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Control Box: Rapha use private jet to shit on Messenger Culture from a great height

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    Rapha were official sponsors of The 2007 Cycle Messenger World Championships in Dublin, they got their logo on the Tee-shirts, then when it came time to deliver some product... Fuck all!
    It’s unfortunate for us that Courier Culture is trendy just now, so it’s bound to get hijacked by some completely inappropriate brands trying to get some ‘cred’ but lying to get free publicity is just pathetic.

    Graham one of the CMWC organisers has this to say:

    >Yeah Rapha...
    I'm quite bitter about them really. They helped us out for our St. Patrick's Day event a couple of years back when they were trying to build their name back up and Simon, their managing director, seemed really cool.

    They were very eager to sponsor the CMWC and even spoke of sponsoring all the riders who were doing the ride from London to Dublin, I assume that never came about either. I'm guessing with the success of their brand with 'real' roadies and people with ridiculous amounts of money, the messenger community is of little importance to them.

    When I tried to get them to make amends they spoke of it being 'so late after the event' and that they would 'try to send the winners a hat'. I forwarded the winners postal and email addresses to them, as I did to Swobo. There has been no contact from them since and I'm so sick of them I don't want to even hear their name any more. 'Late after the event'? They've nobody to blame but themselves for that fact...

    The long and short of it is, they don't give a shit about us, so please don't give a shit about them. Boycott their overpriced fannywear... the seams go on their shit really quickly anyway, it really is a brand for people with more money than sense, and unfortunately there seem to be far too many of these people around these days.

    Oh, and btw, I own a Rapha softshell jacket and a waterproof cap, so I'm not hating on anyone who owns their stuff, but it breaks my heart a little every time I put them on...

    Peace,
    Graham<


    If I knew anyone that buys Rapha I’d try to make them stop but as I don’t it looks like I’ll just have to give that Wino on Mare St. that wears a Rapha hat a boot in the balls next time I see him.
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      CommentAuthortofu
    • CommentTimeFeb 6th 2008
     
    big business fucking over couriers... what are you, surprised?
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      CommentAuthortofu
    • CommentTimeFeb 6th 2008
     
    oh, and what kind of jet? ...i'm in the market...
  4.  
    Learjet 40 XR, it's the model down from the one House of Pistard wrote off last year.



    I should've pointed out that SWOBO didn't come up with any prizes either but they put some effort in and made amends.

    From SWOBO:

    >We knew we blew it by not getting our acts together, sponsorship wise at this last worlds. Our name had been printed on the shirts, and we dropped the ball. Admittedly, that is a near unforgivable act, and we have no reasonable excuse other then it slipped through the cracks as we were attempting to reestablish our business at the time.
    In an attempt at clearing our name, we need it to be known that the organizer of the event gave us all of the winners email addresses, and after a slew of correspondences with them, we've settled the score and presented them all with wool jerseys for their troubles.
    Graham, the event organizer is happy, were happy, and most importantly, the winners of the events are happy.

    Hopefully the world wide community of bike messengers will see their way to forgive us, and know that something like this will never happen again.

    Very sincerely,
    The Hobo<
  5.  
    If the point of this is to try and get Rapha to cough over some prizes, then I suggest that you email
    therese@rapha.cc, as she might be able to help.

    If it is true that they are totally blanking CMWC XV, then that is not cool at all, and if anyone wants me to, I will approach Rapha myself, and try to sort it out. I should also point out that Rapha have never been anything other than reliable when I have dealt with them.

    Also, when dealing with sponsors, it's always good to get something in writing, even an email.

    I feel duty bound to point out that courier culture has been trendy for a long time, fixies are trendy just now, and so are bikes generally. That is surely something to celebrate, not grouch about. Or did we prefer it when we were still a despised and ignored minority?
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      CommentAuthortofu
    • CommentTimeFeb 6th 2008
     
    i liked despised and ignored.
  7.  
    Despised and ignored aint so bad. This story doesn't surprise me. I can't remember the name of the sponsor of the "lost in the crowd alleycat". It was a clothing company in soho. Maybe someone can help me out? They promised walshy prizes and totally blew him out even though their name was on the flyer and they promised. Then one of the owners insulted walshy's mate in the pub after the race thinking he knew him when he obviously didn't. Why am i writing this when i could be drinking chai and dodging rickshaws hare om.
  8.  
    I wasn't grouching, I was pointing out the use of the Courier Image by companies that will never give anything back to the community, the reason for re-posting Grahams email here is to give the story wider coverage, so maybe messengers will think twice about buying their products. It happens to most subcultures eventually, like Sunkist using skateboarding or Cadbury with BMXing in their ads. Orange Mobile are about to do an advert with a bike messenger, one courier will be £1000 better off but raising the profile of the scene in areas where it's not understood only causes grief, no one even used to notice couriers riding with no brakes, now guys are getting tickets for it.
    Mo' media Mo' problems.

