A new cycle clothing company which aims to make high quality road racing wear at affordable prices is closing in on its funding target. Svelte Cycles has used the crowd funding website Kickstarter to raise funds for the venture and by 3 June - with ten days before the funding windown closes - has raised £9,606 of the £10,000 target.
Tom Barber, the founder of Svelte, is offering four items in the initial collection which consists of a Heritage jersey, bib shorts, a merino wool base layer and arm warmers. All are designed in London and manufactured in London's East End.
Barber, 28, is a former Modern Pentathlon GB team. Originally from Devon, he took up cycling five years ago but found that he could not afford the top of the range clothing on offer. "I was frustrated by the cost of good design - £130 plus for a jersey - and the fact that no one seemed to care about the middle market, trapped between cheap and poorly designed, and reasonably stylish but extortionate at the other end, there were few options."
"After university, and a brief stint training full time in an attempt to make the London 2012 Pentathlon team, I moved back to London and got a job in investment management, not inspiring but worked with very bright people and in a reasonably interesting company. Not fitting well in the corporate environment and frustrated by out-dated self-serving top-down direction, I made the decision to try and do something I was passionate about, and that I could control and build in the best way possible.
"For the last 24 months I have been developing Svelte in my spare time - evenings, weekends and holidays. Then three months ago finally took the plunge and focused on Svelte full time. Since then it has been full on getting the first collection ready for the summer."
The range was launched at Spin London in May and focussed on the Heritage Jersey, which is available in deep navy blue, earthy forest green and red wine burgundy and costs £60. It is made of a merino wool and polyster combination fabric which Svelte has sourced from Denmark. It is reminiscent of the very early Rapha jerseys in its simplicity and minimalism. A men's and women's version of the Heritage jerseys are on offer.
The packages on offer from Svelte's Kickstarter campaign start at arm warmers at £15 for a pair, with the Heritage Pack getting you a Heritage jersey, arm warmers and base layer for a bargain £100. For £75 more you get all of those plus bib shorts in the Ride Now package. A wide variety of packages are available for those who are willing to back the start up. Barber said: "I'm really proud of the product we have developed - it's been a long and sometimes arduous process - but it's been worth it and I am confident that cyclists will love our new Heritage Jersey, as well as the rest of our range. A passionate cyclist myself, there is nothing better than being able to support the city I live in by creating a fashion-forward, yet practical cycling range."
Visit the Svelte Cycles Kickstarter page.
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