Rapha, nice but a bit pricey?

if you want a good japanese vacuum flask without rapha collab tax, buy a zojirushi

No idea if it’s working. But if I wanted the exclusive stuff being hawked, I’d sign up.

Why isn’t it sustainable? Everything is selling and people on a bike forum are discussing the value of becoming a member. Seems like a win.

Don't forget the £100 thermos

Keeps your tears at a perfect 37º

Snowpeak collab?

Because of not everyone who signs up can get it, what’s the point or value in being an RCC if that’s the main reason for joining?

Also there is a selective bias in that you don’t know how many could have sold without the restriction.

what’s the point or value in being an RCC if … not everyone who signs up can get …

The current system rewards those who pay for membership and stay engaged with releases (buying early).

If you have limited production and a series of releases this ^ seems like the kind of behaviour you’d want to encourage/reward. You don’t want stock hanging around. You want a fresh offering soon.

How would you do it differently? Run lines concurrently and rarely (never?) delete lines?

Sadly hype>‘drop’>sell out is the current retail/marketing strategy for many brands. Rapha were late to it but it’s not unusual and I think many people are fine with it.

They had their fingers burned with the previous approach, which was overstock>bargain bin>devalue product. I became trained to wait for sales but after a few years now I’ve accepted the price of their goods again…because some of it is the best out there.

You’re totally over crediting them for ‘strategy’

Simply viewing selling out as successful seems flawed.
RCC is £70, there have so far been two jerseys the EF switch out and the Strickland one, I think? Both sold out at £145 before general release, by accounts before some or lots of RCC members could get one.

I’m sure there is some sort of economic modelling for this but the above doesn’t seem to be maximising sales. But maybe that’s not the point??

I’d assume it means that everything sells and they then don’t have to mark them down to clear the dead stock.

Maximising sales definitely isn’t the point, it’s a short term strategy that will often sabotage long term desirability.

Not always the case depending on the sector (see Nike) but if you want to retain an aura of luxury then you need to do everything possible to maintain exclusivity and avoid flooding the market (hence why Chanel/Hermes never go on sale and destroy excess stock at the end of a season - it’s not worth damaging the brand to make a few extra sales).

For Rapha, they are more interested in the dedicated fans who will keep spending money and building the community they have established (I.e. RCC members) than the people who just want to dip their toe. They know the RCC is a self selecting group of the most dedicated fans who they can ‘trust’ to best represent the brand. The RCC has sometimes been described as a cult, but that’s exactly what Rapha want since members are deeply invested and will keep buying products year after year while also maintaining a level of mystique and exclusivity. And if they can drive RCC membership through attractive limited edition drops, that’s exactly what they will do.

You can criticise Rapha for a few things, but I’m not sure lack of brand strategy is one of them.

Imperial Works Club lives!

Simply viewing selling out as successful seems flawed.

That’s not what’s happening.

PT cargo bibs would be a great regular item, I forgot those were part of the collection

Confirmed.

I don’t credit it to them. I think Supreme, etc would be stronger candidates. Merely observing the patterns in plain sight.

I don’t endorse this approach either as it’s often wasteful and prays on psychologically vulnerable #buyers.

Good to see the armchair merchandisers out in force.

That reminds me, I need to hire a Merch. Can you help?

Higher or lower salary than armchair DS?
Guessing no previous experience is a positive here...

Essential for all armchair positions. ADSA demands it.

is a merchandiser a tiny merchant ?

A Merchandiser is one role in a seemingly inexplicable hierarchy of about 20 roles that seem to do all of the same sort of stuff or none of the same stuff based on the size of the place the stuff is happening in. Same is true for the salaries of said 20 roles. Mad scale.

Sure - hit me up.

the rag trade has always did strike me as impenetrable like that. a self sustained edifice of roles and fees, there are worse industries though !