PEZ reviews the new book “The Extra Mile,” by Simon Mottram and Guy Andrews about the history of cycling clothing brand Rapha. The book marks the 20th anniversary of its founding and as a corporate biography is impressive in its coverage and its honesty.
Two decades ago Simon Mottram, a hobby cyclist with professional expertise in the dark arts of brand management, bravely launched an upmarket cycling clothing company inspired by the style of pro bike racing’s Golden Age, which ran from the 1950s to the 1970s. He called it “Rapha”.
“The Extra Mile” credits Simon Mottram and Rouleur magazine co-founder Guy Andrews as authors but there are contributions from an impressive range of people who have at various points been involved with Rapha, from designers to national managers in Japan and the USA to catalogue models (including a then-teenager-but-to-be-eventual-Giro winner Tao Geoghegan Hart!), totalling more than 40 people, and their comments are offered as counterparts in smaller print around Mottram’s main text in this well-designed book. I will refer to the author here in the singular as it is written from the standpoint of “I” and seems to be very much in Mottram’s voice.
The book is organized into five sections and the author notes it is not designed to be read from front to back although that does work. This reader did notice some minor repetitions but looking at each chapter as a standalone tells the Rapha story from a different emphasis. The author feels that the book has the characteristics of Rapha itself, being “quite complex, sprawling, an outpouring, passionate and done differently. The book is part archive, part memoir and part design exercise.” Needless to say, any reviewer needs to take the wider view as well and there is certainly a lot to consider here.
What exactly is Rapha anyway? While the first impression is that it is a purveyor of stylish upmarket cycling clothing and, yes, this is the central business it is in, Simon Mottram’s goal was to establish something that truly celebrates cycling in its core values. Those values and what the company has done are set out in the first four sections of the book and described very specifically, paraphrased: “a personal passion for the toughest and most beautiful sport in the world; the confidence to innovate and lead the market; success and fulfillment coming from grit and digging deeper; investing in culture, content and community to draw more people to cycling and grow the company further.”
This all requires a level of support and focus deeper than just selling clothing and the company has done a lot of interesting stuff over those two decades and, admittedly, not all of it worked. Moving from his successful career in brand marketing gave Mottram ideas on what Rapha was to be and had a personal, rather selfless, reason for the company to make serious money but as a practical matter he had zero experience in the world of clothing manufacturing.
His business plan was based on some simple ideas, noting that cycling wear then was essentially team design-focused and pretty garish, while he was inspired by the simple classic appearance of the pro riders he saw in Phillipe Brunel’s 1996 book of black-and-white photos, “An Intimate Portrait of the Tour de France: Masters and Slaves of the Road.” He believed that it was possible to capture the flavour of that era in a manner that would appeal to a group of consumers like himself: keen male hobby cyclists with good incomes and an appreciation of the beauty and hardships of racing.
Rapha was to bring together these enthusiasts through the brand experience which, over the years, has widened, as the book relates. Women were brought on board as the company’s shoestring start solidified and the range of clothing expanded year by year. But new products arrived too—skin care, accessories, books, travel services, a worldwide network of cycling clubs—apparently everything but a Rapha gourmet coffee blend.
With its beginnings in the early days of Internet marketing—and we forget there was a world without Facebook or Shopify—Rapha always aimed to sell directly to its audience through a beautiful website, as much about art as commerce. The site has not only included what it is expected in terms of product information but also engaging stories and terrific photography. There is a YouTube channel for Rapha films and it shows how far Rapha’s original focus of celebrating 1950s road racing has come that the latest video is about women doing the Leadville 100 mountain bike race.
“The Extra Mile” is fascinating on many levels. There is the story of Rapha as a business concern—how it was established in the first place, design ideas behind it, where the founders wanted it to go as a brand and how to protect that brand as the company scaled up, practical issues of management in just getting the clothes made and chasing down investors.
There are great stories of guerilla marketing, such as taking the opportunity of using their underpowered Citroen H-van, a company mascot, to serve as the broom wagon at the Tour of Britain, or showing up at l’Etape de Tour to ASO’s horror. From a successful start as clothing supplier and sponsor to a British domestic racing team, Rapha Condor (“The Men in Black”), to a challenging experience in the big time in the same role at Team Sky, Rapha is using its present partnership with EF Education First in imaginative ways.
Rapha has never lacked imagination and in its early days it found ways to bring attention to itself that nobody else was using. The Rapha Continental was a handful of riders with a battered van riding around the USA, with fantastically evocative photography. Then there was a series of Gentlemen’s Races, later known as Prestige Races, around the world, giving enthusiasts the chance to compete on more great roads.
The Rapha brand extends to social rides, through no fewer than 21 Rapha Cycling Clubs around the world, but also to events such as the Festive 500, which sees thousands of cyclists around the world fighting the effects of the holidays by riding 500 kms between Christmas and New Year’s, and the Women’s 100, which began as a challenge for women to ride 100 kms. The connected world makes all of this possible and Rapha’s vision of using the internet and social media early on to encourage participation was pioneering. Since Rapha began in 2004 it is no longer unique in the market as a retailer of expensive cycling clothing but many of its competitors, who have clearly copied Rapha’s idea on a superficial level, do not have the power of the original brand and what it represents.
The two decades have seen a lot of changes at Rapha as well as the world of online retailing. Simon Mottram remains in charge of the company but sold his controlling interest in 2017 and the new owners have had to deal with a challenging financial environment in a company that has over 500 employees and an annual turnover of US$140 million. To support cycling and cyclists primarily from marginalized communities, the Rapha Foundation was established in 2019 and has provided over US$5 million in funding to 29 grantees around the world.
Simon Mottram wants to be clear that Rapha is about style, rather than fashion, and there are people who decry it as overpriced and pretentious, the brand for MAMILs. But there is no doubt from what is in this book, from Mottram and all those contributors, about a real love of cycling. It is indeed the most beautiful of sports – we can all agree on this at least – and in “The Extra Mile” we have a the story of a unique company told in an unusual and quite beautiful book. The writing is engaging and thoughtful and the presentation dazzling but it ends with a short account by Simon Mottram of a typical three hour ride he does from his home near London, a quiet outing on a summer morning, and we can all relate to that. You don’t need to own Rapha clothing to share these sentiments and see the people who have made Rapha what it is as your people, your tribe.
“The Extra Mile,” by Simon Mottram and Guy Andrews
400 pp., profusely illustrated, softbound (hardback edition will be restocked in December 2024 as well)
Rapha Editions, London, 2024
ISBN 978-1-912164-20-2
- Available for 35 GBP (plus S&H) through Rapha directly: www.rapha.cc.
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