now working with Assos for its men\u2019s and women\u2019s team kit<\/a>.<\/p>\n\u201cSimpler, better\u201d<\/p>\n
Fran Millar, the CEO of Rapha, made the announcement in an e-mail to customers on Friday. In announcing the news, Millar said of closing the Clubhouses: \u201cIt is a painful decision but it is the right call for the brand and our customers in the long-run.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Clubhouses that will close are located in Boulder, Colo, Chicago, Ill, Miami, Fla. and in Seattle, Wash. as well as in Manchester over in the U.K.<\/p>\n
Millar\u2019s statement added that Rapha was \u201cBuilt on meaningful customer experiences and storytelling both online and offline. At our best, no one does it better \u2013 and being at our best is my key priority.\u201d<\/p>\n
The CEO added that the closures are part of a move to make Rapha\u2019s operations more streamlined.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have been honest that we need to make changes at Rapha to bring greater focus. \u2018Simpler, better\u2019 is the guiding principle behind this decision.\u201d<\/p>\n
Struggling to keep up in a space Rahpa defined for itself<\/p>\n
While Rapha\u2019s struggles are not new, it recently posted an eighth-straight year of losses, they are still noteworthy. The U.K. brand was a major part of defining the high-end apparel space in cycling. In particular, Rapha helped create a space for marketing via storytelling that focused on the world beyond WorldTour racing.<\/p>\n
Rapha does deserve credit beyond marketing, though. The brand continues to offer repairs of its clothing, rare for a high-end brand.<\/p>\n
The first Rapha Clubhouse opened 2012 in London. It was a major extension of this philosophy into a physical retail space.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rapha\u2019s continued financial struggles are forcing the once-dominant brand to cut back, again. The U.K. brand will close…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":403776,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[569],"tags":[64,63,190858,784,59902,85],"class_list":["post-403775","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-clubhouse","tag-cycling","tag-rapha","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403775","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=403775"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403775\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/403776"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=403775"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=403775"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=403775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}