I’ve been saying since the beginning of ITD that professional cycling has a significant revenue problem. The Jumbo Visma / Soudal failed merger showed how desperate these teams can be for sponsor cash and talent. But teams continue to refuse to be creative. You cannot compare cycling to any other professional sport as there is no event to sell tickets to.

We have also created a culture where supporting your favorite team is passe. Rules 14-17 state to not wear a pro team kit or favorite rider’s jersey, while riding. And at least in my local cycling community that’s definitely the case. I’ve only ever seen one rider in a pro-team kit when they weren’t on that pro-team themselves.

Whether you agree with the Keepers of the Cogs or not it seems to be a fairly common practice for amateur riders, which is a real hit to the pro teams. Every major sport in the world has team logos on every possible damn thing you can put a logo on. They triple the price and take a photo of their favorite player holding whatever logo’d merch they came up with that week. Instead of asking the teams to change the culture of cycling, Visma LAB have chosen to be creative.

Visma LAB has designed a subtle yet identifiable fan team kit. The Pink, Yellow, and Red lines represent the Giro, Tour de France, and Vuelta winning jerseys from their historic ’23 season (editor: I’m never going to stop talking about the 2023 season…) The kit is manufactured by their sponsor AGU and I think is a creative way to start opening up the doors to more revenue than what the sponsors give them.

Currently, this is the Dutch team’s era. Visma-LAB and Taylor Swift are having the best years of their careers right now, and I’m here for it frankly. So yes, I’m getting this jersey. And yes, I will wear it out on the group rides. And I think this is a happy medium for me to be able to stay within the currently accepted cycling culture, while also representing my favorite team. I’d love for this to become a regular thing for professional teams to regularly have available for fans.

This shouldn’t even be a difficult thing! Imagine having this hoodie in your shop but no fan kit!

EF Education has one of the best cycling apparel companies as a sponsor and one of the easiest color schemes to make cool, and they have only just released their team kit this week but a fan kit would have been an easy option for that team. But nope… just a team kit that 98% of fans won’t buy or wear.

This would be a boon for small teams that might not have the sponsor money to begin with! It would also force them to build a brand, that isn’t just the name of a supermarket chain or energy company that could change on the whim of billionaires. Nothing drastic needs to change about the sport. Maybe just all of the chief marketing officers of the teams… if that position exists in any name to begin with.

But Kudos to Visma-LAB. For taking a photo of their favorite rider holding the new merch and charging 3X for it:

Imma go buy mine now.