Rapha jeans have been popular around these parts in the past, but the latest models – in collaboration with Cardigan-based Hiut Denim Co – are going to raise eyebrows, not least because they come in at £350 a pop. If you usually make your buying decisions based on what’s cheapest in TK Maxx, we can safely say that these aren’t the jeans you’re looking for.
Hiut was set up in 2011 by David and Clare Hieatt – the couple who earlier set up Howies – and makes jeans in its own factory in Cardigan.
If most jeans are mass-produced using low-cost labour in Asia, Hiut jeans are pretty much the exact opposite. Hiut manufactures in small batches and “sources denim from some of the world’s finest mills, including organic cotton and premium selvedge selected for longevity and performance”, it says. The jeans are even signed on an inside pocket by the person who made them.
High-quality, British, a lot of selvedge denim, a story to tell… Hiut is very much the kind of brand you’d imagine collaborating with Rapha.
Oh, and part of Hiut’s attraction is that they offer free repairs for life. Okay, you pay a lot of money for the jeans in the first place, but you can send them back to get fixed when the denim starts to wear through or gets damaged in another way. They won’t necessarily come back as good as new, but you’ll get a whole lot more use out of them (I’m wearing a repaired pair of Hiut jeans right now, as it happens, and you’d never know they’ve been back for a facelift without getting uncomfortably close).
Anyway, Hiut and Rapha have now launched a limited-edition selvedge denim collection, available exclusively to members of the Rapha Cycling Club (RCC) from today. There’s one men’s style, The Work, and one women’s style, The Aurelia.
Each is made from raw, unwashed 12.5oz indigo selvedge denim with a signature pink line from Cone Denim Mill, USA, and is priced at £350
Obviously, they’re intended for times when you’re both on and off the bike around town rather than for getting in the long miles at the weekend (that would just be silly).
Rapha says, “Cycling-specific detailing includes a reflective Rapha logo revealed when the right leg is rolled for visibility, and a reinforced double centre-back belt loop for strength in the saddle. Each pair is finished with Hiut’s signature hi-vis pink owl rivet.
Unlike some bike-specific jeans we’ve reviewed in the past, you still have a seam in the seating area.
Rapha says, “In keeping with Hiut’s founding mission to challenge throwaway culture, every pair comes with free repairs for life, carried out by Hiut’s GrandMasters in Cardigan, West Wales.”
Told you!
As mentioned, the Rapha x Hiut Jeans are available for RCC members only – and membership will set you back £70. Will the jeans ever become available to non-RCC members? We don’t know the answer to that one, unfortunately.
12 thoughts on “Rapha jeans are back… at £350 a go”
Says it all about the delusional elitism of the cycling industry in the face of multiple global crises caused by ego, greed and narcissism.
Cycling should be the egalitarian antithesis.
…there’s a local jeans maker near me that offers the same service for 1/10th of the price.
Intrigued by this. Community Clothing which exists to support British textile manufacturers rather than make a profit charges north of £140 for a pair of Selvedge jeans made in the UK. If someone is doing it for £30 I’d love to know who they are and how I can support them.
Is that for visibility of your perfectly toned calf?
Sounds like a safety idea borrowed from lizard technology – while the motorist is distracted by your rolling right leg you can make your getaway. (Clip-in pedals or toe straps would help here).
Hiut jeans are amazing quality items. They feel very different to any other jeans I have ever touched, let alone worn. And to be fair to Rapha, they are not charging a huge premium to the Hiut Selvedge price. But still don’t see why anyone would want the Rapha version over the original.
Funny Rapha show video of the women in our own lovely England making one of the 30 pairs of jeans they will sell this year and not any images or video of the Vietnamese woman who made my Rapha bib shorts in the sweat shop.
The jeans are made in Wales. Curb your territorial enthusiasm.
Sorry she looked sad, I should have known
So the only thing that makes these jeans different from the seven pairs of Levi’s one could get for the same money is a very small reflective detail if you roll the trouser leg up and “a reinforced double centre-back belt loop for strength in the saddle” (something I’ve never really felt was missing from my life)? They don’t even have cycling-specific seams, for goodness sake! If Rapha want a reason they haven’t made a profit since 2017, look no further.
Was this an early April fools joke?
😂🖕