    HYPOCRITE DISCLAIMER: Millportpoloco may be on BBC2's The Culture Show at the end of the month but that was James Tait's fault. By the time I realised there was a camera crew there I was too drunk to do anything about it.
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      CommentAuthoroverdrive
    • CommentTimeFeb 6th 2008
     
    I was despised and ignored before I became a courier.By my mother.
    By the way I'm gonna try and organise an Easter alley-cat.More details soon.
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      CommentAuthor_targetbot
    • CommentTimeFeb 6th 2008
     
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      CommentAuthoroverdrive
    • CommentTimeFeb 7th 2008
     
    At £4.00 per week for thirteen years Metro standard issue pisses all over that.
    I still wear Metro shorts circa 1997.
    Smell the love.
    • CommentAuthordubmess
    • CommentTimeFeb 7th 2008
     
    Hey there,
    so Rapha committed in advance of CMWC to sponsoring the event. They got their logo on 500 t-shirts, and a link on the website. As Xander says we got fuck all for that.
    They then committed to giving prizes retrospectively, as Swobo did. I gathered email and postal addresses for all the winners and passed them on to make the process as easy as poss for both of them, obviously not easy enough from Rapha as they did not come through.
    I had been in constant contact with their managing director Simon Mottram, who i had dealt with before. The last mail I received from him was on 27th September, (the event was over on the 1st weekend of August) saying he was going to send a Rapha cap to everyone, this has not happened.

    I could care less about Rapha, but the fact that they got all this free advertising on the back of the hard, unpaid work of a bunch of messengers, and people assume they supported the event, that pisses me off. Peoples entry fees paid for those t-shirts, so each and every messenger that attended CMWC has been used by Rapha.

    That is all,
    Graham
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      CommentAuthorBuffalo Bill
    • CommentTimeFeb 8th 2008 edited
     
    Just got this email from Simon Mottram, MD of Rapha:

    "Just seen the thread on Moving Target.
    It's very disappointing.

    I did speak to Graham a number of times about supporting the event.
    As you know, we've done quite a lot of these things in the past (and spent a lot of money doing so).
    It's probably my fault that the prizes were never sent after the event.
    A simple mistake, nothing sinister. Just annoying for the organisers and embarrassing for me.

    If one of the organisers would like to email me or Therese I'd welcome the chance to send something out now (well after the event)."

    I hope everyone is happy with that. Do please let us know what the outcome is.

    As a matter of interest, I consider only cash or significant quantities of goods (ie stuff that can be sold for cash by the organisers) as sponsorship. Items supplied as prizes count as support, not sponsorship, in my view.

    I wrote a longish piece about sponsorship that some may find of interest.

    http://www.movingtargetzine.com/article/london-messengers-to-bid-for-cmwc-2009

    I also received this email from Therese, who was third in the female section

    >I came 3rd -contacted the organisers to ask for my prize. Twice in
    >fact. Never heard anything back -even to
    >say they didn't have prizes or couldn't afford to send them over.
    >Does this constitute shitting on the
    >courier community that came to support the event, I wonder?

    I think it's worth noting that Millportpoloco has NO sponsors, and is a fantastic event that is praised often.
    • CommentAuthordubmess
    • CommentTimeFeb 8th 2008 edited
     
    All well and good Simon,
    but you have my email address, so why not contact me rather than this forum?
    "(well after the event)"- again, this is your fault and not ours.

    Therese, I am sorry you were forgotten, I thought we had given prizes to someone from London to pass on to you as you weren't at the prizegiving, and I never received any emails from you, what address were you using? I just checked cmwcxvdublin@gmail.com and we have nothing from you.

    Can people who gave up their free time for no money and little thanks really be 'shitting on the courier community', sure it may not have been the best CMWC ever, but if we hadn't done it there wasn't going to be one. I'd like to think you would have more sense than that. I gave up work for 3 months prior to the event and had been working on it for close to a year.
    I'm quite surprised to hear this argument being turned around and thrown at me like I did something wrong. Do I run a clothing company? Do I have money/products to sponsor/support an event(I don't see the point in the semantics)? No I don't.

