on the road with a guy that rides for a local club. You ride together for an hour-or-two, communicate in fractured language, he shows you a local route/climb that you wouldn't have otherwise discovered, you share an espresso/beer and at the end of the day you swap club jerseys, then THAT jersey is OK to wear when you're back home. The jersey will have local Italian sponsors no-one has heard of, and be from a club no-one has heard of. It will be cool.

 

[deValtos]

Have a look here:

http://www.prendas.co.UK

They reissue classic strips.

Wow there's some great jerseys there, the Molteni Arcore and St Raphael especially are very cool

I can't believe anyone could have an issue with use of those jerseys ... it's your loss if you do.

I already have a similar Mapei jersey to the one listed (different year), maybe this one is more controversial but I like wearing it

 

[stutue]

Well, you can wear what you like and sod everyone else.

I have a pathological loathing of people wearing Team Sky kit, hey, that's a problem for me.

 

[winkybiker]

Wow there's some great jerseys there, the Molteni Arcore and St Raphael especially are very cool

I can't believe anyone could have an issue with use of those jerseys ... it's your loss if you do.

I already have a similar Mapei jersey to the one listed (different year), maybe this one is more controversial but I like wearing it

Does your house have "Tudor" windows, "Georgian" railings and "Corinthian" columns, too? I generally have a problem with reproductions. They are fake.

 

[stutue]

Who cares?

What a you, a fashion Nazi?

 

[winkybiker]

Who cares?

What a you, a fashion Nazi?

I really don't care what you wear. It is just my view. It is just that I don't like with fakes. Your view is your own. I would defend your right to wear whatever kit you found fashionable, and to build whatever fake monstrosity of a house you personally thought tasteful. It really is none of my business, but I reserve the right to chuckle.

 

[deValtos]

It is just that I don't like with fakes.

In what way is it fake

 

[winkybiker]

In what way is it fake

Well because it isn't an early 70's Molteni Jersey is it? It looks like one but it isn't one. It is a fake. A reproduction. A copy.

 

[deValtos]

Well because it isn't an early 70's Molteni Jersey is it? It looks like one but it isn't one. It is a fake. A reproduction. A copy.

It's a cycling jersey ... made from cycling jersey material ... made with the colours of the Molteni team ... what on earth is fake about that ?

You want Merckx to wear it first or something ?

 

[slowoldman]

Well because it isn't an early 70's Molteni Jersey is it? It looks like one but it isn't one. It is a fake. A reproduction. A copy.

Wouldn't that make every jersey not worn by a team member a fake? Even those from back in the day (early 70's)?

 

[Midrider]

I'm a beginner, and I have a Lotto team kit. It's not because i'm a fanboy, but I could get it cheap from overseas, instead of spending 100+ euros on a decent non-team kit, I got mine for only around 20 euros. The lotto kit (from 2012 if I recall correctly), happened to match my bike (a blue-white batavus).

I've gotten comments about it by some pretentious dude at a 165k tour ride. The guy himself was part of a cycling team all with custom matching kits. He sarcastically remarked to me that I "looked real pro", referring to the Lotto kit I was wearing, implying I wore it to impress.
I can't take the guy seriously, and I don't. If you have a problem with people wearing team kits, for any reason whatsoever, to me you're a pretentious elitist. The fact that you're judging people based on what they wear makes the whole thing almost schoolboyish.

Anyone else ever experience something similar?

 

[winkybiker]

Wouldn't that make every jersey not worn by a team member a fake? Even those from back in the day (early 70's)?

Yes, by the strictest definition! The only genuine team kit is that issued to, and worn by members of the team. That is what makes it "team kit". A Stetson worn by John Wayne in a movie is far, far, more "valuable" than an identical hat that was never worn by John Wayne.

A less stringent test might be that a team-issued jersey, even if never worn, (perhaps surplus, or "diverted" by an insider onto the black market), would be considered genuine. One bought by a punter in a store so that they could look like their heros would be a fake (even if physically identical).

The least stringent test would be if the jersey was physically identical to team kit, made by the same manufacturer in the same production run as the kit worn by the team, it could be considere "legitimate", even if it was sold to a fred at a retail store.

Look-alikes, but of differing quality by the manufacturer are even less legitimate. These are common in football and hockey. You can get an "as worn by the team" genuine jersey for big $$, but there is a whole range of lower priced and lower quality garments, the lowest end stuff not being suitable for use other than as "fashion". Rapha do this with their Sky kit.

But what would always fail the "genuine" test is a jersey made in a different era by a different manufacturer with zero connection to the orginal, and sold to freds online. It doesn't mean that they don't look nice. I wouldn't wear one, but hey, fill your boots!

 

[winkybiker]

I'm a beginner, and I have a Lotto team kit. It's not because i'm a fanboy, but I could get it cheap from overseas, instead of spending 100+ euros on a decent non-team kit, I got mine for only around 20 euros. The lotto kit (from 2012 if I recall correctly), happened to match my bike (a blue-white batavus).

