12 YEARS OF DNA PRO CYCLING
By:
Catherine Fegan-Kim (Co-Founder, Rider 2013-2018, Co-Owner & Sports Director)
Chiara Kim (Daughter of Co-Founders, Northwestern University Student, National Champion Rower)
Over the past 12 race seasons, DNA Pro Cycling’s bold colors and distinctive stripes have stood out in pelotons and on podiums across the world. We have worn 12 different designs, three special edition kits, 6 Elite National Champion kits for 4 nations, and a fun SSCX pet friends skinsuit.
After a local Salt Lake road race in 2011, Co-Founder Kemi King mentioned to me that she wanted to start a fully-supported women’s team and asked if I’d be interested. Kemi and I continued to battle it out on the race course on different men’s club teams that year. However, by the middle of the 2012 season, Kemi, Alex (my husband/Co-Founder, Co-Owner & General Manager ), and I were coming up with a plan to create a team that would support women to race locally, regionally, and internationally—using Team Tibco as a model. We started small with nine strong local racers and one experienced pro rider, Flavia Oliveira. Every year, we got more substantial. Still, I never imagined our team would become one of the strongest North American teams, with innumerable wins and podiums, a solid UCI ranking & multiple national championship titles.
We got to work in the off-season of 2012 to create the first kit design for our team. DNA had an in-line kit design that we liked. Instead of their typical orange stripe, Seth worked in the pink, red, and green tri-color stripe of the K4Racing logo for our 2013 kit. From 2013 to 2017, we kept this basic concept— a black jersey on one side representing our title sponsor logo with a pop of color on the other side. We wanted to stand out in the peloton with a cool kit design to complement our fast racing. 2014 is one of my favorites, with its bright colors and blue stripe.
2015 was our “skittle/rainbow bright” design, which was a shift from the simpler aesthetics of 2013 and 2014. In 2016, we merged with Lee Whaley’s (Co-Founder, Team Principal) team, Visit Dallas, and became a UCI-registered team—Visit Dallas DNA Pro Cycling. With multiple title sponsors (DNA, Visit Dallas, and Orbea) and UCI kit regulations, Seth faced new challenges but came up with a beauty. The intersecting neon colors of 2015 became solid diagonal stripes of pink, blue, purple, and yellow. We stayed with the same concept for 2017. We tried to only tweak our kits in the second or third run of the design so that our fans and the peloton would recognize us.
Our 2018-2019 kit was more playful as we took a 2-year break from UCI. As a USA Cycling Domestic Elite team, we had more freedom. The navy, red, and blue geometric shapes spelled out DNA across the chest. We also introduced our navy bibs. In 2020, we again became a UCI Women’s Continental team (DNA Pro Cycling) and created our iconic pink and white “stripes are fast” jersey. We simplified the navy blue bibs so they had a simple leg band showing off the logo colors to tie the jersey and bibs together. Each year, we tweaked the design a bit, and in 2022, we added our 10-year anniversary logo to one of the sleeves. For our final year in 2024, we went back to black, going for a clean, fresh look with a white jersey with pink and black stripes—my all-time favorite.
Our kits are designed in the USA by Seth Bradley and handmade in Italy by DNA Cycling’s manufacturer. We take pride in the fact that our kit designs are loved by the peloton and the fans every year. Our branding stood out beyond the peloton as we shared kits and t-shirts with our gracious host houses and saw kids alongside the race course wearing DNA. Our riders signed young girls’ DNA jerseys, leaving a lasting legacy in women’s cycling with our distinctive kits representing our powerful racing. We even won the Championship of Kits in 2020. The kits are great-looking, and their fit and comfort for racing are second to none. Joe Sepulveda and his design team have always been open to our feedback, suggestions, and requests—whether the longer sleeve lengths, adding or removing a collar, aero skinsuits, longer bib lengths, shorter jersey lengths, or chamois types.
We’ve had fun creating special edition designs for the Armed Forces Cycling Classic in 2022, 2023, and 2024 with our Blue Halo DNA kits. We also loved creating multiple national champion kits—a British ITT Champion skinsuit for Claire Rose in 2017, a Mexican ITT Champion skinsuit for Anet Barrera in 2022, and Diana Peñuela’s Colombian Road National Championship kits in 2022 and 2023, and ITT Champion skinsuit in 2024. We were able to mix it up by using navy, white, and black as a backdrop behind the tricolor flag of Colombia in these three designs. When Maggie Coles-Lyster won both the Canadian Road and Criterium National Championships in 2022, DNA’s Todd Erickson had a blast designing her maple leaf jersey, which featured a Canadian Moose hiding inside one of the jersey pockets. Anet’s white and gray jersey showcased the Mexican flag for her National Champion kit and her Peanut Butter Company logo, “Manias Por Ti,” inside one of the pockets. With multiple national champions on our rosters, we almost always had riders with arm and leg bands honoring their nations’ colors.
We had an amazing run and are incredibly proud to have stood on so many podiums in North America, New Zealand, Mexico, Canada, Colombia, France, Great Britain, and Belgium. We have helped riders race for their federations at the World Championships, Pan-American Games, and Commonwealth Games and had two former and two current riders at the 2024 Paris Olympics. Although we are sad that this will be it for DNA, we are delighted to have had three current riders move onto World Tour teams and many other riders to great teams in Europe and the US over the last 12 years.
Fun fact—DNA stands for Dirt ‘n’ Asphalt (not deoxyribonucleic acid), which is fitting for our team that over the past 12 years raced countless miles on road, gravel and dirt. For our last hurrah, we decided to create one more design: our commemorative kit. Alex had the idea to make a special edition kit as a parting gift for team members and staff attending our Farewell Tour — the Powless Gran Fondo. The inaugural event was presented by Bear Race Events, our rider, Shayna Powless, and her family in Auburn, California on Nov. 2, 2024. I asked Seth to include the 70+ names of the athletes that raced with us over the last 12 years, which he put on the back pockets of our jersey. Most of our 2024 staff, half of the 2024 racers and a few OG riders attended the event, and it was a delight to see everyone’s reaction when they opened up the commemorative kit and saw their names on it. Though it rained during the fondo, there were only smiles amongst us all, and the weekend was full of laughter as we reflected on old memories and made new ones. The overcast skies only brightened the pink and blue colors of our commemorative kit. We cannot thank everyone at DNA Cycling enough for their support, friendship and love over the last 12 years. Grazie mille!!!
Photo Credits: Cotton Sox, Wil Matthews, Pat Daly, Adam Koble, Jonathon Devich, Dan Munson, Darrel Parks, La Vuelta Es Asi, Joe Sepulveda
Do you race in a Club or Team and want to take your results to the next level this year? Reach out today to get started on your Custom Kit. DNA’s custom product line has been tested in Pro Pelotons around the globe. Explore our custom options today and learn more about the DNA Custom Program by reaching out.
Get started by contacting us here:
📧 – sales@dnacycling.com
📞 – (801)-676-5057
🏠 – 584 E 1100 S St Suite #1, American Fork, UT 84003
📲 – @dnacycling