Copywriting « stevemedcroft.com

2Nov/180

PASSO Jacket – for Whatever Winter Throws at You

Designed in collaboration with former UCI world champion Lizzie Deignan, Santini’s PASSO jacket for women offers uncompromising protection for winter training.

Our Highly-Technical Women's Winter Jacket

In cycling, we race from spring to fall (unless you’re a die-hard cyclo-cross racer, then hats off to you), so our wardrobe of cycling kit is dominated by short-sleeve jerseys, bib shorts, and speedsuits. But to be competitive, you have to arrive at the first race of the season in shape and ready to push. Which means training through winter for you, and the production of the best winter cycling kits for Santini.

To perfect our women’s winter clothing line, we recruited Trek Factory team pro rider and Santini collaborator and Ambassador Lizzie Deignan. She and the Santini design team came up with a range of cold-weather riding gear. The flagship piece from the collaboration is our PASSO winter jacket for women.

The PASSO jacket is a cold-and-wet protective shell that will keep you on the road during less-than-ideal winter training days. Pro-level technical and tailored to the female body, the PASSO is “…quite an usual jacket,” says Deignan. “It has all the functionality of a high performance jersey, but also has a feminine, fashion-forward fit. And I love the fact that although it is a flattering black, it is also visible as it has a high visibility logo and stripe.”

Deignan has a lot of experience training in bad weather. “I was born and grew up in Otley in Yorkshire,” she told us recently. “My parents still live there and my husband Philip and I have a house in Harrogate (nearby).” Deignan says she trains in Yorkshire often. “The weather can be so harsh with biting winds, rain that can appear from nowhere, and much colder temperatures than in Monaco (Deignan’s home during the racing season). Growing up training on those Yorkshire roads inspired me to help design this jacket.”

Leveraging Windstopper's Pedigree

Built with Windstopper fabric (300 GR/M2), Lizzie’s PASSO jacket for women is designed for temperatures as low as 5 degrees Celsius, as well as offers protection from wind and rain. The PASSO is performance fit and features inserts in reflective pixel fabric on the neck and cuffs as well as two zippered rear pockets. The PASSO jacket complements the rest of our Lizzie x Santini winter collection (CORAL long-sleeve jerseys, bib tights, and lightweight jacket).

A former UCI Road World Champion, Commonwealth Champion, five-time British National Champion, Olympic Road Race Silver Medalist, and twice winner of the UCI Women's Road World Cup, Lizzie Deignan is signed to the Trek Factory Team in 2019. She is married to professional cyclist Philip Deignan. Lizzie recommends the PASSO for cold winter rides with only a thermal base layer underneath.

The complete Lizzie X Santini collection of winter cycling kit for women is available now.

Original is posted on www.santinius.com

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31Oct/180

Connect With Cycling History at the Rouleur Classic

Come celebrate our 30-year collaboration with the UCI at the Rouleur Classic, November 1-3 at the Victoria House in London.

At the Santini factory, there is a memorabilia display in the lobby. The walls are covered with team jerseys, Giro D’Italia pink jerseys, national champion’s jerseys, and signed UCI World Championship jerseys from every era of our history. Standing in our lobby allows you to absorb the history of cycling in a unique and special way.

There are similar displays in museums, private collections, and cycling company lobbies all over the world (particularly in Italy where cycling has some of its deepest roots). But not everyone can tour the globe to take in this kind of immersive experience, so we’re grateful to our friends at Rouleur magazine for putting on the Rouleur Classic; a unique event that brings the greatest people, products, and memorabilia under one roof for all cyclists to enjoy.

Santini presents the Rainbow Jersey at the Rouleur Classic

The theme for the 2018 Rouleur Classic is the UCI Road World Championships. Scheduled for November 1-3 at London’s Victoria House, Rouleur has put together a full program for cyclists to connect to the theme.

Santini will be there with a pop-up presentation and exhibition about the history of the rainbow jersey. Hosted by our Managing Director, Monica Santini, lead designer Fergus Niland, and with visit from occasional guests (like Lizzie Diegnan), our display tells the story of the UCI rainbow stripe jersey, the most coveted prize in cycling.

