With 30 Years of Cycling Experience and Dedication, Creating Cycling Apparel Truly Made for Women
WILMINGTON, Del., Feb. 21, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — “When I was 22, I woke up on the floor of a store, surrounded by people asking me my name and where I lived. I knew the answers, but I couldn’t tell them.” This seizure and the following diagnosis of epilepsy cost Marion Clignet her driver’s license, and she started commuting by bicycle. Thus began the champion’s journey of an epilepsy patient. Since 1990, she has placed first in six world championship and won two silver medals at the Olympics representing France. She also broke the world record at the time in 1996 and won the French national championship many times including individual pursuit and road races. projects. She achieved more than 350 victories in her career, including stage wins and winning jerseys in the women’s Tour de France and the Giro Women’s Tour.
Besides cycling, Clignet was also an accomplished mountain runner, winning the French long-distance running and cycling duathlon championship and six middle-distance triathlons. She competed against men in Brittany multiple times, winning many supporters and bringing more public attention to women’s cycling. After retiring from competitive cycling, she continued to invest in cycling education and the rights of female cyclists, dedicated to advancing women’s cycling.
Throughout her 30-year cycling career, she overcame the hardships of training and the unfair treatment of women in the competition but never found cycling apparel truly designed for women, fitting their anatomical structure, physiological needs, and aesthetic demands. In her professional journey, Clignet tried various cycling shorts and jerseys only to find out that most ill-fitting apparel caused severe skin damage, sweat accumulation hindered temperature regulation impairing endurance, and chafing from the saddle led to injuries.
Whether in training or competition, she looked for cycling apparel that perfectly addressed muscle protection, comfort, and aesthetics. She believed that solving these issues could make more women fall in love with the sport of cycling. However, most women’s cycling apparel on the market was just a scaled-down version of men’s with a different print, until she encountered Jelenew, a women’s sports brand genuinely committed to addressing these issues. She decided to join Jelenew and start her new venture—creating cycling apparel that truly meets women’s needs and promotes the development of women’s cycling.
Just as she overcame the obstacles of her illness and continuously broke her records, creating high-performance and aesthetically pleasing cycling apparel became her new challenge. Jelenew used haute couture draping techniques to solve issues for female cyclists such as chest pressure, weak waist and abdominal core muscle support, and insufficient fit and flexibility in shoulders and armpits area. After joining Jelenew, Clignet co-founded “Sprinters Jersey Lab” with the Jelenew design team—a lab that could lead a revolution in sports apparel, with Sprinters Jersey holding special significance for Clignet, as it was the jersey she won in the longest women’s stage race in Idaho.
In the lab, Clignet turned past troubles into research topics. She works with the Jelenew design team to derive solutions from haute couture techniques, addressing fitting issues with CurveTec™ technology, reducing friction, providing muscle protection, and aiding in power generation. The Sprinters Jersey Lab created a internal climate control system with fabric technology tailored for different body zones. The Sprinters Jersey Lab also developed cutting-edge seamless fit technology, friction-free stitching technology, and scientific seam positions to avoid wear and damage to sensitive areas. After each development, Clignet personally participated in testing and refinement with professional cyclists to ensure the product met both athletic performance as well as women’s needs.
When she wore Jelenew’s cycling apparel to the “Le Marion Clignet” epilepsy charity bike race, she was praised for the design of her cycling apparel for the first time, reinforcing her belief that fashion is an indispensable part of women’s sports. Following the haute couture approach, Clignet and the design team continuously sought outstanding collaborators in the industry, applying top garment-making techniques to upgrade the performance of sportswear while also adding a touch of fashion.
Blending performance with aesthetics to improve women’s athletic performance and make sports more enjoyable. This is the promise issued by Clignet through Jelenew’s “Sprinters Jersey Lab”. This project is her new journey to accomplish her mission to empower women cyclists around the world.
About Jelenew
Founded in 2021, inspired by cycling, Jelenew provides sportswear that perfectly blends performance and aesthetics for women and extends to a lifestyle collection based on speed and power sports to meet more diversified needs. Jelenew, joined by world women’s cycling champion Marion Clignet for technical guidance, founded “Sprinters Jersey Lab” based on Jelenew’s proprietary technology CurveTec™ and 30 years of cycling experience to lead industry innovation.
