Options for Kit

Born out of idle conversation and a chance meeting at the Tri Show, we have found a new company that could provide us with Pirate Kit to rival LG.

LG (in my opinion) are falling short of competition by having such a long drawn out process and making work for one person with regards order, collection and onward dispatch.

Cuore  http://www.cuore.ch/custom/us/en/TRIATHLON/   is a Swiss company and comes highly recommended (more later), they have a good range of gear and seems to fall into four catergories, cycling, tri, running and sort of casual wear, within this there is mens and womens specific kit and then there are four standards of kit that they call the gold, silver, bronze and allrounder range. Mostly its the same style but the quality and cost goes up through the range, so it looks like it would suit most budgets.

The days of minimum orders would be cast to history but clearly the more you order the cheaper the kit.  If an order is likely to be over E4000 euros they will set up an online shop for us, we can control when this opened, (say 4 times a year) and this will give a bit of control over who can order kit. No need for lists or waitng for non payers or sizes, people sort it out, themselves like on amazon.

Cuore mail direct to the buyer which cuts out the labour intensive ‘receipt and dispatch’ middle person and will also speed up the process. Turn around time is about 40 days.

There is a start up cost as there is with all these companies, this is in the region of 160 euros but this is a small price to pay for a better service.

‘we used them for our kit and were amazed at the quality and service (we paid full price, we weren't sponsored) and were so full of praise on twitter that they asked me to represent them in the UK! I accepted because I would love others to have the experience we had.’

Richard Melik

For the older ones amongst us the irony will not be lost on the last paragraph

 

 

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Comments

  • would work for me.... I continue to be astounded at the amount of effort that Schmunks puts in for the annual order, and this would seem to be a much less onerous way forwards. 

    Do we have control over what kit is available on the online store?

    Also, why only open the shop at certain times?.... I'd just keep it open 365 days a year personally, like the sweatshop site that Hollywood set up for ever ago.

    lets be honest.... its all prep for an Ironman on my 100th birthday
  • We have control for sure

    We can open/close when we want


  • Looks the way forward to me and cuts out the massive amount of effort gathering the orders, chasing the payees and then dispatching everything.  image

  • I won't be racing as a Pirate in 2016 as I just signed with a new team, so the mechanics of kit ordering don't affect me either way, but the Cuore kit is really lovely - much better than LG in my opinion. This seems like a win-win situation for everyone.

  • I agree Slim .. for me that is where I think LG are missing a trick

  • I don't buy kit often, and don't always want or need it at times when the LG order is running, so I'd prefer the option of ordering kit individually and whenever I wanted to.

     

  • Myself and Flat Footed also saw Richard whilst at the tri show. Having seen the Cuore kit I can honestly say it seemed to be much better quality than the LG kit. It has more options for custom leg and arm lengths (much better for me being the lanky chap I am). If it takes out the extra work for the middle man/women and make more kit accessable throughout the year then I can only see positives.
  • how the hell did I miss that Melik bloke at the show??  sorry - that should read - thank dog I missed that Melik bloke at the show.  image

    his Freespeed team don't back bum stuff so no doubt this Cuore stuff will be OK.  image

    as my days racing in pirate kit are over I have no need for new kit but it's a good proposition in my view - go for it.

  • thanks Meldy for the link from facebook.

    sounds good, the kit ive got LG and Cofides is still in good nick but 'always need new kit' for rotation purposes.

    maybe i wont miss deadline on this one...

     

     

  • Agree with all of the above. Sounds good
  • +1 from me too (can you do +1 on a forum?) 

  • I much prefer the way of buying kit individually when i need it.I would prefer the shop to be open 365 days a year but if it cant then 4 times a year would be ok...

    I always need kit at a different time to the order...and LG is just so much of a pain especially with changing of money through dollars....

  • I think it's a good  idea to check out other suppliers but I am concerned that a move to Cuore could be seen as a 'fait-accomplis' when I have seen a recent tweet to CuoreUK which said 'kit order coming soon'.

    A lot of the comments raised here re LG are valid and what has been posted about Cuore sounds very encouraging but I wonder whether PSOF should be talking to other suppliers for comparative purposes ie pricing, locality and quality?

    Apologies if talks with others are taking place but that's not been made clear on the OP

  • this is a thread for discussion so I imagine if anyone has another supplier they can recommend then it will be posted ... image.

  • Schmunkee, that's me sorting out my work running club kit.
  • I'm sorting work Tri Kit and am following my running club as they do the same ..

  • A lot of the lead time and centralised distribution related stuff is down to the fact that LG is outside the EU.  I would imagine any other non-EU kit supplier will have similar 'rules'.

    I'm still battling with the Cuore website, so I haven't exactly found what the kit options are, however wearing my Tri officials hat- if tops are zipped it would be preferable if the zip were at the back.  

     

  • I hope there is an option FeFE because I havent the flexibility to operate a zip on the back...image

  • How does the price work on this..I just looked at the tri shorts on the website..If I was to buy just one pair.........it would cost £100......I take that is without P&P etc.

     how does that work.

