Canyon//SRAM unveil colourful racing kit for 2016
Rapha design jersey to represent speed and movement
Sportswear and lifestyle brand Rapha unveiled the brand new racing kit that they designed for the newly-formed Canyon//SRAM Women's Professional Cycling Team in a press release Friday. The mainly black kit includes splashes of colours in reds, pinks, blues, turquoise and yellow, which is to symbolize speed and movement.
The team's Australian rider Tiffany Cromwell modelled the new kit in some of the released images and said in the announcement that, "It makes me feel fast and confident. It's a really cool looking kit and I love the pop of colour. I think when you put this kit on you're ready for business, all the pieces fit really well, it's aero, fits in all the right places and the fabrics are soft on your body."
Great Britain's Hannah Barnes, hired by Canyon//SRAM for the sprints in 2016, also wore the new kit and said, "[What I love most about the kit is] the brightness. Also the way the colours fade and almost look like you are already going fast when you’re standing still."
Canyon//SRAM's director Beth Duryae agreed with her two riders, calling the jersey 'unique and stunning'. She said in the press release that, "I'd seen the first design some time ago but to see it here live in Mallorca for the first time, with all the different pieces combined, it fits perfectly to the image of the team. When the team is out riding on the roads they are turning heads everywhere."
Rapha's head marketing officer Sarah Clark said that the company wanted the jersey to standout and make it easy for the riders to find each other in the peloton. On the other hand, Rapha's designer Ultan Coyle wanted to create a jersey that wasn't gender specific. He also said that the colour flashes wrapped around the body represent warning tape (which were then re-coloured) "to suggest an athletic threat or danger to add attitude and which would come in handy when racing."
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