The Rapha hater thread

[alitogata]

What is the point of hating a brand when you can always buy something else?

 

[Bespoke]

What is the point of hating a brand when you can always buy something else?

Well, for one, we wouldn't have this entertaining thread.

 

[BroDeal]

Sky using Rapha really says it all. Could there be a more pompous spokesman obsessed with his phony image than the one on the left? I have to wonder how long before Rapha comes out with a city cycling outfit based on that ridiculous ensemble.

 

[veganrob]

What is the point of hating a brand when you can always buy something else?

Hating really needs no reason. Besides, Rapha sucks.

 

[alitogata]

Hating really needs no reason. Besides, Rapha sucks.

The best punishment for a brand that sucks is not to buy it's products and not loosing time posting hateful posts. You see..not buying makes bigger damage than giving bad press, because even bad press makes people pay attention, while no press at all, makes people ignore something.

And in the end of the day, someone who hates spends his/her energy in the wrong place.. Why not spending our energy on cycling??

 

[Parrot23]

The best punishment for a brand that sucks is not to buy it's products and not loosing time posting hateful posts. You see..not buying makes bigger damage than giving bad press, because even bad press makes people pay attention, while no press at all, makes people ignore something.

And in the end of the day, someone who hates spends his/her energy in the wrong place.. Why not spending our energy on cycling??

Excellent post +1.

The one and very thing Brad is not is pompous. He's a complex fellow and has more money probably than he ever thought he would. He's acting like someone from a modest background who has come into a lot of money. Nothing unusual or strange there. Good for him.

Some folks stew in their hatreds and it becomes their lifeblood. Too bad--and it really is bad.

Time for some folks to drop into Zam's kindness thread.

(Full disclosure: I don't like the pretension of their brand, but to use it as a hook to hate the folks using it, Brad in this case, is truly absurd.)

 

[Race Radio]

I guess I finally have to write this.

I have one friend who wears Rapha. It is the only thing he will wear on the bike. He has the shoes, socks, bibs, jerseys, jackets. Head to toe.

I am sure some will scream "Poser" and assume he is a rich dentist/doctor/lawyer who only rides his bike to the coffee shop and back. Hardly.

He is a Navy SEAL. Been deployed over a dozen times. Hardest guy I have ever met. Can ride most of you off his wheel without a hint of suffering. Never complains, just rides hard.....really, really, hard.

He appreciates the quality, service, and simple style. I doubt he as ever been to a coffee shop.

 

[alitogata]

[...]
(Full disclosure: I don't like the pretension of their brand, but to use it as a hook to hate the folks using it, Brad in this case, is truly absurd.)

I don't know who is Brad, ( I haven't read all the posts) but I think that those who hate people from the brands that they prefer, generalize because they are not able to distinguish the qualities of a product from the qualities of a living person.

My mother used to told me that I don't need to wear branded clothes in order to feel like someone exceptional but my exceptionality has to be the brand of my self.
Her point is that is not the clothes that give specific qualities on us but we are those who give quality to any kind of clothes.

I wear any brand.. No brand can wear me.

 

[BroDeal]

The one and very thing Brad is not is pompous. He's a complex fellow and has more money probably than he ever thought he would. He's acting like someone from a modest background who has come into a lot of money. Nothing unusual or strange there. Good for him.

Anyone who spends so much effort dressing like he is from a bygone age qualifies as pompous and strange. A fixation on pretending to be part of a past era makes Wiggins and Ralpa a match made in heaven.

 

[alitogata]

Anyone who spends so much effort dressing like he is from a bygone age qualifies as pompous and strange. A fixation on pretending to be part of a past era makes Wiggins and Ralpa a match made in heaven.

Ha ha ha.. I know this Brad though..
Oh come on.. there's nothing wrong with Brad. He has his own style and this means that he has his own aesthetics and his own individual taste.

I like this kind of persons because they know who they are and what they want. I think that Bradley Wiggins can wear whatever brand he wants and have always his own unique style.

 

[Parrot23]

Anyone who spends so much effort dressing like he is from a bygone age qualifies as pompous and strange. A fixation on pretending to be part of a past era makes Wiggins and Ralpa a match made in heaven.

This doesn't even have anything remotely to do with the truth about Brad except in your imagination, and Rapha's branding exercise. And Brad's connection to it is sheer commercial coincidence. It could still be Adidas, it could be Assos. You're just blowing in the wind--and you were doing it about Pearl Izumi stuff before.

Froome on his part apparently knows zilch, like really almost nothing, about cycling history.

Nicely balanced pair.

 

[Barracuda]

I guess I finally have to write this.

I have one friend who wears Rapha. It is the only thing he will wear on the bike. He has the shoes, socks, bibs, jerseys, jackets. Head to toe.

I am sure some will scream "Poser" and assume he is a rich dentist/doctor/lawyer who only rides his bike to the coffee shop and back. Hardly.

He is a Navy SEAL. Been deployed over a dozen times. Hardest guy I have ever met. Can ride most of you off his wheel without a hint of suffering. Never complains, just rides hard.....really, really, hard.

He appreciates the quality, service, and simple style. I doubt he as ever been to a coffee shop.

