Alpe d'Huez sports gear
Alpe
d'Huez is run by Steve Guy and his team in Auckland and their
range includes gym leggings, bike shorts and much more. Below, you can read Steve's message about how
Professionelle and Alpe d'Huez got together and an unexpected
opportunity that has flowed from it already, proving yet again the
power of networking.
We're also pleased to include a review of
Alpe d'Huez's clothing by Rachel Ockelford, a Professionelle member
based in Wellington. As you'll see, she's hugely committed to sport
and in a month she put the clothing through hours of endurance
testing.
A Message from Steve Guy of Alpe
d'Huez
As a producer of exercise apparel, we at Alpe d'Huez were
keen to find a partner with great contacts with professional men
and women. While reading the national newspaper, I came across an
article written by Galia from professionelle.co.nz, a brilliant new
networking website for professional women. While initially not
exactly sure how we could combine our business ideas, I contacted
Galia and we met over a coffee to discuss the origins of our
businesses and our hopes for their future.
Out of this contact we have agreed upon a sponsorship
arrangement that will see us providing our products to the
professionelle.co.nz network, in a branding exercise to unite the
networks of both businesses.
As an interesting side note to the story is that my fiancée is the
HR Manager for a large NZ finance Company. She had already heard of
professionelle.co.nz and was interested in involving her female
staff with the professionelle.co.nz network. She and Galia have
since met and discussed future opportunities together.
This is a true real life example of how networking can produce
outcomes that you don't even know are there!
Product review of Alpe d'Huez
gear by Rachel Ockelford
Alpe
d'Huez is an Auckland-based company focusing on reasonably
priced, high quality sportsgear. When they approached
Professionelle, looking at potential joint marketing opportunities,
Galia first wanted to ensure that the gear was as good as it
claimed to be. She figured that I'd be a good person to test the
gear... probably correctly…
I'm happy to admit I'm pretty nutty about sport. Apart from mid
week training, a sample recent month consisted of four weekends of
racing:
- Day/ Night Thriller, a 12 hour team-based mountain bike
race
- Wellington 24 hour race, teams of 2 or 4 kayaking, mountain
biking and tramping for about a day (it took us 22.5 hours)
- Spring Challenge, a Women's only team race consisting of
rafting, mountain biking and tramping for between 12 and 24 hours
(took us 15 hours)
- Control 90, 3 x 4hour rogaines (team based orienteering)
kayaking, mountain biking and running
So, I can vouch that I've been giving the gear that Alpe d'Huez
supplied a good thrashing, and that I'm pleasantly impressed with
the quality, comfort and performance. They supplied me with gym leggings, cycle shorts and
arm warmers.
Gym Leggings
I was a little sceptical about these at first as they are knee
length but elasticised around the bottom, an unusual combination. I
own at least 3 other pairs of knee length leggings, none of which
are elasticised. I've now used the Alpe d'Huez ones for pilates, at
the gym, running, cycling and out tramping in the bush for several
hours and can say that it isn't an issue, though I'm still not
convinced it's an advantage, either. However, they are comfy and
have useful pockets. One is a zip one on your butt for cards etc
and there's also an internal one for keys.
Most importantly, they look good! Tellingly, the first time I
wore them my pilates instructor wanted to know what brand they were
and where he could get similar ones to print up with his studio's
name and logo…
Cycle Shorts
I was sent a couple of pairs of cycle shorts - one plain black,
and the second with pink stitching and 'Liberty Girl' written on
them. I love the black ones…those who know me will understand that
I've never really been a pink girl (I'm more in favour of 'blue is
for girls' - demonstrated by my new kayak which is a gorgeous pale
blue and white colour... but I digress).
What really counts is the comfort and fit, as those of you who
spend reasonable amounts of time on a bike seat will I'm sure
agree. These shorts meet those requirements. I've found them very
comfortable. I haven't quite worked out why the shorts have hanger
loops on the inside as I can't imagine I'll ever be hanging them in
my wardrobe but performance-wise they work!
Arm warmers
I also got sent a pair of medium arm warmers, which I'm
presuming must be sized for boys as even with my kayaking arms they
are almost too big! Steve has assured me he'll be bringing out some
smaller ones though. Again, I can't really say anything more than
to assure you they are comfortable and warm, which is pretty
important in a Wellington winter!
In summary
Their gear is priced reasonably and in my opinion good quality
and comfortable.