The Kit Is It! (Kangaeroo Maillot Rouge: Where The Bunny Means Money)

Kangaeroo has had cycling kit merchandise for almost a decade, albeit with only a single customer.

Cycling is an expensive hobby with the initial outlay on a bike combined with constant spending for maintenance and the drain of treating the almost terminal affliction of upgraditis.

Never making a hefty wage and plagued with a dad bod from the age of 6 onward, I’ve never been keen on forking out the huge sums that brand-name manufacturers demand (and get) for their Lycra lineups.

Necessity being the mother of invention, I soon found out that I could get customized cycling wear not only at a fraction of the price the real makers wanted, but also with designs that I wanted.

And there came the Kangaeroo kit. There has been four incarnations of Kangaeroo kit since the first appeared on the scene in 2017.

The maillot kangaeroo blanc kicked off the collection with the Kangaeroo.com thinking kangaroo logo and title in gray on a white background with black sides and black sleeves with a kangaroo badge sewn on the left sleeve. The front and rear designs mirrored each other.

Two years later, it was the maillot kangaeroo noir, again with the Kangaeroo.com logo in gray, but this time the logo was in white lettering rather than black. The sleeve color blended with the torso, but the badge was replaced with the site logo and URL, matching the main design.

In 2022 we got the best Kangaeroo kit yet, with a wattle gold jersey adorned with the Kangaeroo logo and lettering in wattle leaf green. The image was high resolution and very well crafted, which made the maillot kangaeroo jaune an absolute ripper. The kit also included logo-adorned bib shorts and caps.

And that would have been the end of the jerseys were it not for the emergence of the Big Red bike and the prospects of a tour along the Nakasendo earlier this year. That led to the 2025 Kangaeroo kit made to match the Big Red bike. Though the planned tour didn’t eventuate as originally conceived, the maillot kangaeroo rouge has the biggest design change. Considering the specific nature of the kit, the logo was given a thought bubble containing the Big Red Bike Tour explanation that also emphasized the fact that the logo is a thinking kangaroo.

It’s fair to say that people who’ve noticed the jerseys through the years have loved them, especially the word play of the thinking kangaroo and kangaeroo. But perhaps the most definitive remark came from someone who saw me wearing the maillot kangaeroo rouge this week and asked where she could buy it. I told her that the jerseys aren’t really for sale, but inquired as to why she was keen on purchasing it. Her reply:

“I really love the rabbit.”