Cycling UK Forum

Why don't the CTC sell nice Yellow cycling Jerseys, with their little bike logo on, at their shop?

Free advertising surely?

I'd buy one.

Me too.

And me

Mike

They did do, about 10 years ago, along with shorts, ties, Brompton Bikes, ale, and all sorts of other CTC branded merchandise and most of it seemed to be sold off at clearance prices.

I bought one of the yellow jerseys when I was a Right to Ride rep and I always wore it when I attended meetings in that capacity but the quality was not brilliant. I never wore it for anything else.

This is yet another example of where the the executive have taken the eye off the ball.
I mentioned it to the director some years ago and then formally requested at the 2006 AGM that they got on with it. We were promised that day that it was in hand.
Matt Mallinder (of CTC) is now running a competition so that members can design a new one. Somewhat suspicious timing, I think, that this only came up just before the 2007 AGM - perhaps they forgot all about it or didn't rate it highly as something that they should get on with.
I was going to bring it up again at the AGM but the meeting over-ran because of other more contentious issues.

Remember the old mostly pale blue witjh yellow bits at the shoulders jersies? The ones that instantly looked out of date and spent most of the '90s and '00s supporting the CTC's fuddy-duddy image?

I think it's quite funny now that retor tops are back in and these old CTC jersies are looking hip and trendy again, they are being replaced

Si wrote:Remember the old mostly pale blue witjh yellow bits at the shoulders jersies? The ones that instantly looked out of date and spent most of the '90s and '00s supporting the CTC's fuddy-duddy image?

I think it's quite funny now that retor tops are back in and these old CTC jersies are looking hip and trendy again, they are being replaced

Yep, I have a drawer full of acrylic banded cycle tops that were hideously unfashionable and are now acceptable again. On the bigger picture I can't imagine the CTC made much money out of the last attempt at cycle wear. Best leave it to specialists and perhaps DAs.

When we ran the shop there were two, the one we inherited from when the CTC shop was run inhouse at Godalming



And one we designed and had made



The orginal plain yellow jersey sold well only when reduced at under cost price, although it had been around for a year or two before we inherited it so it is fair to say the initial excitement had died down a little, the blue and yellow model was a limited edition and was popular with the members, although we only had a few made as we were told off about the design, especially for using the winged wheel badge, I think it was seen as being a bit to retro; which is why it was a limited edition .

The CTC branded items from a commercial point of view (bearing in mind that the shop expenses were funded by us) did not warrant the costs involved, we simply made the effort as we felt it was part and parcel of running the CTC Shop franchise. As 'Si' has implied, we found the majority of those who wanted to advertise the CTC had their own kit made as can be seen here:

South West London District Association
Chester & North Wales CTC Anglesey Section
West Middlesex CTC Section
East Sussex CTC
Bury CTC Section
Southampton CTC Section
Social A/Wirral CTC Section

Paul Smith
www.bikeplus.co.uk

glueman wrote:

Si wrote:Remember the old mostly pale blue witjh yellow bits at the shoulders jersies? The ones that instantly looked out of date and spent most of the '90s and '00s supporting the CTC's fuddy-duddy image?

I think it's quite funny now that retor tops are back in and these old CTC jersies are looking hip and trendy again, they are being replaced

Yep, I have a drawer full of acrylic banded cycle tops that were hideously unfashionable and are now acceptable again. On the bigger picture I can't imagine the CTC made much money out of the last attempt at cycle wear. Best leave it to specialists and perhaps DAs.

The winged wheel is a thousand times better than the ctc splodge however you look at it. It's not retro, it's timeless, an absolute classic. I was amazed the ctc was so shortsighted as to have abandoned it.

I think at the time retro was not seen as the way forward especially as they had not long since introduced the new badge, so instead of them feeling this was a retro design they simply felt it was a step back to what they have just spent quite a lot of effort evolving out of.

We used it as many of the members I spoke both on the phone and at the York Rally each summer asked specifically if we could have them made with the traditional winged wheel badge instead



Enough asked me to warrant having them made, as I could give them what they were asking for; I did.

Paul Smith
www.bikeplus.co.uk

glueman wrote:The winged wheel is a thousand times better than the ctc splodge however you look at it. It's not retro, it's timeless, an absolute classic. I was amazed the ctc was so shortsighted as to have abandoned it.

manybikes wrote:This is yet another example of where the the executive have taken the eye off the ball.
I mentioned it to the director some years ago and then formally requested at the 2006 AGM that they got on with it. We were promised that day that it was in hand.
Matt Mallinder (of CTC) is now running a competition so that members can design a new one. Somewhat suspicious timing, I think, that this only came up just before the 2007 AGM - perhaps they forgot all about it or didn't rate it highly as something that they should get on with.
I was going to bring it up again at the AGM but the meeting over-ran because of other more contentious issues.

Taken their eye off the ball I don't even think they are in the game any more

The CTC do a nice yellow polo shirt with there logo on it.
Many moons ago in the Ron Kitching `Everything cycling` catalogue I bought a polo shirt with 3 rear pockets worn it till it fell to bits. Shame nobody makes them anymore.

I'm with glueman absolutely - I couldn't have expressed it better myself.

To a man and woman, the members of our section feel the same. I can't remember a vote having been taken among the membership, asking whether to change from a well designed, recognisable, appropriate, well-loved (need I go on?)..........emblem to the non-descript infantile scribble of the new logo.

I'm obviously not up to date with my info, but does manybikes tell us that Matt Mallinder is running a competition to design a new jersy, or a new emblem? If it is yet another new emblem that is being considered, let me tell Matt that we don't need one. The 'Winged Wheel' is all that we need. It isn't broken - don't mend it. If there is a competition, is it open to all members? - I've not heard of it.

I suggest that there is a concensus for keeping the emblem that was familiar and part of our identity for over a century.

Any argument that the old emblem should be changed just because it is old and from a previous age is neither credible nor sustainable. Decent, civilised good manners and good-citizenship are from a previous time, but what current society has replaced them with is infinitely worse and I submit the point of view that that alone supports the argument that something old should not be replaced just because it is old.

If any councillors read this, I would appreciate their comments.

JohnW

Another vote for the winged wheel. The logo's a sad bit of modern marketing garbage.