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The fact is the Vulpine was always seen as a Rapha copy cat
Really, was it? I think Vulpine was targeting a different audience. Rapha is targeted at road riders (well, was, now it's a lifestyle brand). Vulpine seemed targeted at people with money who commute and use cycling as transport but who are less serious about cycling.
Rapha sells itself by glorifying road racing and everything around it and started out making nice jerseys, bibs etc. for road riders. Vulpine has never been in that market. As @h2o points out Swerve and probably others were making 'urban cycling attire' before Rapha was so they clearly didn't invent it.
This is all a red herring anyway as I don't think they went bust because they targeted the wrong demographic or were competing with Rapha...
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Fox
croft
Jesus christ. You've got an obsession. The fact is the Vulpine was always seen as a Rapha copy cat, trying to cash in without putting in the innovation. In my opinion this has been proven by the very low R&D costs in the accounts and the fact Nick was paying himself a massive wage when the company wasn't even close to making any money. Also in my opinion he wanted the lifestyle without actually building a working business first.