Preview Shack Kit Daring or Dud?

Published: December 25, 2009Posted in: News
Preview Shack Kit Daring or Dud?

The results of the Team RadioShack New Kit Survey are in after the preview at the Tucson training camp in early December. The jersey’s look is clearly not daring, but is it a dud?  I’d say the verdict’s still out on whether or not it will end up being seen as  “pretty damn cool”, which was among the comments made by in the team’s official announcement when the uni was unveiled.

A poll taken on the (unofficial) Team RadioShack website showed approximately 46% of those who responded disliked the new proto-type kit’s look.  Reading through the 133  posts on the same website, there were a lot of comments like “Is that it??”, “Horrible”, “Disappointing”, “Back to the drawing board”, “Please do better.”  There were also neutral comments, and a few positives, but overall, not a lot of excitement around the color scheme and design.

One has to think that The Shack got the best inputs available in coming up with the jersey design and overall kit color scheme (which we’ve not seen in its entirety yet).  After all, the marketing power of Livestrong and Nike were involved!   When the final kits are revealed in January at the Santos Tour Down Under, we have to believe that the design people will have given it their all to come up with something distinctive, appealing and representative of the image the team wants to convey.

Consider the racing kits of some of the other teams on the ProTour, and it will net little concensus as to what’s “cool” in cycling jerseys.   BBox Bouygues Telecom’s look is blue and busy with their lead sponsor’s logo; Cervelo’s kit is a rather classic (boring?) black and white scheme; Cofidis has a bold, red approach.  There’s a blue and brown plaid design (Garmin), an argyle (Ag2r-La Mondiale), and a four-leaf clover (Francaise des Jeux).
If you’d like a crib sheet of just what jerseys were rolling during the 2009 season, you can see the jerseys I’ve mentioned and others on:  “http://www.cyclingweekly.co.uk/news/tour-de-france/369602/tour-de-france-2009-team-guide.html”.

From this writer, a guy with admittedly little fashion sense most of the time, the choice is clear.  Let’s wait and see whether a red and gray scheme, with classy sleeve placement of the now iconic Livestrong yellow band, and “Circle R”, not to mention Nike Swoosh and Trek logo, will end up being a successful design representation of this new American racing team, and maybe even “pretty damn cool.”

At the end of the day what we’re really talking about is fashion:  a very subjective, personal and often individual matter. And the fact is, for serious cycling fans it’s going to be about the riders, the team, and wins.   Regardless of what final kit Team RadioShack dawns for the first race of the 2010 season, I hope we see them at the front of the peloton as the new squad makes their presence felt on the ProTour.  Here comes The Shack!

By Jeff Ludlum, staff writer