Africa Kit Appeal – tmgpro steps in to help

we hate waste

How did we start with the Africa Kit Appeal? Well, the world of custom cycling kit moves fast which means that samples quickly become redundant.

A couple of years ago, we found ourselves in something of a bind. We had a suitcase full of samples featuring outdated product codes with nowhere to put them.

Clothing Bank? What are the chances of them ending up in the hands of a cyclist who could use them?

Recycling? A waste of top notch kit.

Waste Bin? Don’t even go there!

We searched the web for a while. We discovered that Matt Brammeier, then of Team Dimension Data, had a similar problem on a larger scale. Every year, pro riders get fresh kit with new sponsors and new graphics which means that all the gear from their previous season becames pretty much useless. Overnight.

Africa Kit Appeal art by Tim Marrs

artwork by Tim Marrs for the Africa Kit Appeal

positive solution – the Africa kit Appeal

Matt’s former team mate Adrien Niyonshuti from Rwanda runs a cycling academy back home. When Matt saw Adrien’s academy pictures, he realised that the riders barely had any cycling kit.

Idea!

Matt started collecting kit from his mates and sending it back to Rwanda with Adrian. little did he realise how his idea was going to take off. The Africa kit Appeal was born. Pretty quickly, he was overwhelmed with kit and ran out of space at friends’ houses!

We got in touch and quickly realised we could help with some of our warehouse space in St Albans. We now check in donations from all over the world and pack into export boxes ready to go. From us, it’s a short hop to Air Business, the distrbution sponsor for Africa Kit Appeal, who make sure the donations reach the right people.

As 2017 arrives, things have moved on. Multiple Irish Road Champ Matt is now with Aqua Blue Sport and the Africa kit appeal is now supported by Zwift, the giants of virtual racing.

We’re grateful to Matt and his friends who’ve solved that dilemma of what to do with our old kit and we’re delighted to be able to help with something so positive and useful.

The Africa Kit Appeal Mission Statement

“Our mission is to provide the kids of our supported African countries with the cycling apparel they need, not only will this enable the current cyclists to fulfil their full potential, dreams & ambitions but we hope we can also introduce some new faces into the world of cycling, a world that we love.” 

If you have any summer kit size M or below in good washed condition, send it in and we’ll make sure it ends up with the right people!