Blog - Page 24 of 28 - Carvalho Custom

Our lead times and holidays

We work very hard to be the custom cycling and triathlon supplier with the shortest lead times in the industry, normally working off 4 weeks. In recent months we have had unprecedented demand for our kit however and our lead times have been stretched to 7 or 8 weeks – we completely understand that many clubs need their kit quicker than this, but we just cannot make the kit any faster!

We are now putting in place plans to substantially increase our production capacity so that next Easter/Summer we will be able to manage the peak demand better.

To compound the problem further, in Portugal everything closes down in August, including our factory, so this will add a further 2 to 3 weeks on lead times for kit order before the holidays.

We are meeting the delivery dates that we have given to clients at the time of order, so clients are not getting their kit late. We like to think our kit is worth waiting for, but we hope to be back to 4 week lead times come September.

Wyndy Milla custom cycling kit

We have just delivered some spanking new white kit to Wyndy Milla – they are an exclusive cycling club, catering for riders in the London area who want something different to the more traditional clubs with their rules and etiquette. They also provide personal cycle training and a range of other personal fitness products.

We have worked with Henry Furniss (who owns Wyndy Milla with his wife Nasima) for several years, since he was an elite rider. He likes white kit (it looks great with a tan!), but making custom white cycling shorts is not easy, if you don’t want to show off more than your rippling muscles on the bike. Fortunately at Carvalho Custom we have special lycras that we use that guarantee no transparency, so sparing your blushes.

Wyndy Milla are going to make more of their kit in different colours, so get in touch with them at their website if you would like to get hold of some for yourself – www.wyndymilla.com .

Microfibre custom technical t-shirts

We have just added a new microfibre fabric to our range and it is one of the best fabrics we have in our range. It is called Cuadro and we are using it for our new range of custom technical t-shirts; Cuadro is fantastically lightweight and silky smoorth, but through some ingenious microfibre engineering holds its shape really well and gives great wicking properties (wicking refers to the way a fabric carries moisture away from your skin to evaporate).

A technical t-shirts means that it is made from a fabric (microfibre) that will help you feel more comfortable when you start getting hot and sweaty and will also dry out super quick. Once you have done any level of sport you will never want to go back to good old fashioned cotton again! Our microfibre has a unique weave to it, which up close shows lots of tiny squares, which help to maintain the shape of the t-shirt when you are wearing it.

To print our custom technical t-shirts we use the same digital sublimation printing as we use for our custom cycling jerseys, which means there are no limits on the design & colours that you can print. It also means that rather than having the nasty scratchy printing that most t-shirts have, we actually dye the fabric, so the design will never fade or crack.

Microfibre has only one drawback – it is very expensive! That means that our custom microfibre technical t-shirts are going to cost more than getting a cotton t-shirts and doing old fashioned scrathy printing on them. In fact they are €22.15+VAT and depending on whether you are ordering other items, there may be a set up fee. This does mean you get a pro quality custom technical t-shirt with digital sublimation printing and absolutely no limits on your design, though – so it is worth every penny.

Dolmen CC new kit

We have been supplying a lot of cycling clothing to Ireland over the last year or so and we have just sent some custom cycling kit to Dolmen CC in Co Clare. They are an active club with a race scene and they also organise regular training rides at the weekend – they are very welcoming to new members and you can contact them through their site. They have a fantastic corner of the world to ride a bike in, although I bet they get more rain than we do here in Portugal!

Anyway, many thanks to Martin and all the riders at Dolmen CC and I hope you have a great season.

New self-guided cycling tours in Portugal

For anyone interested in doing a cycling tour, you should consider a2z Adventures – they are one of the leading cycling tour companies in Europe and offer mountain bike and hybrid tours for varying abilities. Pedro, who is the boss, has been a great friend of our company, so we are more than happy to give them a plug on our blog!

They have just started new self-guided cycling tours in Portugal, which offer luggage transport between hotels, detailed route guides and emergency back up support and of course you can save a fair amount by not having to pay for a guide. It also makes smaller groups more viable.

a2z will take you to some really undiscovered corners of Portugal and have many years of experience running cycling holidays, so you will be in great hands.

