There’s no accounting for tastes. One man’s dream of turquoise riding shorts paired with a lime-green jersey is another man’s nightmare. That is what’s cool about NWT3K; the Seattle-based brand lets you make all the decisions. Want to go crazy on the colors or lengthen those shorts or add long sleeves or an extra zippered pocket? They’ll do it. You pick the options on their site, they build your custom kit (right there in Seattle), and two weeks later you have a pair of shorts and/or jersey that you personally designed at, amazingly, a price that’s not far off of buying the same basic product off the shelf.
NWT3K Custom Kit Details• You choose the colors: sleeves, zippers, jersey, short yokes, short panel, etc.
• You choose short, 3/4 or long sleeve length
• You choose short, regular or long inseam
• Waterproof, zippered pockets
• Double needle stitched seams
• 4-way stretch material
• Made in USA
• 100% satisfaction guarantee
• MSRP: $69 USD (jersey) / $139 USD (shorts)
•
www.nwt3k.com On the ScreenCustom clothing is not something I've ever considered. I don't own a custom anything. No custom fishing rods or guns or underwear or cigars or...you get the idea. Custom is often just a tidy code word for "I have stupid amounts of money, I'm bored and I want something no one else has." Or that's how I've seen it anyway. That said, I've often looked at mountain biking apparel and thought, "Why the f*ck do they only make the shorts I want in lime-green or mango?" Color me conservative, but I lived through bell bottoms, parachute pants and the `80s neon craze. The great American philosopher, David Roth, summed it up well. "I've been to the edge," said Roth. "And there I stood and looked down. You know I lost a lot of friends there, baby. I got no time to mess around."
In other words, I've already worn some stupid shit in my life, I'm not paying for the privilege to do that all over again when it's time to go ride my bike. To that end, I was intrigued by what NWT3K is offering here. And, hell, maybe you look at black shorts and think they'd be perfect if they were baby blue. It takes all kinds, which is the premise behind this business model.
So, here's how it works, you go to the website, click on the "bike" tab (they also do custom snowsports apparel) and start messing about with tailoring your jersey and/or shorts. The menu walks you through the process. Want to see what the jersey looks like with short sleeves instead of 3/4 sleeves? One yellow sleeve and one red sleeve? Each time you click, the piece of kit changes and shows you what your inner Armani is creating. It's actually kind of cool. You've got the color options, you can add a stash pocket or extra zipper, add some length to the shorts so that you don't have an unsightly gap between kneepad and short hem, etc.
Once you've finished letting your designer demons run wild, you click the "Buy" tab and wait about two weeks for the stuff to come. The new kit arrives along with paperwork detailing each thing you ordered, as well as a quality-control checklist that highlights all the steps they took to make sure that zippers were lubed, seams were double checked, stitching is dope, etc. Gotta give them credit, these guys are nothing if not thorough.
What you don't change are the basics: the 4-way stretch materials used on their jersey and shorts is standard, as is the overall fit...somewhere between athletic and loose-cut. Neither XC body condom nor ultra-baggy, DH pajama party. Sorta straight down the middle, style and fit wise. If, however, you suddenly take an intense disliking to your creation or its fit, you have seven days to return it. You
can't go and ride in it and then return it, but you do have a chance to say yea or nay with the product in hand.
On Trail So, yeah, when faced with the option to go nuts with the colors, I still opted for just enough color to (hopefully) not get me shot during deer season. My only extravagance, really, was the red zippers. The product showed up looking exactly like what I'd ordered. So far, so good. Let's start with the jersey—it's a fairly stretchy material. The fit, like I mentioned earlier, spans the middle ground of current mountain biking styles—a happy medium, if you will. I opted for an extra stash pocket, but chose to go short sleeves. Adding long sleeves would have pushed the price up $10, but I mainly opted for short sleeve because I was running low on those. The stitching is tidy and there are no irritating seams. On the whole the fit and finish is quite good. The jersey also features a healthy drop tail that prevents flying mud from spackling your ass crack. That's always appreciated.
On the trail, well, I didn't really notice anything on the trail—it just felt good, which is sort of the point. The only thing missing, for my tastes, is a 3/4-length front zipper. I sweat like a pig and in the summer months and I like opening my jersey wide to maximize airflow. Not an option here. It wasn't a huge deal for me this year, as my riding temperatures didn't exceed 85 degrees Fahrenheit (it's the Pacific Northwest, after all), but if I lived somewhere hot, I'd really want a long front zip. Oh, and the logo. Well, no getting around it—that's one bold bit of billboarding there and it's standard issue on the jersey. It could be more subtle. A lot more subtle.
The shorts are built from a 4-way stretch material that I'd classify as somewhere between mid and heavier-weight fabric. It's durable stuff, but not so heavy that you'd avoid wearing it during long, hot summers. The double-stitched seams are nicer than what you'll see on a lot of shorts in the $80 to $110 price range and the patterning is nicely executed, so that the overall fit is quite good. To accommodate winter beer gut, the waistband sports two Velcro tabs—nothing groundbreaking there, but functional all the same. I prefer buckle-type adjusters, since mud and repeated trips through the washing machine eventually reduce the effectiveness of Velcro, but these work and are, again, fairly standard. The pocket zippers—all five of them—are waterproof specimens, which is something I greatly appreciate since I ride in slop conditions much of the year. There's no shortage of storage for multi-tools, a phone or, if you are Mike Levy, a half-eaten donut and a flask of Monster Energy Drink. Sweet. Waterproof zippers can be a bear to open and close—these ones all have nice pull tabs to provide you with plenty of leverage.
