[music] Oliver Bridgewood: I'm in
northeast Italy nestled between the Monte Grappa and the [unintelligible 00:00:22] climbs. I'm here
to visit one of the most innovative and famous cycling companies in the world, Castelli. We're
going to find out how their top of the range Aero Race Jersey is made, and also how it's evolved
over the years into what it is now. [music]
When I found out that Castelli was going to be our clothing partner here at GCN I was ridiculously
excited because I've long been a fan of the brand. They've got a real reputation for innovation. I
remember when I was a student long before working at GCN I working in a bike shop. I remember saving
a whole lot of pennies to buy one of the early versions of the Aero Race Jersey. I can't wait
to find out more about it. [music]
This is the Aero 6.0 Race Jersey our custom jersey at GCN. Something like this can look
deceptively simple when you look at it at first sight. It's actually an incredibly complex
garment. It features over 30 components and just has a huge amount of R&D that's gone into it.
Before we go into the tech behind this and how it's made I think it's important to understand
what led to it. This place is an absolute treasure trove of cycling clothing memorabilia. It's the
perfect place to look at the forebears of this. [music]
It's easy to forget but prior to the invention of the Aero Jersey riders used to wear really flappy
jerseys with teeny tiny little sleeves on them, as recent ago as the early 2000s but in 2007,
Castelli decided to change the game and did so by introducing this, the Split Second
Jersey. This is a prototype of that very jersey and incredibly-- this is really cool, it's still
got pins in the side of it from where they've been adjusting it and stuff. This was a cutting edge
piece of clothing when it first appeared, but it's incredibly basic when you look at the more modern
ones, it doesn't even have a full-length zip that was because-- well, this is something we shouldn't
take for granted but being able to develop an Aero Jersey that fits flush and doesn't punch against
the chest with a full-length zip required special fabric development and that hadn't been achieved
at this point so a shorter zip was employed. Also, you see this Aero fabric that's been put
on the sides of the jersey as well to help with the transition of the airflow. Then the sleeves
are still very short compared to modern jersey standards, and they've got grippers stuck on the
inside of them as well. [music]
The Aero Race Jersey followed the Split Second Jersey. Then that's continued to
evolve and develop. This is a notable one, it is the Aero Race 2.0 Jersey,
and it's what the Cervélo TestTeam wore. Dan Lloyd would have had one of these, and
it had matching white bib shorts, as well but no one needs to see-- Trust me,
you don't need to see those, you can't. Once you've seen-- you can't unsee them.
This bit of kit was an absolute game-changer. It's the same model of Jersey, that I remember saving
up all my pennies and pocket money for so that I could buy one as well. Although mine didn't have
Cervélo TestTeam graphics on it, it was just a standard colored one. There's a fantastic photo of
the Cervélo TestTeam riding in their Aero Jerseys, and then you look at photos of the rest of the
peloton and they're all flapping around in their baggy flappy jerseys with short sleeves, just
looking not Aero at all. They're probably giving away 30 or 40 watts straight away, which is mad.
The world really-- well, the rest of the peloton, really started to take note of Aero
clothing because of this, but it wasn't just that they looked Aero, you had a second division team
that then went on to become the dominant, the number one team, and a large part of that was
their approach to Aero bikes and Aero clothing. This isn't the finished article, you can see it
still only has a three quarter length zipper on it, and we still don't have a full-length zipper,
which a lot of people prefer. [music]
Over the next decade, the evolution of the jersey continues bringing in famous wins for
teams like Garmin, Sharp, at Paris-Roubaix while continuing to move closer to the jerseys we see
in the pro peloton today. How does the development of a garment like this happen?
Let's go find out. [music]
This is one of the R&D rooms at Castelli where they've tweaked the design. An interesting detail
is actually the pockets. These have changed from previous iterations of the jersey. Thanks to
feedback from Chris Froome and Dylan van Baarle. They've asked for the pockets to be deeper,
also the middle pocket to be bigger, and the side pockets to be easier access. You've got
this tapered, it actually angles down on the side pockets. The idea being it's easier to
get your food out of the side pockets. That central pocket is useful for a mini-pump or
a waterproof jacket, that kind of thing. The jersey is also significantly more
aerodynamic than previous ones. That's thanks to a significant amount of R&D but also extensive CFD
studies, wind tunnel analysis, and a better understanding of how laminar airflow behaves
on a jersey. The wind tunnel studies aren't performed here. They're actually performed
in Trondheim, in Norway, and also in Milan. The fit model that they use in the CFD studies,
this is a cool fact, it's actually based on Michał Kwiatkowski. Different fabrics exhibit different
amounts of drag and different aerodynamic characteristics, but it's not a case of just
sticking aero fabrics anywhere. The positioning of these fabrics and the positioning of the seams on
the jersey is also key. That's really where the CFD analysis really comes into its own. That's
why the new jersey is said to be considerably more aerodynamic than the original one [unintelligible
00:06:36]. It's not my favorite thing. [music]
Once the design has been formulated, the sizing of all the different panels is calculated using
a combination of digital mannequins but also real-life human beings as well to verify the
digital mannequin which is generated using a huge amount of ergonomic data. Then when that's
all been sorted out, templates are created for the jersey design using Illustrator. All the different
panels are specific to the size of jersey that they're trying to make. These templates have to
accommodate all of that. You can see one being drawn up behind me with our GCN graphics on.
