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Czech firm Kalas replaces Adidas as Great Britain Cycling Team's kit supplier - though not for the Olympics

Racing and off-bike kit for country's top riders as well as a range for fans to be unveiled in January...

Kalas is to replace Adidas as supplier of racing and off-bike kit to the Great Britain Cycling Team from 1 January 2017. The full kit will be unveiled inJanuary, with a set of teaser pictures in the gallery above suggesting it will retain key elements of the current design - a union flag-inspired motif on a predominantly white background, and red cuffs on navy blue shorts - although the colour palate looks less muted than the outgoing version.

The Czech clothing manufacturer, founded in 1990, currently supplies clothing to the likes of the Czech national team and the Belgian UCI Professional Continental outfit, Wanty-Gobert.

Besides the kit that will be sported by the country's top cyclists in competitions in the New Year, there will also be a range of clothing for supporters.

The company, whose UK operations are based in Somerset, also supplied the jerseys for the recent Six Day London – including these Great Britain-themed ones sported by Jon Dibben and Ollie Wood.

Kalas Six Day London GB jersey (source Facebook).jpg

British Cycling’s Chief Operations Officer Jamie Obank said: "We began our search for a new clothing supplier with one clear aim, to ensure that the GB Cycling Team [GBCT] can continue to perform at the highest level, in so doing we sought a company which could provide cost-effective, high quality and innovative clothing, in addition to being able to respond to the changing requirements of our athletes and the team.

"Kalas, in addition to being able to deliver on all of our primary objectives, will help consolidate British Cycling’s reputation as being at the forefront of elite cycling across all disciplines and both parties are really excited about working together to produce the next generation of performance race-wear through our unique collaboration.”

Jakub Věncek, director and co-owner of Kalas,  commented: "This is a proud moment in the history of our company. We are honoured to be chosen by British Cycling ahead of some more famous companies. It is a unique and exciting partnership for us both and we are fully committed to developing new products with British Cycling as well as a fresh new GBCT inspired range for the fans.

"We look forward to revealing the new GBCT kit design in January that we are confident is going to be very popular with the fans."

We haven't seen the last of Britain's top cyclists in Adidas-badged kit, however; in 2015, the British Olympic Association's long-standing deal with the German brand was extended until 2024, so it will be sported at Tokyo in 2020 and wherever the Olympics are hosted four years later.

That contract applies across all Olympic sports, irrespective of any separate supply agreements individual governing bodies have with other sportswear manufacturers.

In cycling, where Team GB has dominated the track events at the past three Olympic Games, the kit used in that competition has been held back until the last minute to avoid rivals getting wind of any technological advances.

That doesn't necessarily mean the kit would actually be made by Adidas - in 2012, when it still supplied Team Sky, Sir Bradley Wiggins wore a cutting edge skinsuit in the time trials at the Tour de France with the same design also used when he won the Olympic Games time trial in London the following month.

The skinsuits, which had aerodynamic wires within the fabric of the arms, were actually made by Italy's MOA, owner of Nalini - so it's possible that while the Tokyo 2020 kit may look as though it comes from Adidas, it could well be Kalas that provides the technology behind it.

Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.

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12 comments

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jollygoodvelo | 8 years ago
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Judging by the Six Day, Kalas have already got one thing bang-on for the UK cycling market: their prices were on the lottery-winning side.  I don't doubt it was excellent kit but whoo, do they price it optimistically for a maker I'd never heard of.

Interesting observation: even Rapha started doing a 'value range' of the Team Sky stuff after a while.

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BadgerBeaver | 8 years ago
0 likes

At a time when the pound is weak and we need to find new and exciting and profitable ways of being British outisde of the EU, a flagship British institution makes a highly visible choice to Not Buy British.
Interesting, non?

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sithlord | 8 years ago
0 likes

 

Primal would have been my choice and they are based in the UK

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macrophotofly | 8 years ago
3 likes

Think Kalas need to learn splashing their logo across the whole top half of the shirt is not going to win fans. Discrete small logos (which can be is several places) is more likely to get the fans to buy the kit...

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DrJDog | 8 years ago
4 likes

Kalas? Who the f is Kalas?

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psling replied to DrJDog | 8 years ago
2 likes

DrJDog wrote:

Kalas? Who the f is Kalas?

 

Well, that is kind of the point of sponsorship. You've heard of them now.

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Mountainboy | 8 years ago
2 likes

'The Czech clothing manufacturer, founded in 1990, currently supplies clothing to the likes of the Czech national team, Belgian UCI Professional Continental outfit, Wanty-Gobert and North Somerset's awesome Weston Wheelers.'

 

Fixed that for you!

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MNgraveur | 8 years ago
1 like

There are all of these great British cycling kit companies- why in the world aren't they using one of those?

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Twowheelsaregreat replied to MNgraveur | 8 years ago
2 likes

MNgraveur wrote:

There are all of these great British cycling kit companies- why in the world aren't they using one of those?

I would have to concur with MNgraveur.

Why not Lusso or Endura?

Avatar
ianrobo replied to Twowheelsaregreat | 8 years ago
2 likes

Twowheelsaregreat wrote:

MNgraveur wrote:

There are all of these great British cycling kit companies- why in the world aren't they using one of those?

I would have to concur with MNgraveur.

Why not Lusso or Endura?

Because they wont pay the cash ?

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sethpistol | 8 years ago
0 likes

or it'll still be Nalini printed with adidas logos...

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Awavey replied to sethpistol | 8 years ago
0 likes
sethpistol wrote:

or it'll still be Nalini printed with adidas logos...

Yep agreed, but does this mean the end of Adidas 'making' cycling kit,it sort of died a death on its own but for a time they were trying to get into the market and using the association with BC to push it

Hopefully Kalas will have learnt from that 6 day kit,that the union flag doesn't half look like its upside down

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