Shutt VR No.3 jersey £59

New to the cycle clothing scene, Shutt VR was founded recently by two cyclists who decided they wanted to create their own range of British-made high quality jerseys that don’t cost a fortune and, judging from the jersey that RCUK has been testing, they’ve succeeded.

Our interest was piqued when we realised that Shutt VR is not only based in Britain, but that the guys have actually managed to source the materials and skills in the UK needed to create a range of British-designed and built jerseys. How many other British clothing manufacturers can you think of?

With the materials sourced and a garment maker in Yorkshire primed with the task, Shutt VR have designed a range of four jerseys. And they’ve decided simple, classy and understated designs are the way forward, and rather fetching they look too. A Shutt No.3 arrived at RCUK Towers, a clean looking jersey, two colours and a small italic logo on the chest.

The jersey is well designed and the material, Dri-Wool, feels smooth between the fingers and, like other Merino-based materials gives you a great jersey for most conditions. It doesn’t smell, keeps you cool on warm days and warm on cool days and is incredibly comfortable. The shape of the jersey is just about perfect; it hangs off the shoulders nicely, with the sleeves the perfect length and a little dropped tail for when tucked over. It’s a generous, rather than body-hugging fit, but nor does it flap around in the wind. There are four sizes available and the medium tested came up just right.

Shutt have kept the jersey simple in all aspects. There are three rear pockets, generous in their cargo capacity, and the middle one adopts a small section of Velcro to keep the top closed – a simple though far from elegant solution. There’s also a small reflective section of material on the bottom of the pocket. On the front there’s a short zip, and the rear half of the jersey waist is elasticated. I’d like to see Shutt make the elastic a bit tighter, though, as the jersey can sag a bit at the back when you’ve got a normal day’s riding worth of food/kit in the three pockets.

In use the jersey is impressive, the fit nigh-on perfect and the material works wonderfully, as we’ve come to expect from Merino wool-based fabrics. And despite being designed and manufactured in Britain, the price seems entirely reasonable to us.