Foska to bring campaign to life

foskajerseys

NEW: vote for your favourite jersey (choice of 3) on Foska.com (until December 31st).

iPayRoadTax.com was born and raised on Twitter.com, in November. It snowballed faster than I could have ever imagined. Interest in the jerseys was so great I knew I’d struggle to meet demand so, six days after Twittering the first concept, I signed a partnership agreement with Foska.com.

Foska is Britain’s largest manufacturer of bespoke and brand-licensed cycle jerseys, the company behind the jerseys from Marmite, London Pride, The Simpsons, London A-Z, Dennis the Menace and many more iconic cycle jerseys.

This company will produce a number of different jersey styles for iPayRoadTax.com, including short sleeve, long-sleeve, and women-specific. Foska will also produce water bottles and arm-warmers.

Everything will be sold via Foska.com and through bike shops, enabling me to concentrate on the website and campaign rather than design, make, bag and ship a ton of product.

Foska will take the fake tax disc graphic and turn it into a great looking jersey and this will be placed on Foska.com soon. You’ll be able to pre-order the jersey or arm-warmers on Foska.com, or drop in an email request for a reminder when product has landed. Here’s how Foska is currently taking pre-orders for its new Wallace & Gromit jerseys.

Producing the items will take time. We’ve got to produce the design, agree on wording, get in samples, and then put in a first order. I would have loved to have had product available before Christmas but, then, I’m not a manufacturer and have little appreciation of the graft that goes into a big production run like this. (When I first mooted this idea I thought there would be about 30 jersey orders and I would put in a herding-cats, club-style order to Impsport or similar – the immediacy and size of the demand knocked me sideways).

What will be available before Christmas is a line of t-shirts, mugs, and other items, all produced using print-on-demand technology. I’m using Spreadshirt for the majority of products. I’ve bought t-shirts from Spreadshirt before; the quality is first class.

Now, following news stories on Road.cc and Bikeradar.com there were lots of forum postings, both for and against the iPayRoadTax.com concept. I’m not going to be able to please everybody all of the time but earlier today I posted some video evidence of a driver shouting at a cyclist to “buy some road tax”. This is why the campaign was started; we’ve all been on the receiving end of such misinformed opinions. So, thanks for your faith in my fledgling idea. I’m chuffed to bits that the iPayRoadTax jerseys and armwarmers will get out there and start spreading the message that cyclists have every right to be on the road.

iPayRoadTax.com shop

iPayRoadTax.com shop

To help spread the iPayRoadTax.com message there’s a bunch of Spreadshirt-made badges, t-shirts, wickable base-layers and a messenger bag, all featuring iPayRoadTax.com graphics.

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A variety of bespoke, cycle-specific jerseys, arm-warmers, water bottles and other accessories will soon available to pre-order via Foska.com soon. Originally, the way to pre-order was to send an email expressing interest but so many were sent it became clear a retail partner was needed. The cycle clothing – similar to the jersey examples above – will likely be available in late January, although Foska.com can log your details once the iPayRoadtax.com designs have been added. Sign up for the Foska newsletter via ‘SafeUnscribe’.

Or use the form below to get the iPayRoadTax emailed newsletter (this won’t hit your inbox a thousand times a year, and your details will not leave the building):