Inside the Endura factory leading the cycle clothing revolution

It could be any factory floor save for one crucial detail: the list of names written on boxes, bags and check lists around the room. It reads like a who's who of some of the biggest stars in pro cycling: Nairo Quintana. Alejandro Valverde. Jose Joaquin Rojas. Alex Dowsett.

In layman's terms this would be football's equivalent of Real Madrid. The distinctive dark blue and neon green kit belonging to Team Movistar which finished last year as the world's top ranked cycling team.

Scottish firm Endura has signed a three-year deal to supply Movistar with their kit - from jerseys and shorts to mitts, gilets and socks - all made here at their base in Livingston, West Lothian. It is a major coup and one which will this summer see the cycle clothing brand showcased on the biggest stage of all: the Tour de France. "Ultimately the pinnacle is WorldTour [the sport's top tier] and there is no getting away from that - it was always the end game strategy for us," says Jim McFarlane, the Lanark-born founder and managing director of Endura Ltd.

The company is no stranger to elite cycling as the co-title sponsor of Team NetApp-Endura, but it would seem that Tour de France entries are like buses: you wait years for one to come along and then two arrive at once. While Movistar automatically gains a place in the Tour, NetApp-Endura is among four teams to have been given a coveted wildcard entry to the famed race which gets under way in Yorkshire on July 5.

Cycling is big business and McFarlane, who set up the firm in 1992 after his race kit was stolen in Australia, has tapped into the growing interest. It is now the UK's largest brand of mountain bike, road and commuter cycle clothing with Endura's product ranges sold across Europe, Scandinavia, Russia, South Africa, Australia, Canada and the Far East.

For McFarlane, looking relaxed in an Endura hooded top and jeans, the Movistar deal is the culmination of close to two years of "reasonably painful" hard graft. "We have been working with Movistar for quite a long time prior to the contracts being signed," he says. "That was done on an informal basis as they were under contract elsewhere, but we had to convince them we were going to be the right partner so we did various prototyping and testing. They were with the incumbent supplier for 25 years so they weren't going to jump around easily."

According to McFarlane, Endura was in talks with "four or five teams" but felt the best fit was with Spanish-based Movistar. "The diversity in how the teams go about things culturally and organisationally is enormous," he says. "Movistar was the one we felt comfortable with quickly."

Last year, Endura moved into new premises in Livingston and now occupies a 42,000sq ft facility in Starlaw Business Park. The company also has bonded warehouse facilities in Shanghai. "We have around 50-60 people involved in production here in Scotland, but that is still a small proportion of our turnover and the majority of our product is made overseas," says Pamela Barclay, product director. "However, there are few brands who manufacture in Europe and we are one of them. The kits for Movistar and NetApp-Endura are all 100% made here. The main reason is we want to be fully in control because, with the number of tweaks and changes required [for each individual rider], it is effectively custom kit. That is unworkable with a remote factory."

Barclay is keen to emphasise that designing professional cycling apparel is more than simply about sleek-looking aesthetics. "The main focus is performance: it is very much substance over style," she says. "It is about results, not only in terms of races but from a marketing perspective for the return on [sponsor] investment."

With team members vastly ranging in physical size from the sparrow-like Quintana, winner of the King of the Mountains title in last year's Tour, who stands a mere 5ft 4in in his stocking soles, to the typically taller support riders - known as "domestiques" - this aspect brought its challenges. Not least when it came to the positioning of the sponsor logos which had to be carefully adjusted to ensure they sat in the same place regardless of the wearer.

Endura has also devised a system to measure the width of the seat bones in each rider's pelvis to ensure everyone is given the correct level of padding their shorts. No stone was left unturned: right down to optimising the location of the jersey pocket that holds team radios.

"The radio has to be positioned so that it's not at a point of curvature on the spine and also doesn't interfere with carrying bottles for those riders who have domestique roles," explains Barclay. "For some of the lead riders, who will never be carrying bottles, their radios can be positioned lower down or in another area of their preferred choice. We've also been looking at key things like the positioning of the race number and how this can help reduce drag."

