The Rapha Cycle Club

We helped Rapha build a loyal following through the brand idea of ‘the glory and suffering of road racing’ and a retro aesthetic from the great past of Continental Road Racing. The challenge was to broaden the brand’s appeal and make it famous beyond ‘the lycra set’.

As an online business, Rapha had a lot of fans but no physical high street presence. We wanted to find a way to bring Rapha’s community together for real. Moreover, if people could experience the brand’s world for real they’d feel even more intoxicated by it. We created the ‘Rapha Cycle Club’ – a store, cafe, cinema, gallery space and fan hub that  first launched in Clerkenwell, London and The Bowery in NYC around the Tour de France and Giro D’Italia.

The true measure of their success lies is the fact that today there are 11 permanent Rapha Cycle Clubs around the world, contributing to a significant increase in annual revenue.