FEATURE
But what impact has Rapha had on the cycling world in the eyes of its outgoing CEO?
“I think we’ve helped pioneer that resurgence of confidence in
cycling,” Mottram said, “by making it better quality and by pushing standards and by making it a bit more aspirational. It’s quite cool to be a bike rider now. “We’ve celebrated the culture of cycling in a way that nobody had done before and made that legitimate too. I’m pretty proud of the impact we’ve had. But let’s be honest, within cycling we’ve had impact, but the bigger question is, what about outside of cycling? “Cycling is still this niche pursuit and that frustrates me.”
Mottram hopes that Rapha can help drive the popularity of cycling, maybe even put it amongst the most popular sports in the world, right alongside football. He added: “We’ve also been focusing a lot on getting more
women into sports. Just in the last two years I’ve seen such a change in London, and with different ethnic groups. “Rapha is more and more relevant to those groups, because for a long time it was just people like me - male, pale and stale - so I think there’s a big opportunity to reach into different groups.”
The next chapter So what comes next for Rapha and for Mottram, who will remain on the board of the company as Kim takes over from the start of 2022? After almost two decades running the ship, Mottram is hoping for a clear diary, with an eye on Rapha as it aims to become the brand
for the cycling lifestyle, while keeping focus on the core market. Internationalisation is now a major priority for Rapha, in part driven by its 2017 buyout by RZC Investments, a company set up by the American businessman Steuart Walton, one of the directors of the Walmart supermarket chain. Now looking back on his career with Rapha, Mottram said the
toughest times for the company were always the early years, like running out of cash and borrowing from friends to be able to pay a factory. While in 2021 the company has the scale to weather most storms, in the early days supply chain issues or design problems were existential - “probably the hardest challenge,” Mottram said. But his fondest moment stands out like a lone mountain on the horizon: “It was probably Mont Ventoux in 2013, being [at the Tour de France] with 100 customers, friends and investors, Chris Froome coming around the corner in yellow, riding for Team Sky in Rapha kit and dominating that stage. That was our first time in the Tour de France. I mean that’s pretty hard to beat as somebody who’s madly keen on the sport.” It has been a remarkable two decades for Rapha, which has accomplished so many firsts for a cycling brand and upped the stakes for performance apparel in the sport. Mottram added: “Rapha for 18-19 years has been a total obsession. I want to keep my diary as clear as possible so that I can just enjoy every day. It’s like the old race analogy of burning matches - I think I’ve burnt most of my matches.” n
www.bikebiz.com
January 2022 | 15
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