Rapha is refunding customers who bought certain items from its Rapha Cycling Club 10-year anniversary collection, that after a typo was spotted in the brand’s own club logo.
The collection, a collaboration with highly esteemed graphic designer David Carson, was exclusively available to Rapha Cycling Club (RCC) members, who the premium cycling clothing brand says it has contacted “to own up to the mistake” and issue prompt refunds to anyone affected.
The £195 Pro Team Aero Jersey, as well as the special edition cap and musette all have a print error on the RCC crest, a rogue ‘I’ appearing in ‘Club’.
“We messed up,” a Rapha spokesperson told road.cc. “We were so excited to bring out our newest collaboration with legendary graphic designer, David Carson, that we made a mistake.
“It’s a collection available exclusively to the Rapha Cycling Club (RCC) and we have contacted all of our members to own up to the mistake. As we’re committed to providing our members with the best possible product experience, we will be refunding any affected items imminently, and these have also been removed from sale on our website. We will refund members for affected items, whether these have been shipped or not.”
The spokesperson confirmed to us that the lines would be reproduced without the print error and the corrected items are expected to be available to RCC members in late October.
Members who were affected will be “first to know” when the restock arrives and will get priority access. Rapha also says there will be a complimentary cap (with typo removed) when they are back in stock.
“We’ve also taken the opportunity to increase our larger size offering for this restock, based on feedback from our community. Unaffected items in the collection remain available to shop online, including our special edition Factor Monza bike.
“We have apologised wholeheartedly for this error and acted as quickly as we could.”
The Rapha + David Carson collection went on sale to RCC members on Tuesday, the picture illustrating this article showing the erroneous crest on the sleeve of the Pro Team Aero Jersey. It was meant to be a celebration of the RCC’s 10th anniversary, Rapha partnering with internationally renowned graphic designer Carson to release a limited-edition collection of on and off-bike clothing, accessories, and a bespoke Factor Monza road bike.
Looking back at the images Rapha released to promote the new collection, the ‘Cliub’ typo is visible in the reflection if you know what you’re looking for and get a magnifying glass out, the error seemingly having gone unnoticed throughout the design, production and marketing phases of the launch, nobody at Rapha or the wider cycling world spotting it until customers reported the issue.
Speaking ahead of the project’s release, Carson said: “It was really refreshing in both LA and NYC to find out how many creative people were involved with Rapha. The brand and its product attracts such a diverse group of people. Their innovation, rich creative history and authenticity, the way other cyclists spoke about them, the way they were willing to explore so many design directions.”
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Unaffected items from the collection include baselayers, T-shirts, hoodies, and other cycling kit, Rapha telling us that it believes the only affected items were the Pro Team Aero Jersey, cap and musette.
A special edition Factor Monza is also available as part of the 10-year celebrations, the frameset priced at $4,299 (£3,190) or full bike with Shimano Ultegra ($7,099/£5,270) or SRAM Force ($7,299/£5,420).
17 thoughts on ““We messed up”: Rapha issues refunds after major typo spotted on 10-year anniversary kit”
If anyone has purchased one
If anyone has purchased one of these I wouldn’t return it, hang onto it, maybe in future they will become valuable as collectables like EFO (errors, freaks and oddities) issues for philatelists.
Not to mention the horrible
Not to mention the horrible waste of presumably destroying all those perfectly wearable garments.
Maybe they should flog the
Maybe they should flog the old stock off, I might even be able to afford it!
Think they’ve made a faux pas not putting it out as a misprint limited edition exposé, like the double-headed penny kind of thing???
Wiln-wiln for the buyers! Get
Wiln-wiln for the buyers! Get a refund and have a collectors’ item to sell in future.
I’m probably being unduly
I’m probably being unduly pedantic but souldn’t the article be talking about the club’s “tenth anniversary” not it’s ’10 year anniversary’?
Or even their “Tent”
Or even their “Tent” Anniversary 😁
Look closely and you can see
Look closely and you can see the error in the marketing shot..
… in which case folk got
… in which case folk got what they bought!
That’ll hit their profits. Oh
That’ll hit their profits. Oh wait…they’ve never made one!
Look closely and you can see
Look closely and you can see the error in the marketing shot..
Think of the number of people
Think of the number of people who must have seen it and not SEEN it on its way through design, manufacturing, packing and dispatch.
I’m impressed that this sort of thing is still possible.
I wonder if they were tempted
I wonder if they were tempted to try and style it out: pretend it was a really niche in-joke or something. ‘IU’ does look like 10 with the top chopped off.
Just as the Guardian is affectionately known as the Grauniad, will we now have to refer to Rapha as Riapha? Or Raphia?
If you like a lot of
If you like a lot of chocolate on your biscuit join our cliub…
ktache wrote:
Very tangential but I always like to wheel out the great line from a comedian friend: “If you like a lot of chocolate on your biscuit, have a chocolate biscuit. I see no necessity for a membership-based system.”
I’d rather have chocoliate on
I’d rather have chocoliate on mine.
They’ll be worth even more on
They’ll be worth even more on eBay now
So how many zeros does a typo
So how many zeros does a typo add to value as a collectable…