Thank You Champion Systems

I agree with you on this Wade; ChapSys kits are extremely awesome! Our team here at Illinois State University back in October and I couldnt be more impressed with the fit/quality/comfortableness of the stuff! Not to mention that the winter coat is fantastic!

The price point is amazing, and I was quite skeptical because of that, but I agree with you without a doubt that I would recommend them to anyone looking for great custom team wear.

Ive posted a few pictures of our kit over on my blog if you feel like checking it out!

Yes Champion Systems make some good looking kit that can't be faulted. However by buying Champion Systems you are buying made in China and although the quality, price and service may be great you are supporting a system of doing business that inevitably will cost Australian jobs.

Pacific Brands decided to move all it's manufacturing to Asia this year costing 1850 local jobs, 533 of those in Victoria alone, so that they could be more cost competitive. Nothing personal against Champion Systems as I'm sure they do a great job but I personally don't think every product should be Made in China just because they can do it cheaper. This just forces local businesses to eventually take manufacturing off shore to be able to compete on price thus costing us jobs. What do you think those 533 machinists are doing for work now? hopefully miling up on beach road with all that spare time they have now although wait, that's right, they don't have a job anymore so they can't afford a new set of Conti's to roll on, also they are probably a bit depressed because hey the chances of finding a new job are pretty slim infact the entire clothing making industry for which they have trained in has moved to Asia.
Local businesses contribute to the economy by employing people and paying taxes.

Sorry this may seem inappropriate given that Champion Systems are your site sponsor but I just wanted to voice another point of view and give everyone something to consider next time anyone is faced with a purchasing decision.

I agree with your point, but people all too often want it both ways. I've had countless complaints about my calendar prices that are 30% more expensive because I went Australian made.

Hi CT, upon reflection I probably should have kept my comments to myself as it's a bit negative and just my personal opinion, sorry. I really like your blog and the effort you put in to this.

So which brands of custom kit are manufactured in Australia then?

Ventou does local, and they have opened up a new shop as a showroom on Beach Rd, went in to have a look the other day. Pretty nice, and Hannah? was very friendly.

I have the oppsite view to tomthekiwi even though I do feel bad for all the people sacked by Pacific Brands this year. If the Champion Systems kit is so good how come you did not use them to make the new Cycling Tips kit? It would have been far more affordable. I fall in the mid-high tier of the income bracket of your survey but with two toddlers I have to be responsible on how I spend my money on my kit. The price of the Cycling Tips kit just put up a barrier between me and the blog as I was really keen to get a full set of kit and have been a follower since the blog started. The Capoforma gear is great but if your team uses and reccomends Champion Systems then I think thats the gear you should have gone with and we all could afford a set. Great design though!
Maybe next year!

tomthekiwi, perhaps its time to study economics? A business has to balance quality vs cost amongst other things. No business will choose to spend more on labour or other materials, they are not charities. I work in the HR/employment market and the prospects of finding work in Australia are actually pretty good. Our economy is comparatively strong. Retraining is the key. There are basic roles available in retail, mining, transport, infrastructure office admin, etc.. Unfortunately an Australian worker just cannot compete with Asia on the cost of unskilled or low skilled labour. It's up to individuals, businesses and government to invest in skills creation to meet skill gaps that exist in Australia. No one will pay double for clothing or other goods just because they are locally made, however, if I can get my stuff cheap and save enough money, I might just hire someone to help with my business.

I also fall in the most popular income bracket, but with 4 kids, and a monumental mortgage, there seems be less and less, for bike 'essentials'. I couldn't believe it when my wife gave in a said I should get a set of CT kit, i ordered that afternoon.
Almost twice the price of my most expensive existing kit, I'm keen to see it.
But I do agree that at the price point of Champion Systems, I would have snapped it up without consultation.

Thanks for your feedback guys. I fully appreciate how significant of a purchase the CT kit is and I thank every single person who bought it. Even if you didn't purchase it, I hope you don't feel excluded in any way.

As you're well aware Capo has some very popular lines of clothing that you can buy straight off the rack which carry a very strong brand appeal. I felt it was a great match to be able to leverage Capo's brand appeal along with CyclingTips. The difference between ordering team kit and what I'm doing with this CT kit are two very different things.

At the end of the day I've known many people to have had very positive experiences ordering Champion Systems for their team kit. That's not to say that there aren't other custom clothing suppliers out there, but they've been sensational to deal with and suit are specific needs.

