To offer ethical cycling products, we must first consider that it is in an ethical environment, in which the garments are produced. Production in a positive location, where healthy, fair employment is provided and the locality can benefit. We do this with each and every product. But it is also ethical that the final price to the end user be considered. To be fair to the consumer, we are making an ethical contract between us and the end user, the cyclist, and it is there that value is found.
We have seen this week, bib shorts retailing at £155 with a €2.20 chamois sewn into them. Chamois direct from the major pad production factories can cost between $0.90 and €7.15.
It is our core aim to offer fine, performance garments at an honest price. The fabric and pad is Italian for our new shorts and final stitching is done in Hungary. The factory offers a fair living wage in a skilled economy where a garment worker can afford family housing and transport. We get most garments produced in Italy, Hungry, Spain and China; each following this ethos.
We believe the final ‘cost’ of the garment to the cyclist should be honestly distributed between all parties involved in the final fee: fabric mills, stitching and production labour costs, the environment, full government taxes and our profit.
We have no distributor or profit margin to add on to our base cost and we don’t sponsor a professional cycling team, just kids who want to get there so we can operate a lean business. An honest ethical one.
Sounds perfectly sensible to me!