Rapha - am i still relevant?

This year, Rapha turns 20. That’s some achievement. Rapha is a brand I have a long history with. A friend introduced me to the young startup way back in the early days. My first purchase was a Club jersey. Back then, you got free arm warmers, and the packaging was incredible — small black and white booklets with stunning photography that made you want to go places accompanied your purchase. It was a small, expensive boutique brand in a world of fluoro, race-inspired, and, let’s be honest, quite ugly cycling kit. It was exclusive, and the branding was subtle, with lots of black and understated logos. If you knew, you knew and I was in. Most of the people I rode with took the piss, called me a snob, and said fashion had no place in cycling. They got that wrong. I wonder what they’re wearing now. I don’t think Rapha, and Simon Mottram, are recognized by the masses for what they started and have done for cycling in general. How many of the current brands would exist without them?

Over the years, as the brand began to grow, I kept a close connection. I used the Brewer Street Clubhouse as an office when I opened Kinoko on Golden Square back in 2013. When I joined La Fuga Travel, we ran the Rapha Randonnees and Escapes before Rapha Travel, and then finally ASCND and the Karl Kopinski jerseys. Have I ever been prouder? Doubt it. I planned trips and holidays using The Great Roads books by Graeme Fife and Peter Drinkell, so beautifully written and loaded with the most stunning photography that they made you want to travel to each and every climb… and I pretty much did. Rapha wasn’t just aspirational; it was inspirational.

This is where I start to question if I’m still relevant. My background has taken me all over the world. I’ve ridden in all conditions, spent days, weeks, months, and years wearing kit. I’ve learned what works and how to dress for the conditions. What works for me riding around Regents Park or Surrey is not what I’d wear in the high mountains or on a bikepacking trip. I’ve experienced good technical kit and have seen behind the marketing curtain. I don't want to be taking part in the #carryshitolympics and stripping off when conditions change. Lots of brands make summer kit, winter kit, and rain gear. It works in those specific conditions, but when there are big temperature swings or conditions change, they’re found wanting. That's where the tech comes in: thermoregulation. Some brands make that their priority, and that’s what I look for. You don’t need to be uncomfortable, and there are products out there that work and make cycling more enjoyable. People put up with a lot and accept it. Take it from me: you don’t have to.

I’ve seen a lot of changes in cycling. It’s now fashionable, and I’d argue that being cool and fashionable is more important than being innovative to most brands and possibly most consumers. All brands need to grow; otherwise, what’s the point? They need new blood to keep buying to survive, and the last couple of booms have skewed the fashion vs innovation balance to a point of almost no return. Selling more seems to come at the expense of making good technical kit. Anyone can design kit; I went down that rabbit hole myself. It's surprisingly easy, but actually making kit is not. We can all go to a third-party factory and knock up some good socials and a website, buy off some influencers, and create an aesthetic. That doesn't equate to a kit that actually works. If you’ve been riding for a while, you probably started with cheap stuff and progressed, and now the stuff you’re wearing is amazing and the best thing ever, but you would never wear that old crap again. You’re now too cool for that, but if you look closely maybe your new kit is not so different to the old one. I could rant for hours about how I see layering as a bad thing; people wearing rain jackets over insulated jackets in winter boils my piss, but I won't. This post is more about Rapha and whether I'm still relevant to them as a salty, middle-aged white guy.

I thought I wasn’t, but that might have changed again. I was recently invited to the Rapha mothership to learn more about new products, the brand’s outlook, and strategy. I was hoping I would be brainwashed into thinking that I was still relevant to the brand and they hadn’t forgotten about me. I went into it with my cynical head on (hard to believe, right?), thinking all I would be hearing about was new colors and more product, but nothing really new and nothing particularly innovative. Back to the fashion-first thing where I don’t fit in.

We had two days hearing from various departments and staff from all levels: production, development, sales, marketing, and Francois, the CEO. A few things struck me: Rapha still cares; there is self-awareness, and they know where they want to go and how they want to get there. They acknowledged mistakes and some of my concerns without me having to ask, but moreover, I got to see people at work, people developing products, and talking super passionately about them. I also got to see progress; a lot of the people presenting were women. I don’t know what the balance and numbers are within the company, but the cycling industry as a whole should take note.

Maybe they need to communicate that they still make stuff and tell stories again; maybe they haven’t been able to genuinely innovate for a number of years. The pandemic torpedoed a lot of people's abilities and skewed a lot of people's realities; no one got that right, but we’re entering a new world, and brands need to adapt. "Survive ‘til 25'' is the new mantra. At the heart of it, Rapha may appear to be a faceless fashion monster, but it’s not. It’s still driven by people who care and ride bikes and make cool shit.

I came away knowing what their plan is and a fresh outlook on what they do. I think there’s still a lot of work to be done to win me back. The customers they’ve lost through fashions and familiarity should still be a part of their strategy; they’re still riding right and buying. While there’s a whole world of other people and fresh blood who’ll buy into Rapha and what appears to be a new direction, I still see it as a desirable brand.

What I saw and heard gave me hope and got me genuinely excited about Rapha again. My wants and needs may not be a priority right now, and what I’m hoping for may take a year or two to come to fruition, but I came away thinking they’re heading in the right direction, and I feel reconnected.

I hope in another twenty years (I’ll be 70), I’ll still be riding, and Rapha are still around making kit I can use.

Congratulations to Simon and the team for what they’ve done for cycling and for making it to this milestone, and thanks to everyone who took the time to talk to me at the mothership.

Chapeau!