Custom rashguards for surfing

We are just launching a range of custom rashguards for surfers. You can have long-sleeve, short-sleeve or sleeveless and we can produce any design that you require. Unlike many rashguards which use that nasty scratchy printing for logos that cracks and peels off after a few washes, we use the same sublimation printing that we use for cycling and triathlon kit, so the fabric is actually dyed with your design.

For our custom rashguards we use exactly the same ‘Power’ lycra that we use for our tri suits, which means that it is extremely hardwearing and gives a firm fit to avoid it going baggy in the water. It also holds colours well so that your designs come up really sharp.

You can design literally anything you like and we will reproduce it for you. There is a minimum order of 10 of each top to avoid paying surcharges. There is also a one off design fee of EUR140, which is what we charge to set up your template. You would not be charged this fee on any subsequent reorders of course. The prices are EUR26.65 for the long-sleeve, EUR25.15 for the short sleeve and EUR24.80 for the sleeveless.

Semi-Custom Cycling Jerseys

We have had a lot of requests for a semi-custom service and so here it is! So rather than full custom jerseys, where we can produce any design you require, for semi-custom cycling clothing, we have three base designs that you can choose from. You can then specify any colour combinations that you require for the base of the kit and then you can have your club name or whatever text you require in all the places it says “your name here” on the template. You can also add logos to the design and position them where you wish, but this costs extra. We will produce a digital version of your design for you to approve. You can also design your own cycling jersey online here using our templates. Choose your colours, text and logos and then download a jpeg of the design.

The cost is €90 per design (as opposed to €150 for fully custom designs), which allows you to have any colour combinations and any text in any font in the positions shown. Then for each logo there will be an additional charge of €25. Once you have paid this design fee you can order any items from our cycling range (jerseys, bib shorts, arm warmers, mitts, jackets etc), but a 50% surcharge applies if you order less than 5 of an item – unless your total order is worth more than €1500 in which case there are no surcharges.

option 1

option 2

option 3

You can download our 3 options for semi-custom designs here if you would like to have a go at the artwork yourself or you can just explain the colours and text (and logos) that you would like to see and we will produce your design from your description.

Click Here to Download semi-custom 1 design template Illustrator

Click Here to Download semi-custom 1 design template JPEG

Click Here to Download semi-custom 2 design template Illustrator

Click Here to Download semi-custom 2 design template JPEG

Click Here to Download semi-custom 3 design template Illustrator

Click Here to Download semi-custom 3 design template JPEG

Seeds Cycling

We have supplied Seeds Cycling for a couple of years now with custom cycling kit. They are based near Dartford and are a smallclub of 36 members, but judging by the amount of kit they buy, they are growing rapidly!

They do regular club training runs at different levels and they have a growing race scene as well as organising trips to sportives (they are doing the Marmotte this year for example – 13.8 kms at an average of 7.9% and 21 hairpins: I bet you wish you were back in Dartford when you get to the bottom of Alpe d’Huez!).

Anyway our sincere thanks to Seeds Cycling and I hope you all have a great 2009 on the bike.

The TCR show

Last weekend (7th and 8th of February) we had a stand at the TCR show in Esher and we will definitely be back next year. Probably the best thing about it was the chance to speak to clients we have been supplying for years and only every spoken to on the phone or by email – so many thanks for coming to say hello to Dunmow Tri, Tri Force, Barracuda Tri, NTri, TriLife and everyone else who turned up.

We managed to generate a fair bit of interest in some of the new kit we have available, mainly the new tri suits shown above, but also the new fabrics we have for the cycling jackets which are more stretchy, more breathable and softer to the touch.

Looks like our next show will be the Cycle Show in London this October and maybe the London Triathlon also in August. If you happen to see us there, please come and say hello.

Our new tri suits

We launched our new custom tri suits at the TCR show in London – in new male and female versions they feature a more contoured fit than our previous tri suit, to give a more waisted feel to them and more grip on the legs, which means that there is no loose fabric on the midriff and thighs when you come out of the water. We have also shifted lycra to Power Lycra, which gives more compression and a more figure hugging look.

our new custom tri suits

Finally there is a seamless front panel to minimise drag in the water and to make sure there is no friction from seams on the front torso. If you would like to see for yourself, why not ask to see some samples!