Ed's End of Year Message

It's been a long time since I sat down and wrote a Milltag update.

It was the beginning of 2020 and I wrote this piece about Sustainability and our tenth year. There was excitement and optimism about the months ahead and the plans we had. A time before Covid-19.

We've all learned a lot about ourselves in the last two years and Milltag is no different. We managed to keep the wheels turning and production times under 10 weeks even during the most challenging periods. It's what we are here for - keeping you all looking and feeling happiest on your bikes in your own unique kit. 

However, there are changes afoot...

1. We are moving

Milltag was set up in 2010 from a small studio in London as a side hustle. Just two artistic cyclists (myself and Pete) who wanted some interesting kit for ourselves and likeminded folk. We grew, as did cycling in London (and the rest of the UK and globally for that matter), but even before lockdowns it felt like having a London studio was a bit of a luxury and a commodity that brings with it a cost to the environment in terms of heating and lighting and so on.

We already know that the cycle clothing we and our competitors make is not easily made to be environmentally friendly [see that Sustainability piece again] , but we think that getting people out on bikes and our commitment to being as sustainable as possible (even more of that later), means taking some tough decisions.

A year ago, my wife and I took the decision to move our family back to Yorkshire after 20 years in London and Milltag has continued unaffected from a customer perspective, with myself, as with so many of us, working remotely from home the majority of the time.

Whilst London will continue to be an important hub for Milltag, as of January, the fulfilment of custom orders for our clubs and corporate clients will be moving to Leeds with retail to follow soon after.

We see a number of benefits to this as a business, not least a reduction on our carbon footprint from having permanent premises as well as cost savings so that we can continue to provide service at the highest levels we can.

I understand any Londoners' disappointment that we won't be perhaps as physically accessible, but we can still send samples out for you to try and I will be in London when required and will make sure to meet up with anyone that what's to talk shop.

We are all very excited to bring you the same Milltag service from Leeds and as always if you have any questions please reach out to me at Ed@milltag.cc

2. Sustainability

We are as committed as ever to be more sustainable and so want to put it in writing that we want to move all our products to 100% recycled fabrics over the course of the next two years.

Several of our biggest clubs have, I'm delighted to say, moved their Club and Pro jerseys to recycled versions in the last few months and we want the rest to follow suit.

It would be easy to add a new product version to our catalogue of "Eco Jersey" but we simply don't want sustainability to be an optional extra. Instead we are moving our standard fabrics to recycled versions for all new customers and work with current customers to do the same for re-orders.

You can read more about our sustainability here (last time I'll mention it in this post!) and I will be writing a quarterly review on our blog with current updates.

We really want to take the lead on this but if you think we can do more, then please do reach out and talk to me as we know we can always strive to do more.

This is only the first step to what we hope can become a circular production system in the not to distant future.

3. Prices

Unlike much of the industry, we believe that transparency in what we do is essential to give our customers the best service and helps avoid you having to send out emails just to get access to a priceless.

Over the last few years, we have updated prices every two years in-line with inflation and to reflect changes in cost of materials, new technology, labour and logistics, and our new custom price-list that comes into effect from 1st January 2022.

As with the rest of the global economy, clothing production has been hit with supply chain problems from Covid, whether it's raw materials for polyester production that makes up the vast majority of our fabrics or other elements we use. On top of this, increased fuel costs and the impact of Brexit on shipping into the UK means the prices are up a bit more than in previous adjustments, in the region of 7-10%.

When you consider that these increases include moves across our product range to use recycled fabrics where possible (that are more expensive than current fabrics) I think you'll agree that our prices remain highly competition within the industry.

To avoid a future jumps of this level, we are monitoring prices closer than we have before and check and revise our catalogue quarterly from now on.

Note that for larger orders, we'll always discuss where there might be discounts to be had so it's always worth a call or email.

4. Thanks Pete

I'm sure you will have seen Pete's blog post earlier this month with regard to him leaving Milltag after 12 years of blood, sweat and beers. The many ups and downs of the brand (mainly ups!) would allow for a multiple of cycling puns, but I'm not going there.

I would just like to wish him all the best in the future and with more free time,  I think we can safely assume that we'll be seeing him undertake more ridiculously long cycling escapades, hopefully reported on here and wearing Milltag of course. Bon courage!

5. Thank you

Finally, and I sincerely mean this, I really am grateful for the continuing trust and business from you, our customers. You are the reason we push ourselves and I truly believe that together we can make the world a better place. Thank you for your continued support and if you have the chance, tell a fellow cyclist about us and help spread the Milltag gospel.

Wishing you a healthy and fulfilling 2022,

Ed