From concept to athlete
on the world stage
The UCI Gran Fondo World Championships is the highest-level mass participation cycling event in the world. For Soomom, it represented an opportunity to put the brand on a genuinely significant stage — with athletes competing under the Soomom kit in front of an international audience.
The brief was to design and deliver a UCI-compliant kit that could perform at elite level, represent the brand accurately, and create content and stories that would serve the brand well beyond the event itself.
"Most portfolios show finished work. This one shows how it got there — from first moodboard to athlete on the start line."
What makes this project worth including in a portfolio isn't the final garment. It's the process — the research, the iterations, the stakeholder management, the technical constraints of UCI-compliant sublimation, and the athlete relationship that made the content possible.
UCI regulations, competing kit aesthetics, Soomom brand positioning at elite level. Understanding where the brand sits relative to WorldTour teams and what a mass-participation athlete wants from a kit on the world stage.
Visual direction defined before any pattern work. Colour palette, graphic language, Soomom identity expression at competition scale. Multiple concepts presented and reviewed.
Pattern files developed for sublimation printing across jersey, bib shorts and accessories. Multiple rounds of iteration against UCI regulations and brand standards. Prototype review and fit feedback incorporated.
Production managed against event timeline. Quality review of finished garments. Final approval before athlete delivery.
Athlete brief and content strategy developed. Race week storytelling across social and email. Post-race content and results amplification. The content generated from the event served Soomom's brand well beyond the race itself.
Topographic pattern development and garment panel specification
Soomom Australia — UCI Gran Fondo World Championships 2026, Japan
Putting a small cycling brand on the UCI World Championships stage requires more than design skill. It requires understanding the event, the regulations, the athlete's needs, the brand's positioning, and the content opportunity — and holding all of those threads at once.
It's the kind of project that demonstrates strategic creative leadership rather than execution alone. The kit is the output. The thinking that got it there is the portfolio piece.