I opted for the longest inseam option. I was particularly stoked that I could get the right length, as I still encounter riding shorts that stop way north of my knees and I haven't thought that was a brilliant idea since the mid `90s. The shorts do not come with chamois. Again, not terribly unusual these days. There are plenty of shorts selling for $100 that also don't come with chamois, but it's worth noting all the same since $130 ain't pocket change.
If you are straight across price shopping, you might find the shorts a bit pricey—about $30 more than you might expect. Then again, the stitching, fit and storage are actually better than what you often find at the $100 price point and, of course, there is the whole custom angle. You want yellow, waterproof zippers on top of blue shorts? Go wild. You can dream up all sorts of interesting stuff here. There's value in that. Finally, the shorts are made in the United States—the fact that they are even cost competitive with shorts coming out of Asia is impressive in its own right. Well, it's impressive if you happen to live in North America...You might not give a damn if you live in, say, Sweden.
Pinkbike's Take | "Custom" is often just a euphemism for "expensive as hell", but NWT3K is offering something different here. This is American-made, custom apparel at not-so-custom prices. What's more, the fit, finish and function on both jersey and shorts are all quite good. I'd like to see NWT3K add a long, front zipper option for the jersey. It'd also be great if they took the logo size down a couple notches or three. Those, however, are my only complaints. I'm impressed.— Vernon Felton |
82 Comments
However, with NWT3K being a custom manufacturer, it would be cool, and I assume not too difficult to offer an option for a smaller breast logo or something like that.
It's been cool seeing the evolution of these guys from hand-sewn ski jackets to what they are now. Keep up the good work, Marvik and crew!
Thanks so much for all the feedback here, guys! Really appreciate it. To follow up -
- We’re a super small team so we take feedback seriously and are quick to implement changes. In addition to different jersey designs (maybe a front zipper, @vernonfelton?) you can expect to see less billboard like options for branding in the future.
- Currently if you’re a bike team, club, company, or just want to kit out your crew – we’ll remove the front chest logo, and replace it with a subtle lower hem logo. This gives you the option to print your teams name, other sponsors etc. in place of the front chest logo or keep it blank. Contact us before your order and we’ll make it happen. Team@NWT3K.com
- Nick
I DO, however, like the discrete log on the back of the jersey.
I'd be down with a smaller chest logo that was just NWT or something like that. Until then, I hope you guys are listening, this is your customer base that is not thrilled about the logo...
I understand the decision to put the big logo up front. All the brands are doing it. TLD, FOX, it's the look the industry is pushing.
Read the comments. Big logos are the press fit bottom bracket of clothing. The big mass of purchasing power in the 30-50 years old range sucks at riding a bike and we know we suck. We don't want to look like a pro because we know we're never getting there. We DO want to buy great stuff made locally. As a proud Seattle rider who pushes an Evil every day I'm square in the middle of your target market. Adjustable inseam and DWR? Hell YES.
Kill the huge logo, but don't hide it either. Put some Seattle area pride into the badging, even if it's very subtle. Give your jerseys adjustable fabric weights to accommodate people who wear body armor full time and need ultra thin second layers. And get into the ultra-stuffable DWR jacket that fits in the hip pack game- there's no more essential piece of PNW gear.
Signed, future customer.
Get out of my head!
Like Mtmw@ said, I WILL be a customer if you reduce the logo size (maybe offset left or right on chest). Also for what its worth the current logo is cool but seems a little redundant with "NWT3K" then have the same thing written out below it IMO. Maybe a logo w/ a pine tree with the "NWT3K" below it would be cool, myabe use the "T" as the stump lol, idk just a thought.
Overall Ive been hoping for some cool custom custom kits to come along and Im stoked to see it coming from some local fellas. Looking forward to see how you update.
P.S. Mtmw@ nailed it with the lightweight packable jacket. Design a custom version of that and thats a guaranteed buy on my end.
- Nick
>because if youre muscular a lot of pants are too narrow
Don't I know it ! Me and Richie Rude LOL
Most of the kids here have no clue who you speak of... ha ha all due respect to Eddie and the boys.
That said, I love the Roth Van Halen stuff. Never much of a Van Hagar fan, although I do like Hagar's old stuff. IMHO, 1984 was pretty much the end of that band. About half the tracks were really good, the rest, too much keyboard and straying too far from their roots. The public loved it though. Then Roth was booted. Go figure.
I saw them in Seattle a number of years ago when Roth re-joined. It was a great show. The part that cracked me up, though, was when older tunes like Atomic Punk came on, the audience was like "Yay, Van Halen is doing a song." But when songs from 1984 like Panama, or Jump came on they went nuts. Me? I'd take House of Pain from that album over anything else (except maybe Hot for Teacher).
The drum solo reminds me of an idling dragster. Epic tune for sure.
Roth was a hell of a front man.
Hagar did have his own golden age, to be sure....something that gets overlooked by the relative success of the giant heaping of schlocky Van Hagar successes. Side note: Sammy Hagar was an ardent cyclist. I think (and I could be wrong here) that he once owned the Sausalito Cyclery (I remember there used to be a photo hanging in the shop of Hagar riding a Masi...this was waaaay back, like in 1986...I used to make infrequent pilgrimages to Marin because there were great road riding shops and, of course, I wanted to sample the famous trails--though they were already shut down by that time.
Anyhoo, Gary Fisher had a "Red Rocker" Sammy Hagar tribute mountain bike model there for awhile. Bob Weir was also a pretty staunch mountain biking advocate and, as most people know, Gary Fisher had his own ties to the Grateful Dead. So, yeah, lots of 70s and 80s rock and roll connections to the mountain bike scene.
I saw a lot of great shows at The Catalyst (I'm a banana slug): John Lee Hooker, the Skatelites, Arrested Development, Fishbone, Bad Manners, Mary's Danish...
NorCal was a good place to grow up in.