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Uniform Update and a Mea Culpa

Coach RichCoach Rich
in Announcements 🎙

Just sent this out via email, posting here as well

 

Team,



Just wanted to update you on where we are with the uniform process and offer you all a mea culpa on the friction of the latest delivery.



First, if you placed your order in January, we will receive and ship those items in about April.



Next, for the folks that placed their orders in October, I'd like to walk you through things on my end, what I feel went wrong, and what I’m going to do going forward to fix it.



This was our 3rd (or 4th) uniform order, as 1 x Champion Systems, 1 (or 2, can't recall) x Sugoi, and now Capo + Louis Garneau. In the past we've:

  • Sometimes had a difficult time meeting minimums in order to get you the kit that you wanted.
  • Decided to place a big uniform order for the year and hold that inventory to distribute as people joined, etc.
The net has been that we've had a significant carrying cost associated with uniform inventory, as you know from the boxes of uniforms that would accompany us to camps and races, eventually morphing into the odd sizes that no one wanted :-)



We’ve also been a small enough team that you all could generally hook up with each other through the forums to trade out or exchange gear that didn’t fit.



For 2011, beginning with the October order, we wanted to do things differently:
  • We spent a couple months, seriously, going back and forth on the designs with Grant, our designer, to create a fresh, clean look for EN.
  • We went with Capo for the cycling kit, as they make very high quality gear
  • We went with Louis Garneau for the tri kit, after your recommendations and our unsatisfaction with Sugoi, especially on the sizing of the women’s kit.
  • We knew we’d easily make the minimum quantities so we decided to order only what we needed and not keep an inventory.
  • Patrick, Gina and I tried on fit-kits for both vendors and published very detailed fit notes in the forum, our intent being to provide our best fit guidance for a virtual team so that we can have as few “my kit doesn’t fit me” experiences as possible.
So, orders placed, I received the cycling kit about the first week of January, tri kit about the third week, just before I went out of town for a week so Joanne and I started to mail it all out the first week of Feb:
  • Despite double and triple counting the orders submitted in October before I placed them with LG and Capo, we still came up short on some items for some people, I have extras of stuff that people didn’t order (WTF?!!), and this is where our zero-inventory decision bit us in the ass: I didn’t have any spare items on hand to fix it right away.
  • Despite our best efforts to give you detailed fit guidance in the forums, we are a virtual team, you were not able to actually try on items and, guess what, a few of you experienced problems with the fit of your kit.
  • However, we’re now big enough that these fit issues can’t easily be fixed via our old way of putting you together in a couple forum threads to have you swap sizes around. Also, inventory bear raises it’s head again and we don’t have much on hand to help you fix it.
This is what we’re going to do going forward:
  • Patrick quickly jumped in to create a process (watch a video here) to survey the members and connect you with people with whom you could exchange kit, while also identifying what items needed to be shipped back to me and what items we now need to order to fix it. Big props to him.
  • I did order a bit of extra inventory with our last order, placed early Feb with Capo and LG and arriving in April. This week I’m going to place another order with LG and Capo to fix any remaining “my stuff don’t fit me” issues above and stock us up on a bit of extra inventory to provide new members with kit, fix any future issues, etc
  • When those two shipments are delivered to you in April and May, we now have Patrick’s process in place to help us fix any fit issues you may experience.
The bottom line is that your decision to train and race in EN gear is a decision, made with your wallet, to support our brand. I personally failed in the 100% satisfaction fulfillment on my end of the transaction. I appreciate your support and am working hard to fix it going forward.



Thanks!



Rich

 

Comments

  • Steven FordSteven Ford

    Thank you for being honest and always keeping us informed as to what is going on.

    BTW I love the new stuff!

     

  • Juan VergaraJuan Vergara
    Coach,
    Not sure this is the right place but I have been trying to obtain my FREE SINGLET per the note in the store saying: ""Are you a new TeamEN member? (joined after Nov 1, 2009 and have NOT received a free singlet?) Your singlet is FREE! Learn more ".
    When I enter the code "ENDoode11" as instructed in the link (New TeamEN men: use code ENDoode11 in the coupon code field and click Update Cart/Price to drop the price to $15 SnH. DO NOT USE THIS CODE IF YOU ARE PAYING EN LESS THAN $99/MO) I get back: "This code has expired."
    Please advice.
    Thank you,
    Juan
  • Coach RichCoach Rich

    Juan,

    We fulfill singlet orders in big batches. We'll let everyone know when we are taking the next round of orders.

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