at their headquarters in
downtown Portland.
(Photos © J. Maus)
Castelli USA, the American arm of the high-end Italian cycling apparel brand, is set to announce next week that they’re now the sole provider of custom Castelli team apparel in the United States.
The new division, dubbed “Servizio Corse” (which means ‘home for team equipment’ in Italian) will design and produce all custom team apparel in Portland.
Castelli is known throughout the bike industry as having one of the highest quality, most technically advanced lines of clothing available. This new agreement will, for the first time ever, allow teams and clubs to order custom-designed apparel made with the same Italian fabrics and chamois materials used by teams in the professional peloton (like Saunier Duval).
Peter Kukula, Sales Manager for Castelli USA estimates the total value of the team apparel business at $85-110 million nationwide.
“We think it’s a lucrative market to be in,” he told me via telephone today. He also said that all the design and production of the new team apparel division will be done in Portland “from start to finish”. To handle the new business, Kukula says they’ve already hired new graphic design staff and are looking to hire additional designers as well as sales staff.
The deal became effective September 1 when Castelli USA took over the licensing agreement from San Diego based Squadra, Inc.. Castelli USA president (and former Nike executive) Greg Cowan is expected to make the official announcement next week at the Interbike trade show in Las Vegas.
The first-ever Servizio Corse team kit is already in the works and will be soon be worn by the Portland-based PrestoVelo/bicycleattorney.com cycling team.
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Hmm. I\’ll have to disagree with that \”quality\” part. I\’m on my second pair of gloves from them in a year and these are falling apart too. They are well designed, but the quality leaves me wanting.
I like seeing \”and produce in Portland\” in the title rather than only having the design function in town.
I agree with the first post… after using 3 of their premium products I rank their quality is poor.
I can attest that the quality of the shorts and jerseys are much better then is commonly available in the custom bike kit world. I\’ve worn and raced in other kit for years and the Castelli is clearly a step up from most.
oh – I don\’t know if I agree with #1 & #3. I\’d say that Castelli are at least \”middle of the road\” quality, if not better – certainly not poor. If we agree that Assos is a good example of high quality (I have a pair of Assos bibs that, 5 years later, are still my nicest pair of bibs) and Voler/Velowear being low (neither of the two Voler jerseys I\’ve owned has made it through a season) then Castelli ranks near the top in my book.
My Castelli gloves, bibs and jerseys last every bit as long as my Pearl Izumi, Craft, and Sugoi gear has. (and are usually more stylish in the mean time).
here\’s my Castelli story…
All the team uniforms from my first (and only) road racing team (at UCSB from 1995 – 1998) were from Castelli (squadra) and I still have and wear all of them today.
The quality varied from year to year, but it was definitely the good stuff and i remember we all felt sooo cool to be wearing such nice Euro clothing.
since then, I\’ve gotten a few pieces of Castelli stuff and to be honest i don\’t ride enough anymore to really gauge it\’s quality… but from the few times I have worn it it seems to be great.
well, maybe a \’MADE IN PORTLAND\’ tag could squash any quality issues!
So why would \”Made in Portland\” be synonomous with quality?