Carvalho Custom makes winner’s jersey for Swedish national triathlon champs

We are in the process of launching the Carvalho Custom brand in Sweden, selling directly from Portugal so that we can supply pro quality custom triathlon and cycling kit at reasonable prices. We already sponsor Swedish pro triathlete Per Wangel and we are very proud to have been asked to sponsor the winner’s jerseys for the Swedish national tri championships.

per wangel custom triathlon clothing
We already supply cycling and triathlon teams from all round the world: UK, Ireland, Holland, Canada, USA, Singapore, Finland, Norway and many more countries – all supplied direct from Portugal and we are very much looking forward to working with some Swedish triathlon and cycling teams.

swedish tri championship jersey

Carvalho Custom är ett Portugisiskt företag som nu är på väg att etablera sig i Sverige. I och med att Carvalho Custom äger sin egen fabrik kan de pressa priserna och är omkring 30-50 % billigare än Nordiska konkurrenter utan att tumma på kvalité.
Företaget är den största leverantören av egendesignade triathlonkläder till Storbritannien och Irland. Som ni vet är båda dessa länder stora triathlonnationer.
Nu vill de ytterligare växa och komma in på den svenska marknaden.
Carvalho Custom stöttar den Svenske & Nordiska Mästaren Per Wangel som kommer både att träna och tävla i egendesignade triathlonkläder från Carvalho Custom.

per wangel triathlonkollektion

Den 29 maj avgörs de Svenska och Nordiska Mästerskapen där har Carvalho Custom gått in och sponsrat tävlingen med så kallade ”vinnartröjor” till segrarna i både junior och seniorklassen.

Under denna helg kommer du som motionär ha chansen att vinna någon av de cykeltröjor som utlottas.
Carvalho Custom letar aktivt efter klubbar och team som är intresserade att profilera sin klubb med egendesignade kläder utan att betala överpriser.
Intresserad?

Tveka inte att kontakta Per Wangel för mer information. Du når mig på 070-182 92 45.

We are very busy!

At this time of year we tend to get busy, but this year has beaten all records! We just cannot make kit fast enough at the moment because our order books are so full and this has meant our lead times have been pushed out to a little over 6 weeks.

sales

We aspire to deliver in a month, but with this many orders coming in we can’t – we are not missing any deadlines we have given clients, but we think it is fair that we do not create false expectations for new clients, which is why we are writing this blog post.

The reason we are so busy is because we have continued to focus on producing pro quality custom cycling and tri kit at reasonable prices, so we don’t try and compete with the cheap and cheerful brands and we are much better value for money than other premium quality suppliers. Our simple secret is that we work from Portugal, a low cost economy with a history of producing high quality textiles and we distribute direct to customers, so that we can pass all our cost savings on to you, our clients.

For future reference, if you are able to order outside of April to July, then we will be able to deliver faster and we will continue to grow our capacity just as fast as we can!

Durham University Cycling Club Kit

We have just supplied Durham University CC with some spanking new kit to make them the smartest riders on the British Universities circuit.

Durham University cycling club kit

There is no reason that students should not be able to race in pro quality kit, just because the Government is wringing every last penny it can out of them. Our mission has always been to supply pro quality kit at reasonable prices and by supplying direct from Portugal with no middleman distributors trousering 30% of what you pay we are able to do just that.

Durham university cycling club clothing

So a heartfelt thanks from us at Carvalho Custom to DUCC for making our kit look so great and we hope you have a fantastic season!

Britain’s fittest director racing in Bodylab kit

We have been supplying one of London’s leading sports therapy clinics, Bodylab, with custom cycling and triathlon kit for a few years now. As well as doing general sports therapy, they also provide individual training plans for mainly Ironman triathletes, as well as maintaining their bodies in working order.

david ball custom cycling jersey

One of their clients, David Ball, has just won the Daily Telegraph’s competition to be Britain’s fittest company director and here he is competing in the Lanzarote Ironman. Competing in Ironman events requires extreme attention to detail in terms of preparation and you really need some professional help to make sure that you are properly prepared and having an organisation like Bodylab behind you is invaluable.

Anyway, congratulations to David and to Bodylab!

