The Black Bibs Preview
The Black Bibs Preview
Simon Tuck
Introducing ‘The Black Bibs’. No frills, no logos. They’re just reasonably priced black bibshorts.
I have a lot of jerseys from different clubs and groups of friends, but I don’t always get the matching bibs. I was looking for a pair of plain black bibshorts so I don’t have to mix and match. What I found was The Black Bibs.
The Black Bibs was started as a side project by the guys over at U.S brand- Starlight Custom Apparel. Cycling’s popularity and the advent of the ‘Instagram-cyclist’ have led to a trend in expensive cycling kit. The Black Bibs wanted to do something for the little guy and make good quality kit accessible without the ‘insta’ price tag.
To make this possible they decided to concentrate on a core range of necessities in basic colours. They designed a pair of shorts, bibshorts, and a jersey that can be made and sold relatively cheaply. Cheaply, meaning $40 for the bibshorts and $30 for the jersey. Even if you factor in their $12 worldwide postage, that’s around £60 delivered for the set!!
Where have The Black Bibs made the savings? There’s no patterns or logos. Sublimated printing on lycra costs money, so they used simple black-dyed lycra. Instead of laser cut power bands, or silicone strips at the cuffs, they used a simpler technique of finishing them. The pad isn’t a Cytech pad like on the Starlight Custom Kit. But although pads are important, do you know what brand pad is in your shorts?
There seems to be a lot of panels at the back of the bibs, but that’s an area where it shouldn’t matter. Around the chamois there’s a similar panel layout to some of the more expensive bibs I own, with the area directly around the pad completely devoid of seams. It remains to be seen whether The Black Bibs have saved money through careful design, or whether they’ve cut corners to get there but first impressions are good. Hopefully the weather will warm up and you can check back here for a full review soon.
Link to full review of The Black Bibs Bibshorts.
Starlight Custom Apparel Website
[rps-include blog=127.0.0.1 post=30824]
You must be logged in to post a comment.