We develop aero cycling jerseys for race teams and performance cycling brands: a short sleeve race jersey with the seams, panels, sleeve fabric and edges worked for a rider held in race position.
For technical leads of race teams preparing a jersey for time trials and criteriums, and for product leads at performance cycling brands launching an aero fit cycling jersey line.
This is aerodynamic clothing development from the pattern up, drawn on your panel map, with a spec pack for your own line or for bulk at cyclingapparelfactory.com.
Within 48 hours of a complete brief, the development manager sends a feasibility review: whether the jersey can be built to your spec, which aero tier, block and base fabrics we would start from, and how the first sample is scheduled.
Our aero development covers one garment, the short sleeve race jersey, for riders who hold one position for most of a race and for brands adding an aero jersey to a race range.
We take on three kinds of aero jersey project:
You name the race format and the position the rider holds, and every sample is checked in that position.
We develop to your size chart and colour standard and hand over a spec pack your own line can cut and sew from, or that cyclingapparelfactory.com can run for bulk.
If we developed the race fit jersey, the aero version starts from the same block and size chart. If it came from elsewhere, send the reference garment and we redraw it on our riding block first.
You choose how deep the aero work goes, across three tiers: pattern, fabric and test.
An aero fit cycling jersey from us keeps the race fit riding block and your size chart.
The aero work changes where the seams sit, how the panels run, what surface the sleeves and shoulders carry, and the collar and sleeve: the sleeve runs longer than our race fit short sleeve and ends above the elbow, the collar is set low, and both edges are finished flat.
The race fit block is the riding-position pattern with its shorter front, longer back, rotated sleeve head and dropped front collar. How that block fits and how it is checked on the bike is on our race fit cycling jersey page. The aero jersey inherits that check and adds its own items.
You receive the race fit block and the aero panel map side by side. Lay one over the other and every aero change reads straight from the paper: which seam moved, which panels were merged, which panels carry textured knit and where the sleeve now ends.
This is the core of our aero cycling jersey work, and it is drawn before any fabric is cut.
On the race fit block, the pattern maker marks the three leading surfaces of a rider in race position: the front of the shoulder, the front of the upper arm and the chest. Every joining seam that crosses one of them is listed for relocation.
Panel lines run front to back along the torso and down the sleeves. Where a seam has to stay on a leading surface, for example to keep the shoulder free to move, the panel map shows it and the feasibility notes say why.
The pattern maker proposes seam positions and panel directions from your brief, drawn on the panel map. You confirm the panel map before the first sample is cut. A change after confirmation opens a new sampling round and goes into the revision log.
Put the approved sample on a rider in race position and run a hand across the shoulder front, the upper arm front and the chest. The seam lines you find sit where the panel map draws them, and nowhere else. Because the panel map is yours, the same check works on every bulk piece from any line.
Every aero project has the same boundary, written into the feasibility review in three columns.
We report what we can sign: seam positions on paper, fabric by panel, colour cards and a sample checked in your race position.
Each aero cycling jersey sample is checked on the bike in the race position named in your brief, time trial or criterium, before it leaves the development studio. The position is written at the top of the fit sign-off.
The sample technician first measures the sample point by point against your size chart and signs the measurement report. The pattern maker then puts the sample on a rider on the bike, runs the race fit on-bike check, and checks the aero items in the same session in your named position.
The aero items, each on its own line in the fit sign-off column:
no wrinkles, no fabric catching air.
no wrinkles, no fabric catching air.
no wrinkles, no fabric catching air.
stays in place and does not ride up the arm.
lies close against the neck.
Every item is marked pass or return. A returned item names the panel it goes back to: the sleeve panel for a sleeve end that rides up, the front panel for a wrinkle across the chest. The pattern maker signs the column.
A sample with a returned item is not sent. It goes back to the pattern maker, the named panel is redrawn, and a new sample is cut and checked again in the same position. The redrawn panel and the reason go into the revision log.
The sample arrives with its measurement report, every race fit and aero item marked pass. Put the sample on in the position named on the report and look at the same five points against their marks.
Each tier adds named panels to the work and named files to your spec pack.
You can start on the pattern tier and move to the fabric tier in a later revision round. The panel map carries over and the change is logged.
On the fabric tier, the sleeves and shoulders are cut in textured-surface knit, the fifth base fabric in our range next to lightweight summer mesh, mid-weight stretch main body, brushed-back thermal main body and windproof laminate.
Textured-surface knit is binary nylon-spandex in one of our three blends, 88/12, 90/10 or 91/9: a knit variant with a textured face, in the same fibre blend as the rest of the jersey.
The panels cut in textured knit are listed one by one in the fabric-by-panel sheet, usually the sleeve and shoulder panels. You confirm the sheet before the first sample is cut, and your production line cuts from the same sheet.
