Zara Hyde Peters, Chief Executive of the British Triathlon Federation, has summarised the challenges faced with the new kit for Great Britain triathletes. The change of kit supplier to Adidas, as announced in February 2009, has not gone as smoothly as originally planned.
According to Hyde Peters, “Adidas have been working hard with their factory to get production underway. Unfortunately the world of materials supply has not been so cooperative and the material required for the side panels of the new suit was held up until after the original suit supply date in April.”
She added, “Manufacturing with different materials is not an option for a quality tri suit given all the fitting work that had been done so we have hung in with the factory as they attempt to beat all former production records and manufacture is now underway. Adidas have been as supportive as possible working to minimise turnaround times and even agreeing to underwrite costs of name printing at order point for those who request this in their order. I can certainly vouch for the suit having tried it in pool, on bike and running. And the size came up as I would expect which was a bonus!”
Hyde Peters continued by stating that promoting excellence is part of the core purpose at British Triathlon.
“I am now increasingly concerned at taking steps to ensure that whatever the consequences, performances are not affected by these supply problems. Initially all age group qualifiers for Budapest – which is the only competition likely to be affected – are advised that they can compete in both last year’s Orca suit as well as the new Adidas strip.
“In addition we have requested dispensation from the ETU for flexibility on the printing of family name on the suits for this event only as the new rules require. Again this would allow competitors to use 2008 suits that are not ‘named’ without modification and also allow for short lead times/sizing uncertainty to be factored into ordering new suits.
Hyde Peters concluded, “on behalf of British Triathlon, I sincerely apologise for what is a far from ideal competition scenario. Whilst it is you and not the kit that makes the performance, I certainly would not wish to add any stress to a key competitive outing. Please accept that we are doing all that can be done to ameliorate the effects; the BTF staff are focused on managing this to ensure that our duathletes arrive at the start line ready to compete in Budapest.”
