A Quick Guide to How Different Cycling Apparel Brands Fit

it’s spring and this is the time of year where, if you want to have the pick of both the colors and the sizes, you’re doing your shopping now, whether you’re in shape or not. I’m often asked who makes what sorts of fits for what sorts of bodies?

First, let me just say, things have changed, lots, from when I first became a cyclist. It used to be that there were really only two fits, European and American. The Euro stuff was cut for people with zero fat and not much muscle, meaning the arms seemed stupidly long once you got the torso right. And the American stuff was still cut very slim, essentially like what you’d expect from Voler today. 

Then Voler came out with the club cut, which was a bit more boxy. I’d call it essentially a height and weight proportional fit. 

The Euro brands like Assos and Castelli aren’t quite as slim as they used to be, which is to say they offer a better fit than they used to. Rapha fits as kind of a mid-point between American brands and Euro brands. For a long time I had a tough time with sizing Rapha jerseys. Their small was bigger than a Euro small but not as big as an American medium. Their medium was bigger than an American medium, but not as big as a large. 

The biggest problem for men, typically, has been finding sizes big enough for bigger guys. A 2XL in Assos still wasn’t all that big. 

As I’ve mentioned previously, Pearl Izumi offers five different fits, including a women’s cut. Their pro cut is a very Euro cut, while their relaxed cut is looser than Voler’s club cut. 

The most important advice I have for men is to throw out what you think your sizes are when you go to try on a new brand. Don’t be afraid to try the sizes immediately larger and smaller than your typical size. You can be surprised by what fits if you don’t go in saying, “I’m always a medium.” 

With women, finding cycling clothing that fits is, at best, an adventure. It seems like for every woman I ever knew who fit in one brand’s women’s fit, I knew another for whom it didn’t work. 

Shebeest was the first brand I ever ran across that cut their clothes for curvy women. That’s not the case anymore. Their stuff isn’t cut quite so curvy anymore, I’m told, and other companies have entered the fray. 

Primal offers several different cuts, as well as Team Estrogen, which is a women-specific lineup that goes up to 2XL. Shredly offers some pieces up to size 24, while Fat Lad and Fat Lass at the Back offer a number of pieces in larger sizes than I typically see. They size their jerseys according to chest size in inches, making their fit much easier to understand. Many of the women’s jerseys come in nine sizes, from 34 up to 53 in. And for men, stuff usually runs from 40 to 52. They offer men’s big shorts in eight sizes, from 32-in. waist size up to 54 in. For women they size their shorts according to both waist and hips and again, they offer eight sizes, generally. 

And despite a name that might throw you off, Aerotech Designs makes a number of pieces in very large sizes, and they even have a section set aside for the big and tall set. They offer pieces as large as 5XL for men’s tops, and in eight sizes, while they offer up to 4XL in women’s tops. I’m amazed to say that with some pieces they offer eight sizes each in the standard length and another eight sizes in their tall length. Aerotech also offers clothing for kids. 

Montella is another apparel company that offers big sizes for people who don’t look like a former pro. They make some of their pieces in nine sizes, and up to a 6XL size. With some women’s pieces also coming in nine sizes, from XS to 5XL.  

There are even more brands than that doing clothing stuff for people who don’t have a pro’s physique, and worth mentioning is that none of this stuff looked like American cycling clothing did back in the 1980s, which is to say, atrocious. 

One other thing I want to mention is the site and podcast of All Bodies on Bikes. Marley Blonsky and Kailey Kornhauser formed a foundation to try to encourage the bike industry to make more products for people who don’t look like athletes. I encourage everyone to check out their site because they could just as easily be using TCI’s tagline of, “If you ride bikes, you’re one of us.”