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Think you have a lot of jerseys? You won't have as many as Paul Smith...

...though to be fair pro cyclists do like to wear a nice suit on their days off

The Nottingham-born fashion designer legendary for his menswear is also famously a bike fanatic who gets to rub shoulders with all the top cycling stars. Perhaps not surprisingly Paul Smith also has a priceless collection of jerseys.

The website Obsessionistas is devoted to the sometimes quirky collections of the obsessed with the aim "to uncover, share and celebrate a wide range of remarkable collections, along with the personal collecting stories behind them". It has just launched a feature on the fashion designer Paul Smith and the stash of cycling jerseys that he's gathered over the years.

Many of the jerseys in the collection are gifts presented to Smith by riders and friends, who include some of the top names in what Paul Sherwen would call "the sport of professional cycling". Amongst the highlights of the collection are the yellow and pink jerseys from the Giro d’Italia signed by the winner Alberto Contador and the green jersey won by British cyclist Mark Cavendish in the sprint competition in this year’s Tour de France. The collection also includes World Championship jerseys from Bradley Wiggins, Thor Hushovd, Chris Hoy and Nicole Cook.

Smith once hoped to become a professional cyclist himself but after suffering a serious cycling accident aged 17 pursued his career in fashion. He never lost his passion for cycling though and over the years the collection of cycling memorabilia has grown along with his fame as a designer. He's even designed bikes for Mercian.

According to husband and wife team Graham and Helen Powell behind the Obsessionistas site, “We are fascinated by how people’s individuality is often expressed through their obsessions with the things they single out as important enough to collect. Paul Smith is a collector we particularly admire and, as cycling fans ourselves, we were delighted when he agreed to give us an exclusive insight into his personal collection of cycling jerseys.”

See the Obsessionistas Paul Smith jersey collection and interview here.

See also the Obsessionistas feature on French cast metal cycling figurines collected by another Mr Smith, this one Mark who is a Senior Research Fellow in Sustainable Design at Birmingham Institute of Art & Design.

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14 comments

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andystorey | 11 years ago
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Found this via google the other day;

http://cycling-jersey-collection.com/browse-collection

Some progress on getting 100+ jersey online

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andystorey | 11 years ago
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Found this via google the other day;

http://cycling-jersey-collection.com/browse-collection

Some progress on getting 100+ jersey online

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skippy | 12 years ago
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Congrats " Ourtel " on taking the punt ! King Cav is a lot easier to get along with than the media portray !

See my blog on him at the first rest day of the TDF >

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ourtel | 12 years ago
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Liquigas offer lots of signed merchandise in their online shop. Managed to pick up the Basso pink jersey and Nibali red jersey from the Giro and Vuelta respectively. Not sure why more teams don't do the same? Was lucky enough to meet Brian Holm outside the team's hotel in Paris at the end of the Tour. I gave him a replica green jersey that he agreed to have Cav sign and mail it back to me in the UK. Thought it was worth a punt and was more than happy to receive a fully logo'd TDF official green jersey signed by Mark in the post a couple of weeks later.

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notfastenough replied to ourtel | 11 years ago
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ourtel wrote:

Liquigas offer lots of signed merchandise in their online shop. Managed to pick up the Basso pink jersey and Nibali red jersey from the Giro and Vuelta respectively. Not sure why more teams don't do the same? Was lucky enough to meet Brian Holm outside the team's hotel in Paris at the end of the Tour. I gave him a replica green jersey that he agreed to have Cav sign and mail it back to me in the UK. Thought it was worth a punt and was more than happy to receive a fully logo'd TDF official green jersey signed by Mark in the post a couple of weeks later.

Wow, that's awesome! I want to get something like that.

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skippy | 12 years ago
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An interesting Guy who when you meet him unawares you would not know that he has contributed so much to the Cycling Industry !

Mentioned meeting him in my blog post from the Giro d'Italia in May/June but as he described himself then as " A friend of the cycling family " i was only aware that he was of some importance because he was in the D.G.' car .Just done another blog post in Parrabuddy.blogspot about this meeting :post.ly/3Rah

Too late to suggest that some of these shirts could have been made available for exhibition at the " Tour of Britain " as a way to raise funds for " Worthy Causes "! Presumptious of me to suggest that they could go on exhibition but they are of value to the "Cycling Family " !

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timbola | 12 years ago
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... and don't forget Phil Ligertine - the singer, cyclist and former method of execution in France  3

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nick_rearden | 12 years ago
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You guys are on fire! Only been writing 'Sherwen' half my life. Will be calling David Millar 'David Miller' next.

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timbola | 12 years ago
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Is that Mr Sherwen, perchance ?  13

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charlie bravo replied to timbola | 12 years ago
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arrrggghhhhh

note to self: If trying to be a pedant, at least get your spelling right.... lol  7  4

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charlie bravo | 12 years ago
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And wouldn't Mr Sherwin say "The sport of 'professional' cycling"?  3

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JJ the Flying D... | 12 years ago
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Not as many jerseys as this guy has  1 http://www.tonmerckxwielershirts.nl/index.htm

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Low Speed Wobble | 12 years ago
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It's not obsessionistas.com it's obsessionistas.co.uk - sorry, jus' sayin'. I'm obsessive like that.

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nick_rearden replied to Low Speed Wobble | 12 years ago
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Low Speed Wobble wrote:

It's not obsessionistas.com it's obsessionistas.co.uk - sorry, jus' sayin'. I'm obsessive like that.

You're bloomin' right! Ta!

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