The last area - aerodynamics - is one that particularly appeals to the inner geek in McFarlane. Professional cyclists compete in time trials, dubbed "the race of truth", where it is simply them against the clock on a predetermined course. Among those to excel is Sir Bradley Wiggins, the 2012 Tour de France champion, who won Olympic gold in the time trial in London.

"If you look at the Tour de France, you can't win without a good time trial," says McFarlane. "It's won in two places: the mountains and the time trials. Riders need to be supported by the best possible technology and it's significant the difference that can make.

"You can't easily with clothing make a rider climb the Tourmalet much faster - that is a tough gig. It comes down to a rider and to some extent the bike. In a time trial, however, the difference between a really good chronosuit [specially designed aerodynamic cycling clothing] compared to a mediocre one is massive. That is where we can add value to team performance. We aren't talking seconds, we are talking minutes. It's huge. It's the difference between winning or not.

"We have got ourselves into a position where there is the potential to be able to point to winning the Tour de France. I'm not going to say it will happen this year, but during the course of our sponsorship with Movistar there is every chance."

In February, Endura announced a collaboration with renowned aerodynamics expert Simon Smart to develop a range of streamlined cycle clothing which it is hoped will help boost performances by not only helping riders go faster by reducing drag but crucially save on their energy expenditure. Working alongside Smart, the technical director of the firm Drag2Zero, Endura conducted wind tunnel tests with Movistar riders at the Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 headquarters in Northamptonshire.

"The nice thing about wind tunnel testing is you can say: 'Here's the wattage savings, it corresponds to this many seconds,'" says McFarlane. "It's not a case of sticking a finger in the air and guessing, it's pretty accurate.

"The rate of progress on that has been mind blowing. It means that we can give the riders confidence because it all has been quantitatively verified in terms of [performance data] what their suits and overshoes were last year and where they are now. They should feel confident when they climb on the bike that they are going to be fast."

Back out on the factory floor there is no such chatter about wattage, drag and aerodynamics, but all of the workers are aware of the importance of their role. Alison Moodie, operations manager, gives a tour of the sprawling facility. The technology is mind-boggling. A cutting machine, which looks not unlike something from Tomorrow's World, whirrs into action, a robot arm cutting out fabric for a jersey with precision in the blink on an eye.

Prints of jersey designs are stacked on a drying rack, awaiting being taken to the heat presses next door. Those are then paired with the cut-out jerseys and pressed inside a machine which, using intense heat, sees the print permeate the fabric giving it lifelong colour. Some 60 seconds later, still warm to the touch, it is beginning to resemble something you might see in full flight in a peloton across the French countryside. The fabric is then sent upstairs to be sewn together into garments.

"Knowing two cycling teams are going to be wearing what we make in the Tour de France has created a buzz," says Moodie. "There is always someone who will have seen how the teams have done at the week-end, not even necessarily someone whose job it is to know that, but someone sewing the garments, printing or pressing them.

"I follow the teams on Twitter and will let the girls know if there have been any wins at the weekend. We have a noticeboard over there where I stick up photographs and results. You hear about the crashes as well. When that happens you are thinking: 'Right, do we need to get stuff out to them for their next race?' Usually the teams will get in touch to say there has been a crash and we need to get an order ready."

The Endura staff look set to be kept busy in the months to come. The firm is on track for its strongest growth year ever with orders rolling in, according to McFarlane. "All of our growth is export these days," he says. "Business is growing strongly in the US and throughout Europe, particularly in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Spain and Spanish speaking Latin America very much follows Movistar whereas NetApp-Endura is a German/British thing."

But he remains single minded. "The goal is not to dress the entire peloton - we don't want to do that," says McFarlane. What we want, the ideal scenario, is that we win the Tour de France, most likely with Movistar. We want to have contributed to that success in a quantifiable manner.

"Working with eight teams is not more beneficial than working with one or two. It is important to get the right teams and work closely with them rather than end up with a cookie cutter approach.

"That is exactly why Movistar wanted away [from their previous kit supplier] because if you end up with same stuff as everyone else, where is the competitive advantage?" n

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