![]() Like the equally radical La Vie Claire jersey, the design was possible only because of new printing techniques: Legeay recalled that it shocked some, but the consensus was that it was a “young” design. ![]() The only addition was an explanatory vêtements enfants in a typescript deliberately resembling a child’s handwriting, which appeared on the jersey from 1988. The two Rogers were on the sub-group that designed the jersey: “the logo was already there, and the deep blue was the company’s color,” Legeay told me. Vêtements Z-Peugeot Cycling Team postcard from 1988 At the point where Zannier and Legeay joined forces, the company was just expanding into the high street. The brand had been launched 30 years later: clothing from A to Z was the marketing blurb. He and his sister Josette had founded their clothing makers in 1962, armed with only a pair of sewing machines. It was a quick decision because Zannier was the company’s only decision-maker. The deal was sealed in the four-week window which was all the time that another Roger, Peugeot manager (and former rider) Legeay had to play with between Peugeot telling him they were pulling out, and the team being disbanded. Z made a timely entry after their founder Roger Zannier spotted during the 1986 Tour that Peugeot needed a new sponsor. Or rather, who would watch the Tour de France. This was headed at a different market: women who would watch cycling on daytime television. Traditionally these had been basic consumer products for men: sausages, cigarettes, booze, radios, cars. The Z children’s clothing company was one of a new wave of cycling extra-sportif sponsors. Peugeot had been cycling’s last factory team, solely sponsored by a bike maker. It was a radical look for a radical moment. Vêtements Z-Peugeot Cycling Team postcard from 1987 The Z team kit launched on the public in 1987 was all that and more: a deep blue with that comic-book biff-kapow-burst Z in a rip-look “window”.įor the time it was utterly radical, the more so because it replaced France’s most traditional jersey design: Peugeot’s black and white checkerboard with its heritage going back to the dawns of cycling in the 19th century. The great cycling kit designs always divide opinion, but they have another thing in common: they are always utterly memorable. Greg Lemond, Robert Millar and Gilbert Duclos-Lassalle all rode in the famous comic-book-inspired team jersey. Join cycling author & journalist William Fotheringham who looks back at the Z Vêtements Peugeot cycling team.
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