How to run a club and get free kit*
*Requires a little bit of hard work and planning.
Outlands.cc came to PARIA back in 2020. They had a vision and clear direction for what they wanted to do with the club, but with less than 15 regular riders and no kitty (...money) they knew they had their work cut out for them.
Fast forward to 2024 and Outlands are one of the most recognisable amateur clubs on the circuit, with almost 200 members across a variety of engagement channels and 5 sell out kits. We sat down with Outlands.cc co-founder Dan to talk about how they got there.
If you’re part of a club and want to make things better, whether it’s racing, social, or just feeling a bit more badass in club kit, we hope this helps.
Outlands has grown massively since we first started chatting, what’s changed?
“Yeah, it has absolutely escalated in the last 18 months. We’ve gone from around 12-15 riders in 2022 to 50 active riders in the local community, 128 members in Coffee club and 159 in our zwift e-sport club. Our socials have played a big part in this. Through the first couple of years we just posted whatever we had but since the back end of 2022 there’s been more of a strategic approach and a much, much higher standard of imagery and I think it’s made the difference. It’s actually been more time efficient too, as you plan it out and know what you’ve got. When people see a professional looking social media account it gives everyone a bit more confidence in getting involved. Even simple things like giving the regular cafe rides a brand feel, it makes people feel part of something - and when they feel part of something it becomes something, does that make sense?”
We noticed you started some daily posts calling yourself the best club in the world and talking about the high and lows of what goes on. What’s the idea behind that?
“I do need to be clear here, we’re BUILDING the best club in the world. I wanted a catch title to get people into reading them and that kinda fits and it’s definitely done the job, it’s a bit out there for sure but given there’s no real measure, who is to say we aren’t.
“The idea came to me when I wanted to start and map out some bigger content pieces and grow the Outlands audience. I love behind the scenes videos and blogs and I thought I would use my personal page to leverage an insight to what running a club is like, for better and for worse. We had a bit of prickly patch between September and December so I wanted to capture that as it unfolded. From the turn of the year I committed to posting one thing every day for 52 days, giving me 1 title per week for the next year of a blog or podcast or whatever I decide to do. It’s grown the Outlands audience my 32% in 52days so the proofs in the pudding, a few minutes every day adds up. I’ve had some really good conversations, swapping ideas with people that run clubs in and out of cycling to so it’s been worth the effort.”
Which post got the biggest response?
“The whole thing was received really well to be fair and it’s boosted both pages by around a third which was great just before our kit launch.
“The most reacted to was when our new headline sponsor North Brew went into administration a couple days before we launched the news of our partnership. I was pretty stressed as we agreed this months and months in advance when we moved away from Fausto Coffee and we already had the kits made and all the social media stuff lined up. I put it out on instagram for thoughts and votes on what to do and there were hundreds of people voting on whether we press ahead or move on. Even North Brew voted, which was funny. - to be clear we were always going to stand shoulder to shoulder with North Brew, I think people liked the idea of being involved in a very real situation, giving advice and opinions on how to move forward. It was fun (in the end).”
The new kit is very… pink. Why do you keep changing the kit?
“We change the kit for a few reasons, but mainly this is built around our constant evolution. It takes a lot of time and money designing new jerseys and kit but it's worth it overall. The pink is version 3 and makes it strikingly different from the others. We have updated it every 2 years so it’s not like you don’t get the wear out of each jersey. Most people have a budget for new stuff every year, whether it be bike chains, running shoes, football shirts, anything really and cycling club riders are no different.
“Changing the kit is important when you want to attract support to the club too. Sponsors want to be on the jersey, and it’s no good not changing it when sponsors have only paid for a year or two. This gives us the ability to monetise the jersey too. If you are selling space on the jersey for £500+ and have a dozen sponsors, you can afford to buy everyone a new jersey anyway. Cycling clubs don’t need masses of cash to operate really - give back to those who are paying their membership fees.”
We have collaborated on a Coffee Club and a Femmes kit now, what’s the score with them and how do all the parts work together?
“Ha, yes we have been busy pushing the flexibility of Paria haven’t we, but everything has worked out and every group has their own kit! The coffee club was born out of social ride we made from a local coffee shop last year. My idea was just to have 1 ride a month where people could come along with any level of fitness or any bike and have a safe on-road environment to ride, we’d call it Coffee Club and that would be it. The regulars quickly wanted to build a whatsapp group, then a jersey just like we had 2 years previously… from there we built a low level membership where you could access the jersey and ‘join the club’. Coffee club has been great for us as it brought more than double the impressions to the club via individual riders' social media and gained a lot of interest from other sponsors who want to be connected to such a community led initiative.
“Femmes is due to launch this year and is structured more similarly to Outlands North with a more reflective membership fee, exclusive access to the femmes kit and sponsor equipment options. We are hoping to have women led businesses involved ideally so if anyone knows of any that may be interested, fire them our way!”
There are a lot of ticked boxes in the last few years, what’s next?
“The lucky thing is we’ve always done it our way. Paria coined New School Cycling for us years ago and it’s been our motto ever since. There is always an element of what’s next and I’m always working towards the next goal without appreciating what we’ve achieved in such a small amount of time, but I think that helps us think outside the box. Not many clubs have a female team of over 7 riders so it’s important to focus on making that work properly this year. After that, who knows… Well, we have 3 pretty big things we’re working on but you’ll hear about them soon enough.”
Check out these links for more:
https://paria.cc/products/outlands-ike-tee
https://www.outlands.cc/