Converted "former non liker" here, I too appreciate the quality, fit service and style, been wearing the classic kit for a month now and nothing has come close to it, not even my beloved Castelli 3T Pro kit.

Im over wearing a kit that is a bit cheaper, but not by much, thats got advertising all over it and every other numpty is riding the same kit.

Plus, once the post purchase depression faded, I realised I had nothing to fear.

 

[Benotti69]

http://internationale.teamjva.com/

 

[simo1733]

Is it true that Wiggo has his 2012 Palmares printed on the back of his jersey?

 

[Granville57]

7-31-11

This thread will fall off pretty soon too, has to be one of the dumbest in a while, you'll see.

 

[mewmewmew13]

bumpmeister Granville

 

[BroDeal]

The thread outlasted RDV4ROUBAIX.

Rapha hate is the international glue that can bring people of the world together. It might even be what eventually resolves the Korean split.

 

[Giuseppe Magnetico]

Calling people you've never met "d-bag's" and other names was the premise of this whole thread, started off pretty mean spirited, not what you're seeing as of late. Keeping in mind these are close fiends of mine, some for over a decade that are running Rapha USA which BroDeal was so eloquently thrashing. Very classy btw. Whatever, go team JVA!!! See you in Portland not UK.

 

[BroDeal]

Calling people you've never met "d-bag's" and other names was the premise of this whole thread, started off pretty mean spirited, not what you're seeing as of late. Keeping in mind these are close fiends of mine, some for over a decade that are running Rapha USA which BroDeal was so eloquently thrashing. Very classy btw. Whatever, go team JVA!!! See you in Portland not UK.

Work for a company that puts a marketing con job on the public then take yer lumps. Don't like it? Then quit or change the marketing to something that does not make people laugh at its abject cynicism and phoniness.

 

[Giuseppe Magnetico]

Work for a company that puts a marketing con job on the public then take yer lumps. Don't like it? Then quit or change the marketing to something that does not make people laugh at its abject cynicism and phoniness.

Man, you really take it to places nobody really visits. You one of those conspiracy dolts living in the mountains? Cons, and phonies everywhere, even at Assos!!! How do you get up in the morning being so fashion critical? Can you even step outside your door without bursting into flames? I mean, really!

 

[dolophonic]

Work for a company that puts a marketing con job on the public then take yer lumps. Don't like it? Then quit or change the marketing to something that does not make people laugh at its abject cynicism and phoniness.

Bro.. the problem with your point of view is all the clothing company's have stared this "marketing" Cappo sure have.. so do Assos..
Demarchi did their heritage line (they may have been around a long time but were not marketing this untill Rapha had been doing their thing for a while.)
The way you keep on whinging just makes you look like some bitter "hater" .. that's not your style is it ?

 

[Wallace]

Work for a company that puts a marketing con job on the public then take yer lumps. Don't like it? Then quit or change the marketing to something that does not make people laugh at its abject cynicism and phoniness.

The thing about cycling marketing is that it's really easy to ignore. It's not like you're bombarded with Rapha ads when you turn on the tv or the radio, and so far I haven't seen a single Rapha billboard. If their website bothers you so much, don't look at it. And the stuff may be over-priced, but it holds up (I commute in the rain in Seattle in some Rapha gear I've had for years and it is solid stuff)--if it looked good but fell apart from serious use, then it'd be a con job. I've had Castelli gear dissolve from daily use, and don't get me started about Pearlizumi. As far as I'm concerned, the companies that promise quality and don't deliver are the ones that should be taken to task. But then, I only go to the Rapha site to by stuff on close-out.

 

[Zam_Olyas]

Rapha ‏@rapharacing 32m
In anticipation of this weekend’s #ParisRoubaix, we present from the Rapha film archives ‘A Throw of the Dice’. → http://bit.ly/HeZO3I

http://www.rapha.cc/a-throw-of-the-dice

 

[Don't be late Pedro]

The thing about cycling marketing is that it's really easy to ignore. It's not like you're bombarded with Rapha ads when you turn on the tv or the radio, and so far I haven't seen a single Rapha billboard.

I much prefer to buy stuff based on word of mouth since it bypasses the whole advertising spiel. Plenty of people have mentioned that in the case of Rapha you get what you pay for i.e. excellent quality clothing that lasts. So far so good as far as I am concerned.

As has been mentioned if you don't like their stuff don't buy it and don't visit their site. Some people seem to be awfully angry about nothing...

 

[Parrot23]

Noticed one thing: Didn't see any Rapha-clad Sky riders totally frozen stiff and knocked out of Milan San Remo by the conditions. Nibali definitely was, and he's is not the skiniest rider around. In vicious conditions as Pais Vasco today, Rapha gear looks streamlined, functional. Not flopping around in the wind like parachutes.

http://www.teamsky.com/gallery/0,27401,17553_8619894,00.html#photo=6
http://www.teamsky.com/gallery/0,27401,17553_8619894,00.html#photo=0

Look at the guy in the red parachute ; and Sammy Sanchez's carrot jersey is too bunched/too floppy, too much drag at the shoulders; and see Hesjedal's grey parachute (Danielson had far better gear on, it seems). How much drag is that?

I don't like Rapha mythologizing one bit, but Sky seems well equipped by them.