Kit Watch - Cause and Effect

Team: Cause & Effect 

Designer: Jamie Hubbard

Comments from the King of Style™

Cycling is an undefined amalgamation. From the moment one first harnesses the magic of balance and centrifugal force (I’m referring, of course, to “bike riding”) to nerdily, spandex clad bike racers, to the casual weekend warrior named Joe McBikebike, logging 20-something miles per week, to the millions of folks all throughout the world who use the bicycle for transportation, cycling is different for everyone. Cycling therefore remains amorphous as an entity itself; in a nutshell, cycling is not black and white, but more shades of gray.

If, however, you get deep enough into the sport we call cycling, you’ll find it to be a sport characterized by extremes Mr. McBikebike won’t agree with me here, and cringes every time he sees shorn legs on men, yet, chances are good that if you peruse NYVelocity.com even on an infrequent basis, you’re keenly aware of this notion of extremes to which I’m referring.

Cyclists train like mad men and eat like squirrels, or so said a cyclist long ago.  We train hard. We race harder. With stern discipline, we renounce parties, late night entertainment, and the sinfully delicious foods that make us salivate by just hearing their names uttered. Then the harbinger of an off-season arrives and in a few short weeks we’re eye-deep in the other end of the spectrum indulging in more chocolate cake, pizza, and sweet and spicy Belgian beer than one should consume in a lifetime. 

Yes, cyclists compose a demographic of extremes. Once again cycling is black and white. Much like the Cause & Effect kit.

I don’t know for which facet of the cycling demographic this kit is designed, which infallibly will alter my critique. Alas, I must resort to assumptions: the somewhat loose fit around the mid section in addition to the broad shoulders of our model indicates that this kit is for the category IV crowd. Namely, someone more enthusiastic than aforementioned Joe, but someone who does not yet embrocate regularly nor has a pet Chihuahua affectionately named Campagnolo.  

Nothing really pops on this kit besides its austerity, and I deeply appreciate that. Category IIs want to stand out like their lives depend on it; cat IVs simply want to ride their bikes. Three arbitrary merit points awarded for austerity.

Further investigation shepherded me to the sellz.org website. It actually first brought me to sellz.com, since I only remembered the “sellz” bit, but a quick three-letter correction brought me to the proper destination. The unadorned Cause & Effect kit is an interesting and stark contrast to this colorful and extremely confusing website. (Furthermore, can anyone identify that mysterious, umm, phallic looking item is on the bottom right of sellz.org?) I’m at a loss of what actually goes on here, but perhaps that’s part of the point. Let’s conclude.

Look, I won't beleaguer this analysis. This kit is plain and simple and that’s great. It’s a no-nonsense bicycle kit that should be lauded for its sobriety in the modern cycling world that overly stresses gaudy racer types rather than the simple pleasure of riding a bike. 

Perhaps Michael Jackson said it best when he concluded his song fitting of this jersey, “It's Black , It's White, Whoo.”

Whoo is right. Yea bikes.

Effort in design: B+
Ability to Elicit Audience Participation: A (I went to both causeffect.tv aaand sellz.org)

Execution of final product: A

Schmalz comments

The New York City cycling fashion scene seemingly has been overtaken by swarms of darkly attired ectomorphs. Cyclists are usually so wrapped up in their own training, racing and body shaving that they are unaware of the trends and goings on of the outside world. So they can be forgiven if they are not aware that the Goth look is best suited to artsy types who wear guy-liner in order to appear sensitive enough to convince girls with black hair and fishnet stockings to pose semi-clothed for black and white photos in graveyards; because they have been busy fretting over finding a way to match their new shoes to their brake cables.

Therein lies the temptation of the black kit—since black is the most traditional cycling color (except for perhaps yellow—which is reserved for the jerseys of champions and mustached neophytes); it's easy to throw together an ensemble that trends towards the shadowy world of the dark shades.

The Cause & Effect team kit nicely straddles the line between teen goth man-scara and little black dress classiness. The use of scale on the jersey is very effective and the designer showed courage by splitting the logo up on the front and back of the jersey. The large patterned ampersand also shows some design moxie, as patterns, if done at the wrong scale can seem fussy and rather feminine—which is great is that's what you intend—but if you are trying to make a big, bad bike uniform; it might be off target. I would caution against typographic patterns on the short panels of kit, as (depending on which team members wear them) the typography can become misshaped and distorted—like the tattoo of Dale Sr's face on a race fan's ever-expanding back, for instance. The pattern on the shorts here doesn't have that issue, but I wouldn't start recruiting teammates at NASCAR events.

Who we are.

Dan Schmalz, when he's not typing aimlessly on the internet for free, is a graphic designer who has owned his own firm for over a decade. His work has been published in numerous national design publications, and his work has received several national awards.

Ted King is still a pro-ass bike racer who rides for the Cervelo Test Team, he also comments upon sartorial cycling issues under the moniker "The King of Style." He will be racing at the terrifically pro Giro in a few day's time.

If you want to have you team's kit put through the fashion critique wringer, drop us a line, and we will try to be gentle. 

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