De Soto enters cycling clothing market • Specialized hires Teixeira
De Soto Sport, long known for its triathlon clothing and wetsuits, is entering the high-end cycling side of things with a new line called De Soto Grupo Ciclismo.
“We believe there is a tremendous opportunity for us to use our 22 years of technical apparel design and manufacturing to offer something different to the dedicated cyclist while offering unique incentives to the limited number of retailers who will be carrying this product in 2012,” said company founder and lead designer Emilio De Soto.
The line's jerseys are made of a fabric designed by De Soto called Skin Cooler, which the company has used in its Arm Coolers for almost 10 years. The fabric is said to disperse moisture through channels to create a cooling effect. The matching bib shorts use a compression fabric to support muscles.
Specialized hires engineer from Easton
Teixeira said he joined Specialized because he was “drawn to people that truly understand what it takes to innovate: visionaries, risk takers, my kindred spirits so to speak.
“I’ve always recognized that Specialized had that passion,” Teixeira said. “The ability for me to innovate at EBS had been lost, and that made it clear that it was time for me to move on."
At Easton-Bell Sports, Teixeira helped develop the Answer Hyperlite handlebar in the 1990s and, more recently, Easton's Haven Carbon wheels.
Teixeira also was a pioneer in the use of aluminum stanchions and steerer tubes for suspension forks.