Mirjam gets second place in San Diego Tri

One of the athletes we sponsor, Mirjam Weerd, turned pro in 2011 after an outstanding 2010. She has been out in California training for a couple of months and raced her first event of the season in March, the San Diego Superseal (Olympic distance).

mirjam custom running tights

She came in second which bodes well for 2011! Above she is pictured wearing our custom running tights and training jacket at the end of the race. We put a lot of work into developing these running tights as there are a lot of technical issues involved in making tights comfortable for running – we had to remove all the seams from the inside of the legs to stop any chance of chaffing for example, which is not as easy as it sounds! It is not enough to just look great on the podium (and Mirjam always looks fantastic in photos of course!), but our kit is all about performing under race conditions, which is why we use pro racers like Mirjam to help us constantly develop our range under the most demanding conditions. Have a great 2011 Mirjam…

How to reinvigorate cycling

If like me you love the sport of cycling, perhaps you don’t think it needs reinvigorating, but I am for anything that makes the sport more popular. Jonathan Vaughters, one of the best thinkers in the world of cycling has come up with a 10 point plan to make the sport more popular:

1. More races of the highest level outside of Europe.

2. Consistent, understandable formats for cycling fans.

3. Long-term guaranteed entry to the Tour de France for professional teams.

4. More focus on prevention of doping, in the first place, as opposed to catching cheats.

5. More team-time trials more often.

6. Technical innovation, such as cameras on bikes, inside cars, helmets, inside team buses to make the “craziness and danger of the peloton more real to the viewer”.

7. Equipment innovation to see if the the smartest team wins sometimes, rather than the strongest.

8. Open radios to the public and listen to your favourite team and what they are doing.

9. GPS tracking of individual riders to make races fun to watch.

10. Have an understandable and consistent way of determining the best rider in the world and the best team in the world. That might mean riders have to ride Paris-Roubaix, and if they do not finish they would be docked points.

vaughters

Sounds good to me – its about time cycling started moving with the times….

Per Wangel custom triathlon kit

We are very proud to supply kit to one of Sweden’s leading triathletes, Per Wangel. He has been helping us to launch our custom cycling and triathlon clothing brand in Sweden and he has promised us he is going to get a whole load of podium finishes this year….

per wangel custom triathlon kit

Per is an outstanding athlete (cross country skiing as well as triathlon, but he is not a conventional shape, being 194cm and 77kg (6’4 and 12 stone), so we had to make him modified kit. We provide this service to anyone who doesn’t fit normal clothing – just ask about how the system works.

Anyway, have a great season Per and watch this space to see just how many podiums he gets on in 2011….

For those of you who speak Swedish, here is what Per had to say:
Årets mäktigaste triathlonkollektion är på plats i Falun i mitt hem.

Efter sommaren 2010 inledde jag ett samarbete med Carvalho Custom som tillverkar egen designade triathlon kläder från elit till motionärer.

Idag har jag fått delar av min kollektion som skall provas ut och fin justeras.

Det bästa med Carvalho Custom är att de är billiga för er klubbar som är intresserade av att göra en egen triathlonkollektion, ett exempel är att ett par cykelbyxor kostar 400 kr/styck med hur många tryck, färger och loggor som du vill ha tillskillnad mot de Nordiska företaget som tar uppemot 800-1000 kr/styck.

Jag kommer att träna varje pass i dessa kläder och tävla i deras triathlondräkt på de Svenska tävlingarna som jag kör sommaren 2011.

Jag är mycket nöjd med kläderna och kvalitén, de är de bästa cykelbyxorna jag någonsin cyklat med faktiskt.

Club clothing administrator – worst job in the world?

It is a scene repeated a thousand times across the country. Your sports club is having its AGM and you have decided to turn up to show willing. You sit through the opening gambits – minutes of the last AGM that you had managed to avoid, discussion of the club budget (or lack thereof), talk of ambitious projects that will propel the club to new heights (never going to happen) etc. etc. .

Then a nervous tension starts to build. “So we need to appoint the club committee for the next season”. Nervous glances round the room.

“Who wants to be the Children’s Welfare Officer?” – a few hands go up.

“And the Treasurer?” – someone volunteers.

The tension is growing. Everyone knows what is coming next. “OK, who will be the club clothing representative” – a deafening silence. You stare furiously at your feet. Don’t catch the chairman’s eye now, don’t flinch, shrink down in your chair. “Well if nobody is going to volunteer, we will have to choose someone”. No, please God, don’t let him say my name….

Well it no longer has to be that way if you are chosen to organise your club clothing. No more receiving clothing orders from club members by email, letter, back of fag packet, text, facebook, phone call, shouted across a windy car park. No more laboriously adding everyone’s order together to make up the biannual club order. We have a solution!