Our UCI clothing collection will also be on display, which, as well as the rainbow jersey, includes a number of UCI-inspired designs. We’re especially proud of our Grand Campioni collection, kits that honor legendary world championship wins by Fausto Coppi, Stephen Roche, and Eddy Merckx.

The best feature of the event though (besides our booth of course) are the stage presentations. Held all weekend, speakers and panels will cover all aspects of the show’s theme, from a a discussion about the upcoming Yorkshire World Championships, to the inaugural Rouleur Hall of Fame induction ceremony celebrating Eddy Merckx and the late Beryl Burton. A long list of cycling celebrities scheduled to appear. As well as Merckx, Sir Bradley Wiggins, Fabian Cancellara, Sean Kelly, Paolo Bettini, Maurizio Fondriest, Lizzie Deignan, George Bennett, Ivan Basso, and UCI President David Lappartient are all confirmed.

Santini - The Rainbow Factory

During the show, the organizer will giveaway also 30 unique handmade posters to 30 lucky visitors. This poster is adapted from a quarter of one of those transfer sheets used for the actual Rainbow Jerseys we produced for the 2018 Road World Championships in Innsbruck and exclusively signed by Mr. Pietro Santini himself.

So come immerse yourself in Rouleur’s celebration of the UCI Road World Championships by attending the Rouleur Classic. Tickets to any (or all) of the three-days of the Rouleur Classic are available at their website.

Original appears on www.santinius.com.

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21Oct/180

When is it time to hire a writer?

I am a freelance writer, for hire, to work on content-production projects ranging from short, evergreen web articles to book-length non-fiction. Contact me for a no-cost, no-obligation consultation.

If I told you I was a writer for hire, you might ask yourself why on earth would anyone want to hire a writer? Isn’t writing something anyone who is literate knows how to do? Don’t we write our own text messages, emails, notes to family, Facebook posts, Yelp reviews, Instagram hashtags? Don’t we write constantly? Communicate every day in a hundred ways?

Acknowledged. Not everyone *needs* a writer. I assume you’re capable of putting across your own thoughts in written word. But, there is an argument that writing is a skill that needs to be developed when applied to specific tasks. When you have a need for properly planned, focused, and easy-to-read content, a writer-for-hire can make written-word products that suit your need. A professional writer can ease the burden of completing the task yourself and give you a more polished final result.

Here are six types of writing projects I do for clients. If you could use help on a project that fits one of these categories, contact me.

Web articles: Usually short and punchy, I’ve written web articles for all kinds of publications and clients over the years. I’ve written how-to articles, blog posts, and in-depth analysis into the various types of bicycle chain lubricant, for example. The client briefs and word-length requirements vary, but writing for the web is about getting to the point quickly, covering a subject that fits into its online home, and delivering to the allotted space and time. Do you have a website? Need content developed?

Catalog copy: Writing for product can be as important as the imagery. I work with clients in Europe that produce two or three product catalogs per year. They create the first English-language version (usually a translation from their primary language) and have me to tighten and smooth the language so it flows naturally for their English-speaking distributors and customers. I might also be asked to produce summary paragraphs for the introduction to the catalog. I am then tasked, at times, to write longer-form web content for the same product sets. Are you producing content about your products and services? Should we develop a plan to optimize that content for your audience and give it the best chance of being productive?

Interviews and profiles: There are seven billion human beings on the planet right now. That’s seven billion different experiences in the world, seven billion different perspectives on life, seven billion different stories to tell. My most-rewarding short-form work is done when I get to help someone tell their story though interview or profile. I’ve written prose and Q&A-style interviews throughout my writing life and would like to spend more time in the future helping people tell their stories to the world. Are there people in your orbit with unique perspective or skills, that we should highlight to your audience/customer base? Or do you have a story you want to tell?

