Founded in 2004, London-based Rapha’s cycling clothing collections are globally recognised for redefining comfort, performance, and style for cyclists from beginners to WorldTour professionals. Rapha’s mission is to make cycling the most popular sport in the world. The company organises and sponsors rides and events both within its global 15,000-strong members base known as the Rapha Cycling Club, and for the general public. Rapha has been working with the world’s best athletes for many years and currently partners with the women’s UCI WorldTour team, Canyon/Sram and the men’s WorldTour team EF Education First Pro Cycling.

With Rapha’s commitment to excellence, accelerating design processes and implementing advanced digital solutions, adding EFI Optitex 3D was the next logical step in ensuring the delivery of high-quality products, on time and on budget.

EFI Optitex partnered with Rapha to boost the clothing manufacturer’s overall efficiency, enabling Rapha to gain a real competitive edge in the industry. The company first implemented EFI Optitex 2D solutions, and more recently augmented the software with EFI Optitex 3D solutions to integrate 3D digital design and prototyping into Rapha’s workflows. Rapha is currently participating in training and onboarding to implement EFI Optitex 3D Pattern Design Software (PDS) with photorealistic renderings and the 3D Design Illustrator (3DDI) plugin.

Today, Rapha is primed and ready to grow and embrace the power of an integrated 2D-3D workflow. With EFI Optitex 3D, Rapha will benefit from significant savings in sample production time and make quick adoption decisions. The company will be able to showcase true-to-life virtual samples within hours and work with a single digital asset, eliminating manual steps in the design-development process.

Rapha Head of Atelier Claudine Rousseau:

“We chose Optitex 2D as our pattern cutting solution because of its intuitive, easy-to-use tools and functionalities, and its insight into implementing EFI Optitex 3D down the road, to serve as a single solution in helping us to reduce samples through fit assessment early in the process. What’s more, investing in 3DDI will greatly help our graphics team to visualise graphic applications, and facilitate a more experimental approach. It will also minimise errors in communication with our vendors, saving time and costs. We are keen to work with EFI Optitex as a long-term partner to take innovative digital solutions forward, as we strive to maintain our reputation as a leading cyclewear brand.”

EFI Optitex General Manager Amir Lehr:

“As an amateur cyclist and an avid customer of Rapha, I’ve learned to appreciate the functional fit, care for details and meticulous design Rapha provides. We share the objective of accelerating concept-to-delivery and customisation while maintaining strict quality control enabled by digitising the workflow, today, and well into the future.”

Rapha was established in 2004 to address a need for stylish, high performance cycling clothing. It now provides products for every cyclist and continues to push the boundaries of innovation in cycle wear. Alongside this, Rapha has cultivated a global community of passionate riders who come together as members of the Rapha Cycling Club (RCC), the largest club of its kind in the world. Rapha’s retail model and unique brand values come to life in its many rides and events and global network of Clubhouses that combine retail, cafés and cycling culture all under the same roof.

EFI Optitex

EFI Optitex is a global software provider of integrated 2D-3D computer-aided design (CAD) solutions for fashion & apparel, automotive, upholstery and industrial fabrics. Its solutions digitally streamline design, development and production throughout the supply chain, enabling efficient workflows and quick response to market demands. EFI Optitex offer brands, retailers and manufacturers a one-vendor solution for delivering high-quality products on demand and on budget. Backed by over three decades of experience and a growing base of 30,000 users, its innovative solutions are highly accurate, sustainable and cost-effective.