Our new Club Clothing Order system will enable you to organise your club order online. The club clothing administrator for your club will just have to set up the club page (hosted on the Carvalho Custom site), where s/he will choose the parameters for the order (deadline, which items can be ordered, currency etc). Then s/he will let club members have the password to the site, and each club member will then log in to enter their personal details and their order.

happy sports club meeting

Once the deadline day is reached the club clothing administrator will have automatically generated a consolidated order for the full club and a list of what everyone has ordered and the cost. This consolidated order is then sent to Carvalho Custom and we make the kit as specified and deliver it to the clothing administrator.

To find out more, please email Nicole (the world’s most friendly ex-New Yorker) and she will answer all your questions.
It is a scene repeated a thousand times across the country. Your sports club is having its AGM and you have decided to turn up to show willing. You sit through the opening gambits – minutes of the last AGM that you had managed to avoid, discussion of the club budget (or lack thereof), talk of ambitious projects that will propel the club to new heights (never going to happen) etc. etc. .

Then a nervous tension starts to build. “So we need to appoint the club committee for the next season”. Nervous glances round the room.

“Who wants to be the Children’s Welfare Officer?” – a few hands go up.

“And the Treasurer?” – someone volunteers.

The tension is growing. Everyone knows what is coming next. “OK, who will be the club clothing representative” – a deafening silence. You stare furiously at your feet. Don’t catch the chairman’s eye now, don’t flinch, shrink down in your chair. “Well if nobody is going to volunteer, we will have to choose someone”. No, please God, don’t let him say my name….

Well it no longer has to be that way if you are chosen to organise your club clothing. No more receiving clothing orders from club members by email, letter, back of fag packet, text, facebook, phone call, shouted across a windy car park. No more laboriously adding everyone’s order together to make up the biannual club order. We have a solution!

Our new Club Clothing Order system will enable you to organise your club order online. The club clothing administrator for your club will just have to set up the club page (hosted on the Carvalho Custom site), where s/he will choose the parameters for the order (deadline, which items can be ordered, currency etc). Then s/he will let club members have the password to the site, and each club member will then log in to enter their personal details and their order.

happy sports club meeting

Once the deadline day is reached the club clothing administrator will have automatically generated a consolidated order for the full club and a list of what everyone has ordered and the cost. This consolidated order is then sent to Carvalho Custom and we make the kit as specified and deliver it to the clothing administrator.

To find out more, please email Nicole (the world’s most friendly ex-New Yorker) and she will answer all your questions.

Custom cycling skinsuit for hero Terry Byrne

We have been making cycling kit for Help for Heroes charity rides for a few years now and when we had a call from them to say that one of the GB paralympic team cyclists wanted to race in Help for Heroes colours, we were delighted to make them a custom cycling skinsuit, and we were honoured to be able to help.

custom cycling skinsuit
The rider is Terry Byrne and he lost his right leg below the knee fighting for his country, but he can still ride a bike fast – in fact very fast.

You can see him here wearing his skinsuit and you will notice that we use a special lycra (Power Lycra) that allows us to print dark colours such as dark blues and black without them losing too much of their colouring when the lycra is stretched. It is a sure sign of low quality in a skinsuit or bib shorts when you stretch the lycra and the colours all whiten significantly – and even worse than that it might turn see through, which is a really bad podium look

New pricing system & minimum orders

We are always glad to hear feedback from clients and one thing that we have been told many times is that you would prefer our minimum order quantities to be less. So we have listened. From now on our minimum order quantity is just 5 of an item (to avoid a 50% surchage). But it gets better – if your total order value is greater than €1500 there are no minimum quantities and you can order what the hell you like with no surcharges.

Other clients have said that our design fee could be a little lower – our design fee is pretty competitive given that we do not charge extra for logos that are not ready for printing (vectorised) and that we are happy to provides as many proofs and design options as a client requires at no extra cost. Anyway, we have listened and our new design fee is €150!

offer refuse
And lastly we have added a fixed discount structure, which is for orders of value:
€1500+ = 5% discount
€2500+ = 7% discount
€5000+ = 10% discount

We are still the most competitively priced supplier of pro quality custom cycling and triathlon kit in Europe and now with our very simple minimum order and discount structure, we have to be the easiest to use supplier also!

If there is anything you think we could do better or change to make your life order kit easier, please let us know!

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