Every base fabric in the jersey gets its own print strike-off, and the textured knit is handled as a base fabric in its own right:
A signed colour card for the textured knit and one for the main body fabric, plus a card for any other base fabric on the jersey, each with its colour parameters in the spec pack.
Under a D65 light, hold the sleeve of the approved sample next to its front panel, then compare each with its own signed card. Your line, or cyclingapparelfactory.com, prints the textured knit to the parameters on its card.
Send the race format, the position held in the race, your size chart and any test results you already have. The feasibility review tells you which aero tier fits the brief and how the first sample is scheduled.
Send your aero jersey brief
Copy this list into your enquiry and fill in what you have:
Three briefs come back for discussion before the review starts: one with no size range; one with no race format or temperature band; and one asking for something outside development, such as a bib, bulk scheduling or team ordering.
The development manager writes back naming what is missing and where the out-of-scope part goes.
If the aero line is confidential, ask for a non-disclosure agreement before you send the brief. Your patterns, panel map, spec pack and colour parameters are used only on your project, never reused for another client and never shown on this site.
The aero jersey runs on our six-step development process, set out on the home page. The aero work adds these steps to it:
your race format and position are written into the review, with the recommended tier and the panels it will change.
the pattern maker draws the relocated seams and panel directions on the race fit block and sends the map for your confirmation.
on the fabric tier, the textured-knit strike-off is printed with the others and its colour card sent for your signature.
the aero items are checked in your named position after the race fit on-bike check.
each round is driven by returned items, your feedback and, on the test tier, your test conclusions. The first 2 revision rounds carry no extra sampling fee.
The panel map confirmation is the step to settle early. Seam positions shape every later step, so the first sample is cut only once you have signed the map. Sending your zip and sleeve end choices with the brief keeps this step short.
At sign-off, the development manager issues the eight-part spec pack. The aero work sits in named places inside it, so a production line can reproduce the jersey from paper:
relocated seams, panel directions and the merged front panel.
the race fit block with the aero changes, graded to your chart, men's and women's separately.
every panel and its base fabric, textured-knit panels included.
one per base fabric, textured knit included.
logos, print, gripper and reflective positions clear of the seam lines.
the chart you confirmed.
every seam by type, plus the collar finish and the sleeve end finish.
the approved sample and its measurement report, aero items in the fit sign-off column.
The revision log comes with it. On the test tier it carries your test conclusions and the panel change made for each.
Set a first bulk piece next to the approved sample and check seams against the panel map, sleeves and shoulders against the fabric-by-panel sheet, colour against each signed card, and collar and sleeve end against the seam description. Any difference points to one named file.
The files and revision log belong to you. We keep a copy on file for your project, so next season's aero jersey starts from the same spec pack and colour parameters.
Teams and brands looking for an aero cycling jersey usually weigh three routes: a stock aero jersey from a supplier's range with your logo printed on; a generalist garment OEM sewing to a pattern you provide; or aero development with us. This is what you hold at the end of each.
| What you hold | Stock aero jersey with your logo | Generalist OEM | Aero development with us |
|---|---|---|---|
| Seam positions | Set by the supplier's own pattern; no panel map handed over | Wherever your own pattern puts them; you draw the placement | Moved off the shoulder front, upper arm front and chest, drawn on a panel map you own |
| Aero check | No per-project check | Flat measurements against the size chart | Five aero items checked in your named race position, marked pass or return, signed |
| Sleeve and shoulder colour | Printed to the supplier's own settings | Usually one colour card, for the main fabric | Signed cards and parameters for the textured knit and the main body, on one standard |
| Test results | The supplier's own claims about its jersey | Revisions without a panel-by-panel record | Each of your conclusions logged against the panel changed, no figures of ours added |
| Files at the end | None | What you supplied | The eight-part spec pack and revision log, yours to run on any line |
You need a jersey for time trials and criteriums, and the fit and aero decisions are yours. Every sample is checked in your named position and feedback is recorded panel by panel. The finished jersey is raced by your team.
You are adding an aero jersey to a race range, made on your own line or at cyclingapparelfactory.com. Every aero change sits in a named file, and the jersey reaches your customers in the sizes they already buy from you.
Technical directors at national and regional cycling federations can develop one aero jersey for several teams from a single spec pack, through the same steps. We work with buyers in the United States, Europe and Australia.
The aero tiers apply to the short sleeve race jersey. The other garments are developed elsewhere in our pattern work:
on our race fit and outer layer patterns, on the same colour standard as the aero jersey.
on our time trial and triathlon apparel development page, with the pad built to your pad supplier's specification.
the race fit cycling jersey page.
our about page.
Send your race format, size chart and the aero tier you are considering. The development manager replies confirming what the feasibility review will cover and which inputs are still missing.