Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Results of the kit poll

I've taken the poll off the website and the results are below:










UCVC kit poll




DESIGN (1=awful, 2=just ok, 3=good, 4=great)

Total votes 41




1 (3)


7%







2 (2)


5%







3 (12)


29%







4 (24)


59%








QUALITY (1=poor, 4=very high)

Total votes 41




1 (1)


2%







2 (2)


5%







3 (27)


66%







4 (11)


27%








PRICE (1=highway robbery, 4=bargain)

Total votes 41




1 (0)


0%




2 (9)


22%







3 (30)


73%







4 (2)


5%








Which COLOR do you prefer?

Total votes 41




Yellow (6)


15%







Maroon (35)


85%








Which SUPPLIER do you prefer?

Total votes 41




Voler (4)


10%







Champion System (8)


20%







Other (6)


15%







I don't know (23)


56%







The charts speak for themselves. Let me remark, nonetheless, that 88% of the participants in the poll think that the design was good or great. Kudos to Liam.

93% think that the quality of the clothes deserves a rating of 3 or 4, on a 1-4 scale. I prefer the Champion System fabric for the short-sleeve jersey to Voler's, but this is just a matter of personal taste.

A few people left comments. I'm copying them here, with my replies in italic:
  • The logos on the top rear of the shorts get covered by the jersey. [Feb 11, 2008] This has more to do with the anatomy of the rider and the size of the jersey than with the cut. I've observed this problem many times before. It happens for some people, but not for some others. You may not experience this problem when you're actually on your bike, because then your back will be stretched out.
  • Shorts lower quality waistband ; tech jacket GREAT ; SS Jersey runs small [Feb 11, 2008]
  • I like the pad in the new shorts better than last year. [Feb 1, 2008]. Yes, I think that the Voler pads were less durable, but you don't know until you spend dozens of hours on the saddle.
  • The quality of the hat is a bit low, and I think the short sizes ran a little bit small. [Feb 1, 2008] I completely agree that the cap is low-quality. I was quite disappointed myself. The resolution of the school's shield, on the lower side of the bill, is pretty low too. In the future the club may consider ordering the caps from a different vendor, although it may be more of a hassle, and minimum orders will be much bigger. With Champion System the minimum order is 10. Any other seller of customized cycling caps that I've seen requires ordering 100+
  • The colors are a bit bright, and the maroons in the jersey and bibs don't quite match. minor points, though, as these kits are pretty cool! [Feb 1, 2008] The matching of the color of jerseys and shorts is usually a problem. It certainly was a problem with Voler. The issue is that the fabric for the jersey is different from that for the shorts, so the same dye color looks different. Pro teams may deal with this issue by applying different dyes to jerseys and shorts, so that the colors of tops and bottoms look identical, but I don't know.
  • thank to everyone (Liam, Francisco, etc.) for all of your hard work. [Feb 1, 2008]
I encourage you to leave more comments to the kits, here below this post.

I was disappointed that a few people voted for a vendor different from Voler and Champion System, but didn't say which vendor in the comments section of the poll. Here's your chance to do it now. You may leave anonymous comments if you'd prefer.

The results of the poll are not scientific, of course, since there is self-selection in participation. The purpose of this poll was to have a rough sense of how people felt about general aspects of the kit. The person(s) in charge of the kits next year may or may not take your opinions into account.

2 comments:

J/tati said...

Just some feedback from non-UCVC customers who've seen the kit in the shop:

"Wow, that looks professional."
"How do I get one of those?"
"Too many logos, otherwise I'd buy one."
"It should just have the C"
"We have a cycling team?"

J/tati said...

My vote shouldn't count, but I admit I'm one of those who voted for something other than Champion... but that said I think Champion was actually the best choice at the time the decision was made. In the future, the team might consider buying different pieces of the kit from different vendors, and I'll be happy to help facilitate this. Some of the older members, for example, have expressed a desire for higher quality (and naturally more expensive) gear from the likes of Craft, Hincapie, etc. I don't think this is out of the question.

I would like to help the team get to the point where special orders can be put in on a quarterly basis and basic gear like caps, SS jerseys, socks, etc. are just readily available at my shop. This will definitely happen this spring.

To that end, I'll make a broader announcement to the club soon -- but socks will definitely be ordered in the next couple of weeks and probably caps too. Both will come from vendors that specialize in these bits -- because while Champion is very good at certain things, it is actually overpriced and mediocre with those two accessories.

But overall, excellent work from Francisco and Liam.