I need a break.

I thought about writing a nicely composed essay on life, priorities, etc…. but I don’t have time for it (in fact, I’ve been struggling to get to this task for a few days now!)
The truth is I need to take a break. My day job (yes, Chronic Cycling is my side thing) has ramped up in demands recently (heard about “productivity gains? I have), we’re moving in two weeks, traveling back home for the holidays in December, well, you get the picture. So I’m putting this business on hold for now.

Come 2010, I’ll probably wax philosophical about where I want to take Chronic Cycling. You see, this all started with the idea of making some short-run bicycle related t-shirts. So that’s what I’m gonna be thinking about.

The Chronic Cycling store is closed for now (sorry, no time to fulfill orders). In the meantime, feel free to order my designs available at zazzle:

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS:

Are you crazy, closing just before Holiday Season? Yeah, I must be. But if we’re talking about my sanity, boy did I dodge that bullet!

Do you have any product for sale? If you mean stock Chronic Cycling, I do have some, just not available until January.

Are you still doing custom jerseys? Yes, but not until January.

Has anyone really asked these frequently? No.

Thanks for all the support. Happy Holidays!

Finally here, Chronic Cycling’s interpretation of the classic argyle design. It’s a small run, with limited sizes and styles. Available in women’s sleeveless too. Check it out at the store.

Must have been back in December I showed some shirts with reflective designs. Originally conceived as a technical t-shirt, what happened was the same as happened with the Argyle design: I turned it into a jersey after using the relaxed-fit “mountain” jersey. I figure, if you ride/commute in the city, it makes sense to wear a regular shirt with at least one pocket, and the zipper up front keeps you cool. Click for larger images, details:

Now, the pocket in the back I’m not sure helps a lot in the city, but, a pocket on the side? Hmm excellent phone/mp3 player location. So, I intend to make these with a zippered pocket on one side. The fabric is dyed (available in other colors, still trying to decide about that), and the graphics are applied reflective material. Conveniently, most of the shiny stuff is on your left when worn, so that, is you’re riding on the right lane of the road, incoming vehicles have a better chance to see you. This is still a concept, but one I would like to move ahead with quickly. Help me figure out what to do with these (colors, suggestions?), or post a comment below.

Nando

This is pretty cool. There is a website, called Zazzle.com, that will print a single t-shirt on demand. That’s right, A SINGLE T-SHIRT. I have decided to post some of my designs for sale there. Some of these design may never see full-blow production, but some people may like them enough to buy a shirt or two. Their flexibility in styles and colors is convenient too. Their women’s styles are pretty good.

A couple notes about on-demand products:

• These are NOT Technical t-shirts. That means no wicking fabric (although they have some available, I’m not a big fan).
• These shirts are digitally printed, the print will not last as long as a conventional screenprinted shirt, and nowhere near as long as Chronic Cycling’s dye-sublimated apparel. That said, I have one t-shirt from them that has lasted almost 4 years.
• If you order, you are ordering from Zazzle, not Chronic Cycling. That means billing, order mistakes, etc. need to be handled through Zazzle’s channels. I’ll certainly help any way I can. (I’ve used their service as a buyer before, and it’s great; another reason I chose Zazzle instead of other vendors).

Without further ado, here they are:

A client just published (and kindly gave me permission to use) photos of her MS-150 team jerseys we made!

Here’s my sorry studio photo:

Here are their beautiful photos (click for larger images):

This order consisted of club-fit jerseys only. Artwork was provided by client.Learn all about the Custom Program.

I guess it’s true. For the first half of the year, I’ve been honoring an introductory price on custom-made jerseys and technical t-shirts that is four bucks below low. The intention was to end this pricing at the end of spring, but summer got to Austin earlier than usual this year (second 107º day in a row today), and the heat made me forget about this whole thing.

So, I’ve decided to let it slip until July 21st, exactly one month after end of Spring. That’s right, you can still get introductory pricing. After that, it’s going up a little bit. Not a whole lot, just enough that I can justify this whole operation to my wife. Kidding, honey.

But there’s good news too. When the new price list comes out, you will see I can now make as few as … ONE! Yes, you can have a true one-off jersey or tech tee. And, you know those designs that never seem to make it into a jersey? You will be able to order them as semi-custom jerseys! Of course, if you need a full custom design, your’s truly can help.

There are more surprises our way, but that’s a future post…

Through an exclusive deal, Chronic Cycling is offering the Limited Edition Bike Mojo jersey. (Ok, I can’t stand the marketing BS myself: I’m part of Bike Mojo, we needed jerseys, I dove in, that’s about it).

Available in men and women’s relaxed Mountain fit, and men’s club fit. Small run. Click on the images for more detail.

I recently delivered jerseys to the Austin Ridge Riders Mountainbike Club here in the ATX. It all started with their sketches:

From that I grabbed several concepts, and after a few revisions, arrived to this:

Here’s the final product (click for larger images):

The bulk of this order consisted of Chronic Cycling’s Mountain jersey. In a previous post I showed the men’s version of this jersey. The fit is great, it’s loose enough to feel like a regular shirt, but fitted enough to keep from dangling and grabbing branches, (or wind, if you’re real fast). Not only is this jersey a great alternative for clubs and organizations whose members are not interested in the more “racer” look of a traditional fit jersey, this is probably the only one out there that can be custom ordered along with club or sports cuts jerseys, and technical t-shirts! Learn all about it in the Custom Program page.

Right now, for a limited time, you can get this fully-sublimated jersey for as low as $40 each! Contact nando at Chronic Cycling dot com to get you on your way to the coolest jersey you’ve ever owned.

A few months ago I introduced an Argyle design as a t-shirt. Since then, I have received, and used the relaxed-fit “mountain” jersey enough to know I love it. I mean, it’s comfortable, wears like a regular shirt, but you still get a handy zippered rear pocket, and a front zipper as well.

So I took a hard look at Argyle, and made a business decision: “I like this design, and I want to wear it as a jersey” (No, I don’t have a Master’s degree in business, if you’re wondering). True to my indecisiveness, I’m having a hard time choosing between gray or tan based designs. Your comments are encouraged. So here it is. Like I wrote before, this is not your daddy’s argyle, click on the images to see how this is def not golfing apparel:


These are not hitting production yet (considering a limited-run sometime early summer). What color do you prefer? Please post comments below.

Talking about production, I have been considering taking pre-orders on some of the two or three more popular designs. The current challenges: I can only afford to order so many designs at once (currently: two), fans have four or five favorites, it’s hard to guess how many of each size and gender.

The cons about pre-orders:

• Pre-orders would require pre-payment, of course.
• Early adopters end up waiting up to two months for their jersey.

The pros:

• You get one of a small-run, exclusive design jersey or t-shirt.

What do you think? Drop me a note (nando at ChronicCycling dot com), or post a comment below.

Thanks, Nando