This is then sent to the printing room so that it can be put onto that special sublimation paper.
[music] You can
see the printer now actually printing out some GCN jerseys. These are the templates for them.
If you're wondering why it's all backwards, that's because when it sublimates onto the fabric later
on it's then the right way round. It's amazing how quick it is. This shouldn't be taken for granted
either because the way in which this ink then responds to the fabric actually changes the color,
the way it actually comes out. There's a great deal of skill and a little bit of trial and error
in working out how this is actually going to turn out and physically look once it's been sublimated
onto the fabric because different fabrics actually take the ink in different ways.
Onto this sheet, we're actually printing three different separate jerseys. You
can see all the different panels that go into the jersey are being printed
on this sheet. [music]
Making a jersey aerodynamic isn't simply a case of just making it as tight
as possible but having a close well-fitting jersey is a crucial element of that.
It's something that is not as easy to achieve as you might think because the fabric
needs to be aerodynamic but it also needs to be good at wicking sweat away from the body.
It also needs to have a good amount of breathability and stretch to it as well. The
individual pieces of fabric are generally cut out in two ways. If the jersey, or shorts or whatever
it is, are being produced in small quantities such as prototypes or leaders jerseys for
races like the Giro d'Italia-- I can actually see there's a sneaky Ciclamino jersey under this sheet
that's being printed, probably quite secret or the Maglia Rosa, then they're often cut out by hand,
but for large-scale production individual pieces for the garments are actually cut out by lasers,
which is cool. Everyone likes lasers, don't they? That's why Star Wars is so popular.
The lady behind me is cutting out the fabrics required for the current Aero 6.0 Jersey, and
there are two fabrics employed. There is a more aerodynamic but slightly less breathable fabric
that she used on the front and on the sleeves. Then on the back, you've got this mesh panel
which is slightly stiffer than the other fabric. It doesn't have quite as much stretch. This is
important because it helps add structure to the pockets and means that they're less likely to sag
when you load them up and being a mesh aids with breathability on your back where you have a lot
more sweat glands typically. [music]
This is the sublimation room and that is the sublimation
machine. What happens here is the printed out graphics for our jersey on the sublimation paper
is fed into this machine but before that happens the cut-out pieces of fabric are placed onto the
appropriate corresponding area of the graphics. Then, when it's fed into the machine high
temperature and pressure causes the ink on the paper to sublimate turning from a solid phase
to a gas phase, and this vapor paint then takes to the fabric, giving us our panels
that have now been turned from white fabric into the beautiful red of the GCN jersey.
[music] As mentioned, a garment like this contains over
30 different components and that's not just 30 bits of fabric, it's other things as well such as
labels, zippers and grippers, and all those other bits. This massive warehouse contains
thousands and thousands of those things, used not just in jerseys but in other garments like
shorts and tights and jackets as well. I've never seen so many. Look at this, these are the little
stickers that go on the inside to tell you what size it is. There's loads of stuff in here. I
want to have a look at the zips because I'm a massive nerd and if you're a nerd like me then
you'll realize that not all zips are created equal. The Team INEOS labels [chuckles].
I might just take those and stitch them into my normal clothing. [laughs]
We've got loads and loads of zips and it's one of the areas that the tech has really improved
on actually and one that's probably overlooked because it's, well, not all that exciting
ordinarily. You'll remember that on that first jersey the zip was just three-quarter length,
and also the construction of the zip was a lot more primitive than this high-tech Vislon one,
we have on the latest Aero 6.0 Jersey. You can also see that the zip is now hidden
behind the fabric which just creates a really neat look and, well, makes that
logo on the front of the jersey a lot smarter. The advantage of the Vislon zips is that they
just run really smooth. You know when you're riding along and you want to pull your jersey
open because you're really hot, that very rarely happens in England but it does happen in nice
places. It's really loose and just it comes open really nicely with a smooth action and
it's really easy to do up as well. Modern Vislon zips like this are made from a polyacetal resin,
which is lighter than older metal zips which is always going to be important.
It's only a few grams, but cyclists we love anything that saves weight.
It also means it can be made into a variety of colors which is great for
color matching it and that's why you can see here we've got every shade of zip imaginable.
This room here is where the magic happens. The size-specific panels are organized and combined
with the other components and put into kits, a bit like a fabric Lego set for say your jersey
or your shorts, and then they're stitched together by hand because constructing technical garments
like this still requires a great deal of highly skilled labor and that's what the seamstresses
in this room are doing. [music]
Once the seamstresses have finished constructing the jersey they're packaged up and distributed
to the entire world including the GCN shop. Something that I think is really cool is that
our jersey is the exact same spec, as the INEOS Grenadiers one. Let's have a poll in
the app. Which one would you guys rather wear? I want to know, the GCN one or the INEOS one?
You can click on the screen and vote now. I'm quite interested to hear your thoughts.
I hope you've enjoyed this look at both the production and the development
of this brilliant jersey. If you have, please give the video
a thumbs up. Let us know what you think the jersey-- what modifications will be made to it
in the future or what you'd like to see made to it in the future. I'll see you in the next
one. I'm going to go for a pizza now. When in Rome and all that. Bye. I know I'm not in Rome,
I know this isn't Rome. [00:15:11] [END OF AUDIO]