Event reports: I’ve reported on cycling races across the US (and even a few in Europe) for cycling magazines and websites. There’s a journalistic satisfaction in writing a good race report; setting the scene for the reader, laying out the stakes for the competition, getting play-by-play from the finalists, producing the official results. The additional fun challenge in race reporting is also the timeliness; the attempt to publish the story as close to the completion of the competition as possible. Sure, it’s exhausting work, but once you develop a rhythm for writing competent race and event reports, the work is extremely satisfying and rewarding. The same editorial narrative style can be applied to any event coverage. Are you part of, or putting on, an event? I can help you tell its story; the how and why it exists, the timeline of how it played out, and capture the top moments so those who couldn’t be there can still get the sense of what they missed?

Newsletters and round-ups (subbing): The editorial term ‘subbing’ means, simply, summarizing a group of content into one article. When I was the mountain-bike editor of www.cyclingnews.com, the worlds most widely-read cycling news website, I would take product press releases and summarize that week’s race reports, interviews, and technical review into a weekly news round-up. Subbing is an art and I enjoyed doing it. The skill can be applied to any collection of material that would benefit from being turned into a newsletter or periodic review. A great example is the New York Times' Your Weekend Briefing. Can you imagine sharing a periodic summary of content with your audience?

Whitepapers and book-length projects: Sometimes, a subject demands in-depth study. I’ve written two non-fiction books. Call Centers Made Easy was my attempt to help small businesses leverage communications technology to better connect and communicate with their customers. That book spoke to the fact that large customer-support-intense companies (airlines, insurance companies, banks) invested millions building out systems to optimize their management of customer interactions. It showed small businesses how those large centers did it and how they could emulate some of the technologies and concepts (to the same benefits) using small-business telecom systems. I also wrote a book called The Telecom Manager’s Survival Guide which spelled out how to, well, manage the telecommunications infrastructure for a large company. What subject in your life would you like to develop into a longer written project? Whitepaper (3-5k words)? eBook (5-25k words)? Full-length nonfiction project (50-100k words) you want to take to a publisher?

The price of a writer-for-hire

The cost for a writer to help you with any of these kinds of content projects vary. A writer looking to break in, or one that has the capacity for high-volume, short-turn-around work, could be quite inexpensive. You can find them online, as well as find marketplaces for freelancers to bid on your job. Hiring the most pedigreed writer in your field may be expensive.

I’m somewhere between those two ends of the spectrum. I work on freelance projects when I want to; when I like the project, the client/collaborator, and feel like I can produce interesting work. My fees are as follows:

Per word rate - Fifty-cents per word for short projects, plus expenses. That means, if I am contracted to produce a 500-word blog article, I may turn-in 556 words, but the client pays for the agreed-on amount of $250.
Flat fees - If a word-count price model doesn’t work (very short word-count projects, the editing of existing copy, or research-heavy book-length projects), I negotiate, in advance, either a flat fee or a financial arrangement tied to the income produced by the work (in the case of book-length projects).

Again, if you have a writing project you’d like to discuss, please contact me.

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20Oct/180

VEGA COLLECTION

Oct 20, 2018 - Our Acquazero-treated VEGA winter clothing is your insurance policy for when nasty weather threatens to rob you of the joy of riding your bicycle.

Ignore the weather forecast and go for a ride

It’s easy to dress for cycling in summer; a short-sleeve jersey, your favorite Santini bib shorts, and a slather of sunblock are all you need. The job gets trickier in fall and winter. Even mildly cool air can throw off your training when you’re driving through it at twenty miles per hour. Throw in some moisture, up the wind speeds, or drop the temperatures near freezing, and riding a bike becomes a challenge that can only be solved with a hardy will and a proper system of protective winter cycling kit. Like Santini’s Acquazero-treated VEGA collection.

The VEGA collection of winter clothing includes long-sleeve jerseys, bib tights, a jacket, gloves, and shoe covers -- all designed to wrap you in a warm embrace without cloistering. The fabrics we chose are insulated, but breathable. Properly worn when you head out in cold weather, VEGA clothing is designed to keep you comfortable at the start and, as you warm up, release trapped heat and sweat to maintain ideal core temperature. The collection’s VEGA Xtreme jacket, a Polartec shell, adds a layer of protection for the worst of days.

