Rapha x Palace 3.0 is here – the two iconic clothing brands reunite with collection inspired by ’90s pro cycling style

Rapha is teaming up with “skateboarding pioneers” Palace for the third time in four years.

Released as part of the brand’s 20th Anniversary celebrations, the collection draws inspiration from the pro cycling aesthetic of the 1980’s and ‘90s. For those older enough to remember, it was an era of bright colours with bold and plentiful graphics, seemingly placed on the jerseys at will. And it’s a theme that’s repeated faithfully here.

The line-up consists of what Rapha describes as a number of its “heritage silhouettes injected with Palace’s signature irreverence, with playful inversions of cycling’s distinctive language, colours, and sponsors”. There are two jerseys, one short sleeved, one long, a merino wool zip track-style top, a 6-panel shell jacket plus a cap and socks.

The designs certainly conjure up ‘peak Pantani’, with plenty of Mercatone Uno-era inspiration on display in both the colour choice and the graphics. The long sleeve jersey, resplendent in ‘maglia rosa’ pink, is even emblazoned with a ‘Forza’ graphic. It’s enough to make you want to scour YouTube for classic Giro stages.

Whether this collaboration creates as much as a stir of the previous editions however is unlikely. The first time the two brands collided was the 2020 Giro d’Italia, kitting out the EF Education team in a wild kit that will live long in the memory. After all, who can forget the duck TT helmets in a hurry?

The kit had already gained plenty of notoriety after the UCI fined the eight riders and directeur sportif Fabrizio Guidi 500 Swiss Francs each after the team presentation for wearing “non-compliant clothing during podium obligations”.

The second collab once again saw the brands teaming up with the EF Education squads, including the women’s EF Education-TIBCO-SVB team. This time it was at the 2022 Tour de France and Tour de France Femmes. The cartoon duck was replaced with a dinosaur (or was it a dragon?) but the kits remained equally bright and continued to divide opinion – and all on the sport’s biggest stage.

The result was eBay gold, with the kit changing hands for large sums of money. This collection could well become just as collectible thanks to its limited nature. It’s available to Rapha CC members first, before being offered to non-members via an online ballot that evening. It then hits the Rapha clubhouses, with stock available on a first come, first served basis.