Until recently, custom bike decals and team kits required ordering in volume or a major financial commitment. Sourcing custom graphics for your bike used to be limited to those willing to spend a premium, as well graphic designer, and a considerable amount of leg work to find and source a printer. In the last year, a number of outfits have sprung up making it easier than ever to personalize your bike and your gear to look totally pro.
Stikrd
The crew at Stikrd.com has simplified the process of personalizing your bike with the launch of their new customizer. You can match the decals on your fork, shock and wheels to your frame to completely dial in the look of your ride.
Customizing your riding kit to your ride has proved to be a bit more difficult. Until recently you had to shop around to match your kit and gear to your ride.
A number of new options have sprung up over the last few months that look to have simplified the process. Could we soon be seeing custom as the new normal?
Canvas MX
Canvas MX is a gear company that allows you to choose your own logos and brand yourself. Unlike many custom kit manufacturers, their pricing for one-offs isn’t prohibitive; plus they also don’t require their logo to be the prominent branding on the product.
You can choose from predesigned jerseys that you can have your logo added to, or design your own using their online tools. Prices start at $95 for the moto jersey above or $85 for a short sleeve MTB jersey, which includes free printing of your logo.
Check it out at www.canvasmx.com/mountain-bike
Click Kit
Click Kit’s Design Studio is a bit more involved than the other options, requiring a log in simply to view customization options.
The interface is nice but I was having trouble getting a design I would want. I imagine reaching out via email with a sketch would be the best step forward. At that point though you’re doing a full custom as opposed to point and click designing. Still, it’s pretty great to be able to get a riding outfit color matched via Pantone colors to your bike’s decals.
The pricing is reasonable too. The jersey subtotal came to $89 USD. (it didn’t save my short and I gave up before attempting to find a price)
Check it out at www.click-kit.com.
Northwest Tech
Northwest Tech is a company based out of Seattle that currently offers customized snowboard and ski jackets and pants. They recently dropped a press release announcing the expansion into custom cycling gear.
Although the template isn’t public yet, we received an advanced look at the technical drawings showcasing some possible color combinations.
You can get a good idea of the customizing experience on their YouTube video or current skiwear.
There isn’t much info on pricing or what the fits are like quite yet, but you can sign up for a pre-launch discount at www.nwt3k.com/bike-launch and you’ll be notified when it’s live.
Aside from Stikrd — (see our Evil Following Project bike to see our custom decals) who do an amazing job with custom decals — we have yet to see the final products, but we’ll keep an eye out and update this post when we see work from the other custom studios.
Also worth mentioning: Tasco MTB recently released the “Double Digits” Collection, which offers matching glove/sock combinations. I’m particularly fond of the “Blue Bike Bits“, simply because it matches the Team Bermstyle color palette.