LEFT TURNS is where we go off script. Things no one asked for. Things that needed to be said as soon as we think of them. Still GH. Just further out. Off the dome.
You can follow us on Instagram here, but in its purest and most beautiful form this is a newsletter, something to slow your timeline down.
BEFORE WE START
GRAVITYHILL is free to read and always will be. But if you are getting something out of it, a subscription goes a long way toward keeping this independent.
In case you missed it, here is what we have been working on:
MOODY BOARDS // 005 — GIRO D’ITALIA No explanation. No context. Just the feeling.
BREAKAWAY // 005 — Cycling Has a Visibility Problem Ben Healy has 105,000 followers. Lewis Hamilton has over 40 million. That gap is not about talent. How fashion became the entry point for every sport that cracked the culture problem — and why cycling has not run that playbook yet.
LEFT TURNS // 003 — What If Cycling Had a Creative Director? Crystal Palace did it. Como 1907 did it. The Cleveland Cavaliers did it. Every sport with cultural ambitions figured this out already. What happens when cycling finally makes the call.
If that sounds like your kind of newsletter, you know what to do.
WHO MADE THAT KIT?
Nobody talks about who made the kit. They talk about the riders. The results. The bikes. But the brands stitching together what the best cyclists in the world wear every single day? Mostly invisible.
Open Instagram. Scroll for sixty seconds. You will see Rapha. PAS Normal. MAAP. The same names in a loop. Cycling influencers have a chokehold on what gets pushed. Now look at what the WorldTour peloton is actually racing in. Gobik. Castelli. Bioracer. Pissei. Vermarc. Kalas. Brands nobody is building a mood board around. Brands that are on the bodies of the best riders in the world, six and seven hours a day, across every kind of road and weather a European spring can throw at them.
There is a gap between what gets pushed and what gets worn. Between the brands that figured out content and the brands that figured out kit. We picked up a pair of Q36.5 bibs recently and it reframed the whole conversation. Some brands are building for the gram. Some are building for the ride.
On a design level, most of the brands the pros are racing in are not particularly interesting to look at. They kinda suck. Their best work is the team kit they produce under contract, and you know how we feel about those. The consumer collections are mostly functional and not much else. Which probably explains why nobody is talking about them. The influencer brands figured out that the kit you race in and the kit you want to own are two different products. Most of these brands never made that distinction.
Not everyone can afford to ride in MAAP or Rapha. Some of the brands on this list are genuinely (somewhat) affordable. And if the best riders in the world are racing in them every weekend, they are worth knowing about. This list exists because we kept asking ourselves who makes the kits and figured we might as well type it out for you. A reference. Something to come back to. A full deep dive on design language, identity, and verdicts is probably coming but this is where it starts.
We are covering WorldTour teams and the ProTeams you see racing regularly at the sport’s biggest races. The Continental teams are a conversation for another day.
We have not ridden in everything on this list and we are not going to pretend otherwise. What we can tell you is who made it and which team is wearing it.
Here you go:
MEN’S WORLDTOUR 2026
UAE Team Emirates XRG — Pissei
Visma-Lease a Bike — Nimbl
Lidl-Trek — Santini
Ineos Grenadiers — Gobik
Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe — Specialized
Soudal-Quick Step — Castelli
Movistar — Gobik
EF Education-EasyPost — Assos
Groupama-FDJ United — Bioracer
Bahrain Victorious — Alé
Jayco-AlUla — MAAP
Decathlon-CMA CGM — Van Rysel
Alpecin-Premier Tech — Kalas
XDS Astana — Ekoï
Human Powered Health — Verge Sport
Lotto-Intermarché — Vermarc
NSN Cycling — Ekoï
Uno-X Mobility — Fusion
MEN’S PROTEAMS 2026
Pinarello-Q36.5 — Q36.5
Tudor Pro Cycling — Sportful
Unibet Rose Rockets — Santini
Polti VisitMalta — ToFit
WOMEN’S WORLDTOUR 2026
SD Worx-Protime — Specialized
Canyon-SRAM Zondacrypto — Canyon
Visma-Lease a Bike — Nimbl
Lidl-Trek — Santini
AG Insurance-Soudal — Castelli
FDJ United-Suez — Gobik
Liv AlUla Jayco — MAAP
EF Education-Oatly — Assos
Fenix-Premier Tech — Alé
Movistar — Gobik
Picnic PostNL — Nalini
UAE Team ADQ — Pissei
Human Powered Health — Verge Sport
Decathlon-CMA CGM — Van Rysel
To submit a site, product, or whatever you’re working on, email KMC@GRAVITYHILL.CC. We read everything. Posting is never guaranteed, but curiosity always is.
A small tiny correction: Unibet Rockets team wears Santini and rides Rose.