Moreno Moser

Twenty years ago nobody spent €300 on a jersey. Rapha changed that. Now they've lost £17 million for eight straight years because they taught everyone else the formula. Last week Rapha announced their eighth consecutive year of losses. Revenue down from £110m to £96m. Valuation slashed by £102 million. This is how category kings die. Polar invented heart rate monitors for cyclists. Owned the market completely. Then Garmin showed up and Polar became a cycling footnote. SRM created power meters. Every pro team rode SRM. Then Stages made them affordable. Now SRM is history. BlackBerry owned business phones. Created the entire category. iPhone arrived. BlackBerry disappeared. In hindsight it's obvious how it happens The category King creates the market. Dominates it. They teach everyone how to win. (Success leaves clues) The mindset shifts from "advance" to "maintain" They stop innovating. Rapha's last EF skinsuit was tested in 2022. Two years without going back to the wind tunnel. Their CEO admitted the partnership "got tired." When you create a market, you start with a mission. Then you win. Then you stop creating and start protecting. Meanwhile, smaller brands with nothing to lose keep testing. Keep iterating. Keep moving. Rapha discount to survive. Sales slow. You discount harder to hit targets. Works short-term. Kills you long-term. Now you're not premium anymore. You're just expensive stuff that goes on sale. Your customers wait for discounts. New buyers never pay full price. You trained everyone your product isn't worth what you charge. BlackBerry did this. Desperate promotions trying to move inventory while iPhone ate their lunch. Rapha showed the world how to make premium cycling apparel. The cafes. The clubs. The aesthetic. The storytelling. Now dozens of brands do all of it. Many started by copying Rapha, then found their own voice. Creating a market doesn't protect you. It gives everyone else the blueprint. Rapha's trying to come back. New CEO. Dumped EF. Partnered with USA Cycling for 2028 Olympics. Back to full-price positioning. But eight years of losses is a deep hole. Every innovation you create will eventually be commoditised. Production is cheap now. Chinese factories can copy any jersey. AI can replicate any design. The only moat left is community. And Rapha still has it. The RCC. The cafes. Twenty years of loyalty that money can't buy. Chinese brands can manufacture a perfect jersey for €50. What they can't manufacture is the Rapha Cycling Club. New CEO gets it. Dumped discounting. Refocusing on what made them different. Product advantages are temporary. Community advantages compound. Rapha taught everyone how to make premium cycling apparel. But they're the only ones who built a club people actually want to join. That's the way back.