No offence, but you clearly don't understand the new system paradigm, and it sounds like you might not have a grasp on business practicalities either.

These businesses are businesses. They are there to make money. Full stop. If they need to move offshore because we have a high minimum wage and huge inefficiencies that lower our competitiveness then it is a business's perogative to move to where their cost base is lower.

Whilst it is regrettable that people lose their jobs, that is the way things go and we can be thankful we have a welfare safety net.

Fortunately Generation X and Y and beyond are multi skilling which should hopefully ensure that a job-for-life mentality is eliminated to a large extent so that if people lose a job they could get a new one.

Anyway, if Chinese (or Bangladeshi, or Vietnamese or whatever) labour costs are lower, who are we to deny them the right to a wage. As long as Champ Systems does not use sweatshop labour then I am all for it.

Have you been to China and seen the locals work? They work longer, harder and are grateful for work. The Chinese labour force is going to shock lazy Western society with their determination to succeed and save money.

I personally am developing some online stuff including iPhone app and have used offshore freelancers for the work.

I've paid some guys 2 months average salary (in China, India, Pakistan) for a week's work – something that would cost me 10x that amount here. Do I cry myself to sleep over the fact that I am denying work to a local developer is charging 10x what it costs me to use Chinese, or Pakistani, or Indian freelance programming skill?

No, I don't.

This is new face of the increasingly interconnected world, where capital flows easily, wages are slowly normalising as business chases the lowest cost to produce (Africa, anyone?).

If you can't come to grips with this, you will die. You can either fight the market, or embrace it. Embracing it means survival and perhaps even success. PacBrands chose this path. Good on them. Next time you're buying some Bonds spare a thought for someone in China you're helping to feed.

Would you prefer them to go out of business? What would happen then? Someone else would step into the breach to make Bonds or whatever. Think of the jobs PacBrands will continue to provide for logistics, marketing, retail shops locally….did you think about that? Would you prefer they got a taxpayer subsidy (I don't) like the dinosaur local car manufacturing industry which should have been let die years ago (with the billions in taxpayer subsidies — subsidies which continue to feed huge inefficiencies and ridiculous labour costs) with the money better spent on retraining and reskilling those people (mining, greentech etc).

Maybe because Wade isn't in charge of the O2 cost centre/budget but he's in charge of the CT budget so he can use who he wants.

I don't understand how the price of kit put a barrier between you and the blog. The blog's still there and accessible if you don't have the kit?

There's more than one way to skin a cat, so the saying goes.

Capo gear looks great and would love to be able to wear it but it sadly their largest size is still to small for a big fella like me.

CT you have done a great job in designing the kit and it looks terrific well done.

BTW I saw the ToB results well done CT on your position in the GC.

Nice looking kit Matt. The photos bring out you industrious side, nice work :-)

interesting point but have you ever purchased anything off the net instead of in a local store?

We went with Champ-Sys for our team kit and also have had a good experience. They hit that balance between quality and price. They're no Assos or Rapha, nor should they be for team kit that will be replaced after a season or two.

Enjoy the cheap Chinese/Eurasian production whilst you can – what they need is a union to mobilise their workforce, go the Australian way and force the cost of production/living up and one day we might have parity.

Hang on, isn't China a communist state still? Yes, no? But their cheap labour exporting to the world has lifted I think 200 million out of poverty.

You're right, what they need is to mobilise unions, lift the minimum wage to ridiculous levels, reduce business competitiveness, thus reducing amount of capital for wages, thus reducing the ability to hire, thus lifting unemployment rate, thus shifting capital and production to cheaper countries.

Wage and cost inflation increases: it's just what Keynesians demand, and what ultimately destroys value, currencies etc etc etc.

And so it goes.

You're wrong, they don't need any of those things.

If anyone is interested, go pick up Issue 45 (July/Aug/Sept 2009) of RIDE magazine. It's the one with Gerro on the cover and it's on page 158. They have a good advertorial on the whole process of how Champion makes their clothing and the whole process involved. The definitely don't use sweat shop labor and it tells all about the process, their sizing, the quality and the different options available. Impressive stuff.

sizing is important! at least when our team ordered, many of us actually needed to order a size up (i.e. large instead of medium, while normally wearing a medium)

Nice design. I really like it!

We got our team clothing done by Champ-Sys here in Australia a couple months ago. We're very happy with it indeed. The shammy in the knicks could be improved upon but that's just my personal preference. You can't beat their price!

Where abouts on beach rd is the new showroom? It's a friends business and it would be cool to check it out