industry sporting goods founded 2004 founder simon mottram and luke scheybeler headquarters london england area served worldwide products clothing accessories skin care cycling holidays website rapha.cc rapha performance roadwear is a sportswear and lifestyle brand focused on road bicycle racing clothing and accessories . rapha headquarters are in london with a united states office in portland oregon . 1 contents 1 history 2 sponsorships 3 see also 4 references 5 external links history edit started in london in early 2004 by simon mottram 2 the first products launched in july of that year . the name rapha was taken from the 1960s cycling team rapha which was named after the ap ritif drink company saint rapha l. 3 in 2007 rapha partnered with british designer paul smith to create a range of limited edition cycle clothing and accessories . 4 rapha clothing is produced in a number of different locations including the uk italy and the far east . uk production included some early merino wool pieces and also leather gloves which are made in somerset england . italian production focuses on stretch fabric and stretch garments such as shorts and tights . in china production focuses on the most technical items such as outerwear . sponsorships edit rapha used to co own the uk based cycling team rapha condor jlt with london bike brand condor cycles and the cyclocross team rapha focus ; at the end of 2014 rapha announced they would end their grassroots sponsorship to focus on team sky and wiggins . 5 in august 2012 it was announced that as of 2013 rapha will be producing the clothing for the british cycling team team sky . 6 australian cyclocross champion for 2013 and 2014 lisa jacobs chooses to wear rapha clothing . on november 3 2015 rapha announced that their team sky sponsorship will end after the 2016 season . see also edit sports portal fashion portal sportswear activewear references edit the company . rapha . retrieved 8 april 2014 . penn rob . pedalling fashion the rise of cycle style . the guardian . the original rapha . the inner ring . 16 may 2012 . retrieved 21 may 2013 . rapha paul smith collection unveiled . road cycling uk . 28 july 2010 . retrieved 1 october 2012 . http rapha focus.cx sponsors merrill jamie 3 september 2012 . sky s the limit for cult clothing brand rapha . the independent . retrieved 1 october 2012 . external links edit official website this clothing related article is a stub . you can help wikipedia by expanding it . v t e this cycling related article is a stub . you can help wikipedia by expanding it . v t e retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title rapha sportswear & oldid 740674627 categories sportswear brands2004 establishments in the united kingdomcompanies based in londonsporting goods manufacturers of the united kingdomsports clothingclothing companies established in 2004clothing stubscycling stubshidden categories all stub articles navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages polski edit links this page was last modified on 22 september 2016 at 15 14 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy . wikipedia is a registered trademark of the wikimedia foundation inc. a non profit organization . privacy policy about wikipedia disclaimers contact wikipedia developers cookie statement mobile view