A chance for cycling fans to test-drive products helps cyclewear retailer Rapha stand out from the crowd at its new clubhouse store in London.

Since opening its first London store in 2012, ritzy cyclewear brand Rapha has become a fixture on the cycling hangout scene. And now it is welcoming shoppers to its second standalone store-cum-clubhouse in the capital.

“What has been created is an experience in its own right and certainly sets the store apart from its neighbouring rivals”

John Ryan

This time it has set up in a former bank in fashionable Spitalfields, the heart of that part of East London that attracts the modish and downright outlandish in equal measure – and which has more recently become an anchorage for bike shops, indies and chains alike.

Rapha has joined a competitive arena – Boardman/Peloton, Evans, CycleSurgery and the sole outpost of road bike specialist Swift Cycles are all within a two-minute stroll of the new Rapha Cycle Club.

And as a two-wheeled retail destination, the area attracts plenty of cycling enthusiasts. The challenge is therefore to create a level of differentiation to ensure the steady stream of shoppers choose your store over the others.

For Rapha, a listed bank vault repurposed to offer a shopping experience for the more serious cyclist is that point of difference.

Try before you buy

Enter Rapha on the ground floor and you will find the more populist fashion cyclewear, plus the clubhouse coffee shop where glass-topped merchandise cases double up as tables.

Rapha 9

Rapha 9

Rapha customers can enter the bank vault to test-drive potential purchases

Head downstairs and the atmosphere changes. This is where the high-performance cyclewear is displayed and where, by appointment, customers can enter the vault – clad in their potential purchases of Rapha clothing – to test-drive them within a climate-controlled chamber.

Using a static bike, with an adjustable temperature ranging from 0°C to 30°C and a variable headwind, this is about helping the customer get a feel for Rapha apparel in their own riding position without actually leaving the store.

It’s fair to say that Rapha is at the top end of cyclewear when it comes to price and to justify this it has to do something distinctive.

In-store experience

For London-based design company Brinkworth tasked with creating the interior – as it did for Rapha’s Soho store – the major consideration was how to handle the massive vault door and the space behind it.

Rapha 10

Rapha 10

The lighting inside the vault changes according to the temeperature selected

What has been created is an experience in its own right and certainly sets the store apart from its neighbouring rivals.

It is exactly what fans of the brand should expect – products that speak money and design, and interiors that are about adding a twist to the standard operations within the cycling sector.

Care has also been taken to preserve details from the building’s banking past, from the heavy-duty GPO phone to the front doors.

The latest addition to the Rapha empire fits well within its neighbourhood and provides ample reasons to pay it a visit.

Rapha Cycle Club, Spitalfields

Opened November 2015

Number of floors 2

Design Brinkworth

Ambience Slick