When Rapha first launched in 2004, the concept of high-performance kit that also happened to look good was practically unheard of in the cycling world. “It was very functional back then,” says the brand’s CMO Tom McMullen. “It was very niche, the products were bad, the design was bad, and it was the kind of that thing your weird uncle did I guess.”

As an avid cyclist himself, a key part of Rapha founder Simon Mottram’s motivation for starting the business was to create products that he would actually want to wear, and so the London-based brand’s original Classic Jersey was born. “There were people like him around the world that believed in the sport and were absolutely obsessed with riding, but there wasn’t a brand that was serving their needs,” says McMullen.

Two decades on, the cycling landscape – and the visual aesthetic of the sport – have changed beyond recognition. “The black Classic Jersey with the white armband, now it’s the norm in terms of the look and feel of riding,” he says. “There’s still a long way to go, but if you look in and around cities at the diversity of people that are riding their bikes … the way the world is going the bike is only going to become more of a tool by which we get around.”