The merchandising of RAGBRAI apparel is paramount to our marketing of this iconic event. We dedicate a tremendous amount of time to design annual event logos and event merchandise, especially jerseys through Primal, that are quality, attractive, marketable, affordable and yet still profitable.
We make a conscious decision to price our apparel appropriately that will maximize our unit sales because we want our riders to wear our RAGBRAI jerseys throughout the year and especially at other cycling events. Over 50% of our riders will purchase our jerseys, most of these sales occur in advance during registration, making our jersey the top seller of annual cycling event jerseys in the world. We also do tremendous sales of jerseys and other apparel and souvenirs on the ride in our merchandise trailers.
We believe that riders wearing your jersey are the best form of word of mouth advertising there is. It is a conversation starter when people ask, “Hey you rode RAGBRAI. Can you tell me about it?” Our media advertising budget is $0! Our advertising is strictly word of mouth and organic social media. The formula works as we have sold out the event for over 20 straight years to make it the largest multi-day cycling event in the United States.