Mottram

Michael Conway Staff bikes fill Rapha's dispatch room It was his obsession with cycling and his inability to find the right kit that led Mottram to launch Rapha in 2004 with Luke Scheybeler above a haberdashery store in Camden Town.

When Just Any Old Lycra Won't Do Tina Gaudoin 2011

"There was nothing out there for cyclists like me who wanted a brand that was authentic and unique," says Mottram, who has a background in marketing and luxury-goods consultancy.

When Just Any Old Lycra Won't Do Tina Gaudoin 2011

Mottram acknowledges his line will be a challenge to market.

When Just Any Old Lycra Won't Do Tina Gaudoin 2011

Mottram has made a virtue of the luxury element of his brand, using events, photography and marketing to engender word of mouth, rather than using advertising.

When Just Any Old Lycra Won't Do Tina Gaudoin 2011

Mottram's mission is not small—he wants to make cycling the most popular sport in the world and have children put up pictures of cycling greats like Dave Brailsford and Mark Cavendish on their walls instead of Wayne Rooney.

When Just Any Old Lycra Won't Do Tina Gaudoin 2011

Chamois cream £15 Mottram raves about the flexibility and mobility a bike gives you, recounting tales of epic cycle rides with a group of friends— coast to coast in Italy, up into the mountains in France and across Spain.

When Just Any Old Lycra Won't Do Tina Gaudoin 2011

It would have been intriguing to be a fly-on-the-wall at Mottram Hall, in Cheshire, last night to hear Paul Ince and Steve Evans jointly plotting the downfall of Manchester City and Manchester United.

Notts County manager Paul Ince wants joy of success to heal old scars 2011

On 14 June 1955 Tony Mottram, the British tennis hope of those days, chose as one of his Desert Island Discs Fats Waller's "Alligator Crawl", a thrilling boogie-woogie rumble.

Fats Waller by Michael Longley 2011

In Mottram's office, his favorite £4,500 Colnago bike rests against the wall.

When Just Any Old Lycra Won't Do Tina Gaudoin 2011

By way of direct contrast, black was and is Mottram's choice of primary colorway; it defines the brand, together with other more saturated colors and accents, from their trademark murky pink to blues, grays, reds and off-white.

When Just Any Old Lycra Won't Do Tina Gaudoin 2011