I've gotten comments about it by some pretentious dude at a 165k tour ride. The guy himself was part of a cycling team all with custom matching kits. He sarcastically remarked to me that I "looked real pro", referring to the Lotto kit I was wearing, implying I wore it to impress.
I can't take the guy seriously, and I don't. If you have a problem with people wearing team kits, for any reason whatsoever, to me you're a pretentious elitist. The fact that you're judging people based on what they wear makes the whole thing almost schoolboyish.

Anyone else ever experience something similar?

I'd never comment on someone's kit like that, other than from the security of the internet! It is your decision. I truly don't mind what you wear as long as you are out there riding. I have my own preferences, but don't read anything at all into to others' choices. Disclaimer: We rip on each other's gear choices all the time in our club. But that's between friends. Although there was that one guy that we made cry that one time, though. He never came back.

My comments here are strictly tongue-in-cheek.

 

[Hawkwood]

I like wearing old obscure defunct trade teams of years gone by...

For many years my winter gear of choice was a Benesto nylon fronted jacket of about 1992, and Festina lycra bottoms circa 1998, bought at different times from a bargain bin in a local bike shop. Now a local vintage fashion shop is selling all sorts of jersies from the 80s and 90s, I'm quite tempted.

 

[King Boonen]

Wear whatever you want. I've always been tempted to wear the maillot à pois while out mountain biking

Not many team jerseys for us mountain bikers, but then many of us wear those horrible Troy Lee things

 

[mewmewmew13]

I'm a beginner, and I have a Lotto team kit. It's not because i'm a fanboy, but I could get it cheap from overseas, instead of spending 100+ euros on a decent non-team kit, I got mine for only around 20 euros. The lotto kit (from 2012 if I recall correctly), happened to match my bike (a blue-white batavus).

I've gotten comments about it by some pretentious dude at a 165k tour ride. The guy himself was part of a cycling team all with custom matching kits. He sarcastically remarked to me that I "looked real pro", referring to the Lotto kit I was wearing, implying I wore it to impress.
I can't take the guy seriously, and I don't. If you have a problem with people wearing team kits, for any reason whatsoever, to me you're a pretentious elitist. The fact that you're judging people based on what they wear makes the whole thing almost schoolboyish.

Anyone else ever experience something similar?

That is really nasty.
the guy has absolutely no sense...
karma hits back..

 

[sponsor]

Award and country kits

I do not think award jerseys, or country team or champion jerseys should be worn by any other than who won them. Or maybe the mother of the rider.

A region, country, world champion jersey, country team jersey, or grand tour jerseys can be hung on the wall by anyone but to wear it on the bike implies that person earned it - and they should have earned it to wear it.

I don't think that is being an elitist snob, but rather respecting those that earned it.

Wearing such a jersey without earning it is akin to hanging a false university diploma on your wall.

 

[winkybiker]

That is really nasty.
the guy has absolutely no sense...
karma hits back..

Yes, nasty. Wear whatever you want, people. And don't give that **** a moment's thought.

 

[nowhereman]

I do not think award jerseys, or country team or champion jerseys should be worn by any other than who won them. Or maybe the mother of the rider.

A region, country, world champion jersey, country team jersey, or grand tour jerseys can be hung on the wall by anyone but to wear it on the bike implies that person earned it - and they should have earned it to wear it.

I don't think that is being an elitist snob, but rather respecting those that earned it.

Wearing such a jersey without earning it is akin to hanging a false university diploma on your wall.

The points you express are not even close to being correct, but I'm sure that is not one bit important to you.

 

[stutue]

Well because it isn't an early 70's Molteni Jersey is it? It looks like one but it isn't one. It is a fake. A reproduction. A copy.

Not that I care very much about it, but at least the Molteni jerseys are celebrating an actual era and an actual team that actually existed, and I suppose that in the last two or so dope-sozzled decades people will look back to a time when the battle on the road was between men rather than doctors.

Contrast with Rapha whose marketing is all about 'heritage' which is ironic for a brand with no heritage.

I hate it. Its balls. And I have some Rapha kit because functionally it is superb.

 

[RedheadDane]

The points you express are not even close to being correct, but I'm sure that is not one bit important to you.

How can his/her sorry, not quite sure here... personal opinion be incorrect?
Personally I agree, simply because I would feel really stupid wearing some award jersey I obviously haven't earned (or a generic team jersey), but of course, the teams themselves are selling the various jerseys.

 

[winkybiker]

I do not think award jerseys, or country team or champion jerseys should be worn by any other than who won them. Or maybe the mother of the rider.

A region, country, world champion jersey, country team jersey, or grand tour jerseys can be hung on the wall by anyone but to wear it on the bike implies that person earned it - and they should have earned it to wear it.

I don't think that is being an elitist snob, but rather respecting those that earned it.

Wearing such a jersey without earning it is akin to hanging a false university diploma on your wall.

I agree with your sentiments, and would never wear such kit. But I wouldn't judge someone else for wearing it, other than to realise that they view the world differently. I really do wonder why someone would wear a championship jersey that they hadn't earned. People are different, eh?

 

[winkybiker]

The points you express are not even close to being correct, but I'm sure that is not one bit important to you.

Odd comment.