With the start of a brand new racing season, January usually turns into a little bit of a swirling, soupy mess of sponsor swaps as groups unveil new gear for the upcoming 12 months. So far we haven’t seen an awesome many substantive modifications apart from recent paint and new colors for jerseys, although Astana will likely be racing on Chinese bikes and Groupama-FDJ has dropped Shimano wheels in favour of Miche, and Maap has entered the WorldTour as the brand new sponsor of Jayco-AlUla and Liv-AlUla-Jayco.
While the biking world turns its focus in direction of the Tour Down Under, and the gray shorts and purple Maap jerseys probably draw the attention greater than anything, what is probably most compelling has been happening within the Netherlands, and enjoying out as the brand new 12 months begins on some extraordinarily muddy cyclocross programs.
Visma-Lease a Bike’s equipment doesn’t look all that completely different from that of 2024, however beneath the identical yellow and black, honeycomb motif – or white with rainbow stripes within the case of Fem van Empel – a small change of logos hints that the staff, as a substitute of swapping to a brand new clothes sponsor for 2025, could maybe be taking the bull by the horns and producing their very own clothes beneath a ‘Yellow B’ label.
It’s laborious to make out, given the mud, however the ‘YB’ emblem on Van Aert’s chest and thigh point out that Visma has probably made the leap into making their very own equipment for 2025. (Image credit score: Getty Images)
For the previous few years Visma has been sponsored by Dutch equipment model Agu, however the partnership ended on the fruits of the 2024 season, reportedly as a result of Agu going through monetary difficulties. Sponsoring a prime flight biking staff entails creating and offering an enormous variety of particular person clothes, so if the model is in difficulties as we perceive then it isn’t a shock to see it drop out of the WorldTour.
What is probably extra stunning is that no firm has stepped in to fill the void. Images of Wout van Aert and Fem van Empel at cyclocross races early within the season present them each racing in equipment devoid of the Agu emblem, but in addition devoid of every other clothes sponsor logos. Instead, the place the Agu emblem was, a ‘YB’ emblem has been added.
This ‘Yellow Bee’ motif is what the staff is aiming to be often called, in line with a report by Wielerflits, in a extra formal sense of Soudal Quick-Step calling itself ‘The Wolfpack’, making a staff identification that transcends the comings and goings of sponsorship agreements. It does counsel that the staff, as a substitute of discovering a brand new sponsor, has merely taken the choice to provide its personal equipment.
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It would not be the primary staff to go down this route. Team DSM, these days often called Team Picnic PostNL, switched from Craft clothes to its personal provide, branded Keep Challenging after the staff’s slogan, however produced by Bioracer, and later Nalini.
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It’s unconfirmed at this stage whether or not Visma’s ‘Yellow B’ model is being produced in partnership with a longtime model in the same sense, or just whether or not a faceless manufacturing facility setup will present the provision.
Kit sponsorship in skilled biking is a fairly tough deal on the face of issues. Cycling doesn’t have the identical fan tradition as sports activities like soccer, partially as biking jerseys make little sense to put on off the bike, and partially as there’s a tradition of not sporting staff equipment until you’ve earned your home on the staff. As a thought experiment, attempt to identify the equipment sponsors of the most important groups on the WorldTour stage, and Maap doesn’t depend as I’ve given you that one initially. Hard, isn’t it? The equipment sponsors have to supply an enormous quantity of product in alternate for comparatively little publicity compared to the prominence of title sponsors like Soudal, Ineos, and UAE.
If Visma are actually making their very own equipment, they should foot the invoice, but in addition will likely be able to monetise instantly any equipment gross sales. Alternatively, if the staff is seeking to construct a staff identification past the title sponsors, it may look to what’s taking place at FDJ-Suez, the place the staff has not too long ago introduced a partnership with Nike for staff way of life attire, with the precise staff equipment offered by Gobik (however you already knew that, didn’t you?).
Cyclingnews has approached each Visma-Lease a Bike and Agu for remark.
