Hincapie’s 2014 clothing lineup evolves with new safety and convenience features, plus trickle down tech from their former race team kits. They’ve also debuted this season’s Ghisallo kit, which carries an Italian theme for 2014, with a more rain-resistant top that switches to short sleeves paired with a vest and arm warmers.
From left to right above, you’ve got the Men’s Edge kit, which is the same as the Velocity Plus custom kits they offer, the Women’s Chantilly print, also same as the Velocity custom kits, and the top tier Men’s Signature Kit. Click through for deets…
The first two are simply stock prints for those that want Hincapie’s clothing but don’t need a full custom order.
Both men’s and women’s shorts get a ProGrip soft silicone patterned print on the leg openings. It’s surprisingly soft.
The women’s jerseys get a stacked three pocket design. This maintains a useable width even on the smallest sizes while still providing three pockets worth of storage. Nifty.
The Men’s Edge is same as Velocity Plus custom kits, which is the same as what the BMC team rode in back when they sponsored the team. It adds a reflective dot pattern on the back of the leg holes. The bibs are white ColdBlack material that can be sublimated. We’ve tested some of Hincapie’s ColdBlack pieces before and they work quite well.
It gains a fully waterproof zippered pocket on the rear:
The new Signature kit was tested in the wind tunnel to save about 10 seconds per mile (at what speed wasn’t immediately available, we’ll update when we hear back – suffice to say it’s aero). This isn’t the first time Hincapie’s taken his clothing to the wind tunnel. We’ve watched him test various skin suits for TT use back in the day.
It has Cold Black all over the shorts, and black panels on the jersey. It also uses reflective stitching, which we did a piss poor job of capturing on camera but looks pretty cool IRL.
Each fall, the Ghisallo kits change up a bit. We’ve been rocking the Lion of Flanders kit from a couple years ago with the waffle knit style top. This year, they keep the 3/4 knickers but go to an Italian graphics theme. Functionally, the big change is a new outer material that resists rain on the jersey with a warm, fuzzy fleeced inside. Not shown, matching arm warmers and vest make the kit easier to use on days with big temperature swings. The jersey’s not too thick, so it’s a good cool weather piece that could double as a base jersey as temps drop in the real winter.
The long sleeve waffle knit top is also available in the new colors, as are knee warmers and shoe covers. Check it all out at Hincapie.com.