     Thats a hell of a lot more than I am paying now

  • I can't quite get to grips with the website, can't view a lot of the kit options i.e. this link is for a womens short sleeve T

    Womens running T

    There's no image but the description is a gents cycling jersey image

    Do they actually produce all the options on their website currently or is it a wish list for potential custom.

  • Hi there... thanks Meldy for pointing me towards here, i'll keep an eye on conversations simply to see if I can help with any questions, it's not in my nature to give anything a hard sell so I won't do that here for sure.

    Just the quick background - we (Team Freespeed) have had kit nightmares with about 5 companies (including LG) over the years mostly revolving around poor quality, poor communication and delayed deliveries. Last year we got pointed towards Cuore and it was an incredible experience. The quality was exceptional and the delivery arrived the day they predicted six weeks earlier.

    They don't really have a presence in the UK so I am now representing them here.

    Ordering windows:
    The reason for a limited time ordering window is that there is no stock held anywhere. Once a reasonable amount of kit has been pre-ordered it is then produced and delivered. In principle this works best with a limited window to focus peoples' minds. If you order the 1st March and the window closes 14th March then you will receive the kit at the latest six weeks after 14th March.

    Another option is to have a constantly open online 'shop' with the understanding that orders get processed into the system on the last day of every month, so if you order on the 1st of the month you have to wait until 6 weeks after the end of the month to receive your kit.

    Cuore are happy to accommodate your needs though - could be every month, every two months, four times a year or once a year.

    Shop products:
    You can have as many or as few products as you like in the shop - so individuals can decide whether to spend £40 on a bike jersey or £75-£100 - obviously the higher the price the better the quality. The Bronze option is still a very nice jersey though, comparable to most companies top quality.

    The only problem with filling a shop with hundreds of options is if only one person orders an item then the price becomes prohibitive, so it would ideally be products that would get at least 5-10 people ordering at a minimum.

    Triathlon Range:
    At present Cuore offer a very high end long distance 2in1 speed suit (our guys used it in Kona and loved it). It is basically a bike jersey stitched in to a pair of shorts.

    They also have two trisuit options, one with a front zipper, one with a rear zipper together with two piece tops/shorts options for both men and women.

    I am trying to persuade them to bring their Gold/Silver/Bronze pricing model into the tri range - at the moment most of the tri kit is at the performance end of the scale but I would hope to have positive news on this soon, so you can have more options.

    Any questions let me know, happy to help.

    Richard

  • By the way, I also meant to say, they are very embarrassed by their website, they know it is really not good enough. They are 95% ready to launch a new one, I have seen it and it looks and functions so much better.

  • seren nos wrote (see)

    How does the price work on this..I just looked at the tri shorts on the website..If I was to buy just one pair.........it would cost £100......I take that is without P&P etc.

     how does that work.

     Thats a hell of a lot more than I am paying now

    The £100 quote is for a one off item. So for instance if you wanted your own special design just for you, that would be £100. As the quantities ordered increase (and hopefully you wouldn't be the only one ordering tri shorts) the price comes down dramatically. If ten people order them they come down to around £60 etc.

  • thanks...

     still seems a little confusing for me.

    if we choose to have just a few pieces like tri tops shorts and trisuit......

    will there be a set price on each order or will it vary dependent on the number of pieces we buy.

    as I said when i looked at a pair of trishorts the basic price seemed to be £100 with no access to delivery costs

     

  • Richard - will there be an option to see how many other people were signed up for any one piece of kit in any period so that you have an idea whether you'll be on your own at £100 or sharing at more like £60 per item?

    Thanks

     

  • sadly £60 plus posting and packing is still too pricey for me for a pair of shorts....especially as once again like LG we will be buying blind on size.....

     

  • and if we are ordering 4 times a year it might be hard to reach ten on the order when I need it 

     

  • seren nos wrote (see)

    thanks...

     still seems a little confusing for me.

    if we choose to have just a few pieces like tri tops shorts and trisuit......

    will there be a set price on each order or will it vary dependent on the number of pieces we buy.

    as I said when i looked at a pair of trishorts the basic price seemed to be £100 with no access to delivery costs

      

    I understand the confusion, the website is difficult to interpret for sure.

    If (and when) you decide to open a Team Shop, they host it for you on a separate weblink and you choose what products and at what price you want to sell them at. This can work a couple of ways - you set the price for everything say at the 10 item price and when the order is processed, if 20 people buy an item then that item gets reduced accordingly before taking payments. 

    It just gets tricky the other way round so that if only four people order then the price becomes higher than expected. I will have to check, but I think at this point individuals could be contacted to see if they want to proceed at the higher price or cancel that item.

    The other option would be to set the price for the items and let the natural swings and roundabouts of the pricing fluctuations take their course and keep any balances for a Christmas party or move it forward to subsidise the next kit order.

    The more orders you do the better feel you will get for quantities, so should be more accurate.

  • Two more quick points...

    Male/female quantities of the same item are grouped together for quantity purposes, so you would need say 7 men/3 women to order tri shorts to hit the 10+ mark.

    P&P for our order which was a huge box of kit to one address was 8 euros, so I don't think P&P on tri shorts will be too bad but I will check for you.

    Daylight Baby - good question, i'll check for you.

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