Descente, Bike Nashbar, Terry Precision, Head and Giant are familiar names in cycling apparel, but a name you may not be familiar with is Aero Tech Designs, Inc. of Coraopolis, Pennsylvania. For over 25 years these companies, along with many others, have contracted with Aero Tech Designs to design and manufacture cycling apparel – all happening from their facility in this Pittsburgh suburb.
Founded by Cathy Schnaubelt Rogers, an avid cyclist and former racer herself, Aero Tech Designs prides itself on not only producing cycling apparel in the U.S.A., but also sourcing all of the raw material from domestic suppliers. The 10mm Italian inspired chamois is American made; the fabric is knit domestically in South Carolina; the thread is from American company Efrid of North Carolina – even the paper labels are printed locally in a domestic paper facility. Materials are brought together and assembled in Coraopolis by American workers. The company then sells the goods under the Aero Tech Design name.
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Aero Tech Designs not only produces shorts and jersey sizes common to most apparel manufacturers, but they also produce big and tall sizes. With waist sizes up to 60-inches and inseams of some products up to 41-inches, there is bound to be a product that fits you.
What sets Aero Tech Designs apart from other manufacturers is the price point of the products. Most of the garments sold under the Aero Tech Designs name are $65 or less. For American made, quality cycling apparel, the Aero Tech Designs product line is a good value – something that most Americans can appreciate in this gloomy economic time.
On a personal note, I had a summer job back in 1992 and 1993 working as a draftsman for a company down the street from Aero Tech Designs. Back then is was under the name Schnaubelt. I fondly remember taking my lunch break to run on over to their storefront to see what was new. On a few visits, the doors to the street entrance of the manufacturing side were open allowing a glimpse of the sewing machine operators in action. Many years have gone by since those two summers and I have since moved away from Pittsburgh, but up until Interbike this year I had wondered if Schnaubelt was still around. I was pleasantly surprised to see that they were still in Coraopolis and still producing quality cycling apparel… I still have one of those jerseys hanging in my closet – an American flag Descente jersey.