Sports Wear

Top tips for staying warm and comfortable in the best performance bicycle clothing

Many people ask me what the secret is to comfortable padding, and the answer is not as you might think, in quantity but in quality. The padding in our men’s shorts is contoured for a good fit, and perforated to help keep you cool. These days the padding is made from a special fabric which looks similar to the old fashioned ‘chamois’ leather, but is actually synthetic, with quick drying properties for better comfort, and easy to wash and care for. Women’s padding is CD Special Soft Seamless padding, which molds to your shape as you sit upon your saddle, and has been found to be the best solution for comfortable cycling for very many women.

Cycling shorts, padded underwear and cycle tights must be snug enough to hold the padding snuggly in place so that it doesn’t move about. If shorts are too loose the padding will shuffle about with the pedaling action, and either crease or move out of position. Either will cause chafing and make you sore.

In the summer when the weather is warm and comfortable (!) a top can be a loosish fit which suits most people. It doesn’t want to be too loose or it will flap about in the breeze. However, in the winter, close fitting layers will give much better insulation, and prevent cold air from ‘flushing’ down the inside of the garment.

Wearing a combination of thin layers works very well towards keeping your body comfortable whilst exercising. The reason for this is that it is much easier to adjust the total amount of warmth you get from your clothing if you can add or remove one thin layer at a time to get the optimum insulation. For this reason most of our clothing is moderately light weight, and when used in various different combinations will ensure your best comfort and therefore a more enjoyable ride.

Your wrists are a vitally important part of your body to protect from cold.
Keeping them warm will go a long way to keeping your hands warm & comfortable, and indeed the rest of your body. For this reason our long sleeve tops and jackets have very generous cuffs, with a double layer of fabric. This helps to ensure your best comfort and therefore a more enjoyable ride.

The special fabrics used for performance sportswear, and particularly chosen for our cycle range, have a technical property called ‘Wicking’. This means moisture (seat) is absorbed by the inside of the fabric, and transferred to the outside surface where it will quickly evaporate. This means the garment dries out quickly, and you the wear stay more comfortable. Such fabrics also tend to stay relatively warm whilst they are damp.

What is the best way to care our Performance CycleWear? The happy answer is: ‘The easy way’. It is my firm belief that sportswear must be easy to care for, so all our soft fabrics can machine washed, spun, tumbled and or line dried. They need no special treatments, and no special washing powders. Just use your normal coloured’s powder or liquid, the clothing responds quite happily.

One last point though: Do Not Use Fabric Conditioners! These make fabrics more water absorbent, and with our high wicking, quick drying fabrics, we are trying to make the garments as water un-absorbent as possible. (This applies to all sportswear)
So there you have it!

Sports apparel for the youth has become a very attractive market. It seems that such sports apparel sets, especially those being worn by a number of famous sports personalities, are becoming ever more popular for more and more teenagers. Every teenager nowadays must have that popular sports jersey or jacket to wear with him when he goes to school. A teenager feels he would look cool wearing that baseball cap that features his favorite team.

With this surge of popularity, there are even a number of sports apparel designers who are trying to make sports wear even more fashionable and not just as a functional garment aim to provide comfort and sometimes enhance performance. More and more sports apparel are being designed without the dull and boring designs.

When choosing the right type of sports apparel for the youth, one should not merely focus on comfort or feel of the fabric. Teenagers are now more selective in what they wear so it is also important to be able to know the designs as well as the more popular brands and styles that appeal to them.

Only once you have an idea on what sports apparel appeals to the youth can you then concentrating on focusing on what types would be more comfortable. As a general rule of looking for comfortable sports wear, try choosing sports apparel that are made out of cotton. Cotton has proven to be an excellent fabric for sports wear because of its many wonderful properties. For one, they absorb moisture well. But today there are also more advanced technology applied to the manufacture of newer fabrics that can perform better than ordinary cotton apparel.

There are now several sports apparel choices for the youth available that are made from fabrics that are also used on professional sports apparel. These garments are made to achieve better performance through better fit and comfort as well as attractive enough to be more popular with the stylish youth.

Fashion and function are seamlessly combined in order to provide excellent apparel for the youth to use in sports as well as for fashion. For function, such garments are made with fabrics that allow sweat and bodily moisture to stay on the outer layer of the garment to maintain the feeling of dryness. Such sports apparel are made of fabrics with better breathability that helps make perspiration to evaporate faster, making the wearer feel all the more comfortable.