Do you have a favorite cycling outfit? Do you own one jersey that just seems to fit better than the others? 

Pro cyclists enjoy a seemingly limitless supply of custom-fit jerseys, shorts, vests, socks and other technical apparel. They wear these clothes up to six hours each day, and the apparel shelters them from a wide range of weather. 

Compiling each rider’s wardrobe, however, requires a herculean effort by apparel companies. Colorado’s Pearl Izumi, which is based in Louisville, goes to great lengths to outfit the BMC Pro Cycling Team.

Throughout the course of a season, Pearl Izumi provides each rider with no less than 60 short-sleeve jerseys, 50 pairs of shorts, 200 pairs of socks, dozens of skin suits, more than 30 sets of of gloves, arm, leg and foot warmers, as well as dozens of vests, thermal jackets, rain slickers and hats. 

Here’s the challenging part: BMC has 28 riders on its elite team and 15 on its development squad. Each man has a different body shape. 

“It takes an enormous amount of resources,” says Don Meyer, Pearl Izumi’s sports marketing manager. “I spend a lot of time crunching the logistics of the project.”

Pearl Izumi starts its BMC project each December at the team’s training camp. Meyer and his staffers meet with new riders to perform body measurements and to assess each rider’s clothing requirements. Each rider receives an initial shipment of clothing to accommodate them through the colder months. Unsurprisingly, that initial shipment is comprised of jackets, gloves, vests and other cold-weather gear. 

Pearl Izumi sends along warm weather gear as the season progresses. After countries hold their respective National Championship races in June, Pearl Izumi prints off national champion-colored kits for any national winners. 

When all is said and done, Pearl Izumi ships no less than 15,000 pieces of clothing to its riders each year. For some apparel companies, that amount would stress the supply chain, and impact the amount of clothing available for consumers. Since Pearl Izumi ships its clothing out in smaller shipments throughout the calendar year, the inventory for store shelves is not impacted.

To further streamline its process, Pearl Izumi created a tiered fit system to accommodate all body sizes. Pearl Izumi starts with a traditional Small, Medium, and Large size, and then adds five options to each size: super-short, short, regular, tall, and super-tall. Each option includes differing lengths for the torso, arms and legs.

This year, Pearl Izumi rolled out these sizing options to its general consumer lines. 

“It allow the riders to customize their size within our existing lines,” Meyer says. “We decided to simply make a product line out of this work.”

Outfitting the USA Pro Cycling Challenge
At the USA Pro Cycling Challenge, Pearl Izumi also produces the six podium jerseys each day. Those jerseys are the yellow Smashburger Race Leader’s jersey, the green Lexus Sprinter’s jersey, the red Sierra Nevada King of the Mountains jersey, the blue Colorado State University best young rider jersey, the orange FirstBank Most Aggressive Rider jersey, and the blue Edward Jones Investments Best Colorado Rider jersey. 

After the completion of each stage, Meyer meets with each respective jersey leader to measure his body and produce two custom-fit kits for the following day. Meyer then creates a loose-fitting podium jersey on the spot, using a mobile sublimation press. The entire process happens in the post-race green room, where the riders relax before the podium presentation.

“We can have all of the guys in, measured and outfitted in under 30 minutes,” Meyer says. “That type of collaboration enables us to be an integral part of the race.”

About the author:
Fred Dreier is a journalist living in Denver, Colorado. He has written about professional bicycle racing since 2004, and his work has appeared in a wide variety of magazines and newspapers, such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and USA Today. Dreier has covered the USA Pro Cycling Challenge since its debut in 2011. He regularly rides his bicycle on many of the roads used by the race.