The genius of the VEGA collection is our unique moisture-protection treatment called Acquazero, which allows cyclists to prepare for, but not be defeated by, challenging weather conditions. Chilly mornings? No problem. Foggy skies? Threat of rain showers? Pish-tosh. Acquazero-treated VEGA clothing is the solution to staying on your bike in winter.

Acquazero is an ingenious chemical bath that impregnates a flexible moisture barrier into our thermal fabrics. It’s a protective treatment designed to prevent light rain and road spray from getting to your core, where it can harsh the mellow of your riding experience. We’ve been using Acquazero on winter cycling clothing for years. It saves you from moisture beautifully and holds up to repeated (gentle-cycle) machine washes.

The VEGA winter-riding collection

The collection includes the following items:

Thermal bib tights - Acquazero-treated. Perfect for temperatures between +5 and +15 Celsius (40 to 60 degrees fahrenheit).

Thermal jerseys - long-sleeve jerseys in Acquazero-treated Blizzard thermofleece. Our best-selling winter item, the VEGA thermal jerseys are good for temperatures between +5 and +15 celsius.

VEGA Xtreme jacket - For temperatures between -8 and +5 (15 to 40 degrees farenheit ), the VEGA Xtreme jacket is designed so you can ride in the harshest weather conditions. Made with Polartec’s Windbloc fabric, a 3 layer shield with an advanced microporous membrane for maximum breathability, Vega XTREME offers total protection from wind and rain.

Accessories - Blizzard thermafleece long-fingered gloves and shoe covers treated with Acquazero round out the collection.

Use our VEGA winter-clothing system to keep yourself on the road and protect your core in colder months, and reduce the total number of winter clothing items you need to own (and carry). Add base-layers underneath to ride in even the most unseemly conditions.

Original posted on www.santinius.com

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10Oct/180

Beryl Burton – Britain’s first worlds double winner

One of the great joys I have in copywriting assignments is when I'm asked to contribute copy to be printed on a fabric label that will adorn a very special cycling jersey. Santini makes jerseys that celebrate famous world championship wins (and special world championship winners). The labels come with a demanding word limit (350 words) and challenge me to write the story of an event famous to people who know the history of the sport (or the people involved). I *must* get them right. That's a challenge I enjoy. Being proud of the final copy is a great reward. What follows is the most recent example.

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Beryl Burton - Britain’s first worlds double winner

When Beryl Burton, OBE, first took up cycling, riding with her husband Charlie and the Morley Cycling Club in Yorkshire, she had to be helped along. By her second year, she was a contributing member on group rides. In her third year, she started racing and went on to dominate the UK time-trial scene for most of the rest of her amazing, but sadly short, lifetime.

Burton earned the respect of global cycling fans and journalists with her world championships win in Leipzig in 1960. Against aggressive Soviet competition, racing behind the intimidating Iron Curtain, Burton led the pack for the first half of the race. She broke away with Elsy Jacobs of Luxembourg. Jacobs couldn’t hold the Briton’s pace, so Burton spent the final 35 kilometers off the front. She crossed the finish line with a three-minute margin over a chasing pack of thirteen riders.

The accomplishment is especially remarkable because Burton won the individual track pursuit world championships earlier that week, delivering the most-elusive prize in cycling; a same-year track/road worlds double championship.

Although she chose to remain an amateur, Burton is one of the most decorated cyclists in history. Domestically, she was virtually unbeatable. Burton won the Road Time Trials Council’s British Best All-Rounder Competition for 25 consecutive years (1959 to 1983). She earned 72 national individual time trial titles at multiple distances and set records that stood for decades. She also won 24 national titles in road and track racing. Internationally, she won five pursuit world championships on the track (1959, 1960, 1962, 1963 and 1966) and road worlds a second time in 1967.

Burton was recognized for her achievements in sport with appointment as a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in 1964 and an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1968. She died in 1996.

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