On our way to Monte Zoncolan last week, we decided to pay a visit to our friends at NALINI. Photos here are of the offices with historic displays from the champions who have worn Nalini or Moa Sport clothing to achieve their victories. One thing that sets them apart from most of their competitors is they make their own fabrics. That's right, yarn and color dies come in and finished garments go out, including some for VERY famous "brands" who we can't reveal. Larry finds it a bit annoying that these "designer brands" make a big deal about the quality of their products, but are so secretive about where the stuff is actually made and by whom.
As you can see the list of champions is long. We're not too excited about factories in general, feeling the people are much more interesting, so no factory photos here. If you like that sort of thing, check THIS out for a factory tour. Here you can see Mr. Mantovani and right-hand-man Paolo along with video of their vast factory, employing more than 300 persons.
Our friends at Albabici are the importers/distributors for Nalini/Moa Sport in the USA and Larry's enjoyed being with all of them at Interbike for many years. Finally we got to visit them in their country instead of Las Vegas! They gave us the royal treatment, to say the least! In addition to the factory tour, we spent most of the day discussing a project we could do with them while they sent out for lunch - just for us!
We already LOVE their wool bib shorts for our bici d'epoca exploits and perhaps they'll make us a jersey to go with them from the same special fabric? This has wool on the outside, but a synthetic component on the inside next to the skin. It seems the best of both worlds to us, at least for shorts.
After a long day, we bid arrivederci to charming Debora (just like most Italian operations the women are the ones with the charm and language skills) and Mr. Mantovani and headed off to Monte Zoncolan.
Grazie mille, ragazzi!!!!
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