    I went through enough heartache with this event, and I'm getting pretty fucking upset with shit being dragged up again at this point in time. It was only because Swobo made amends that this has even become an issue again.

    As for Millportpoloco, what's your point? Are you trying to say we're greedy? I didn't get any prizes either. I see the trend that messenger events are becoming more about prizes than fun but CMWC is something different surely? It's supposed to be our showcase event, something that we can be proud of the world knowing about, and so we want the racers honoured accordingly. To be honest I think it would be fantastic if all messenger competitions eschewed sponsorship/support in future, certainly from larger companies, as it seems we've lost the point of these events. It's not about your fucking Rapha hat or your Swobo jersey, it's about the community coming together, we don't need some kind of material justification for it.

    I'm gonna stop talking now as I'm just getting upset.
    Simon, if you check your emails you may find one from me with the postal addresses of the winners, dated sep. 27th I believe. If you feel that you would like to make amends for this feel free to, I'm sure the winners would be delighted. As for me, I'm done.

    Cheers,
    Graham
    • CommentAuthorsleepy
    • CommentTimeFeb 9th 2008
     
    "It's not about your fucking Rapha hat or your Swobo jersey, it's about the community coming together, we don't need some kind of material justification for it.'

    +1 :clap:
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    whinge,

    whinge,

    whinge,

    whinge.
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      CommentAuthorKieran
    • CommentTimeFeb 9th 2008
     
    Everyone quit right now and become plumbers. You can get really cool workpants from B&q in Leytonstone, the toolbelts are awesome and i'd never have to read your whiney saddo comments ever again.
  18.  
    Well looks like we've managed to re-ignite the hotbed of heated debate that is the Moving Target Forum.
    Hey Keiran, you going down The Barley Mow tonight ye wee bawbag?
    • CommentAuthordubmess
    • CommentTimeFeb 9th 2008
     
    I'm a courier. Whining is second nature to me...
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      CommentAuthorJosh
    • CommentTimeFeb 10th 2008
     
    Was this a bet to see what subject could interrupt boffins holidays? Rapha safe bet to kick up a shit fight i think.

    They had nothing to do with the ride to Dublin.
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    Whinging in public might stop other potential sponsors consider putting sponsorship into messenger events - cos it's childish. Sounds like if you haven't had correspondence from Rapha since September - they plain forgot. This is the age of communication! or something.
  22.  
    Boba your actions sadden me. I am ashamed to be your father. These messengers have been wronged and they are using movingtarget to voice their dissaproval at the way they were treated. Is there anything wrong with that? Would your opinion have anything to do with who pays your wages. Boom a cannon ball is fired from the goodship zac off a bling bling canal barge chugging away in hackney. Boba is at his desk enraged at the treatment of Rapha by the messengerunderlings. He has broken into a sweat, face as red as an englishman in the midday sun as he reads dubmess's comments. As he gets up to get to make his 4th cup of horlicks for the day (he loves the malty taste) a canonball comes crashing through the roof of his hommerton villa killing him instantly.
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      CommentAuthorBuffalo Bill
    • CommentTimeFeb 11th 2008 edited
     
    The semantics thing: prizes only benefit the winners, not the event. I go to an event to see some racing, and hang out with my friends. What the winners get is only of marginal interest to the recipient - it's nice to get free shit, but most people would race if the prize was one free beer.

    Sponsorship, on the other hand, like cash or goods that can be sold by the organisers (eg T2 bags, or beer, or whatever) directly benefits the event. That's the difference.

    I am not meaning to be critical of you, Graham, or CMWC XV (which I enjoyed very much), but personally I would not gone to the expense of putting the logos of prize-givers on the shirt if it was me. But I respect your choice to do so, and as indeed I respected the efforts of the Dub Mess crew in organising the event.

    The comment about Millportpoloco was meant to demonstrate that Westcoast, although in my view was acting somewhat mischieviously, organises an event that has no sponsors, and therefore is not acting hypocritically when he criticises sponsors.

    Anyway, enough said.
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    Zack you fuckwit of a father figure, do you want this cannonball back? You fucking missed (again) but managed to destroy my homicidal cannabis neurosis lesbian bitch neighbours car instead - for that I thank you.

    ~ secretly sends Tipper™ clone army agents to patrol canalside - blasters set to kill. Boba knows the dark side is strong in Rapha - but together can rule the weak cycling universe muahaha. ~
  25.  
    This means war Boba. I was cycling home late last night on my fixed wheel rickshaw and nearly crashed into the water after witnessing a grotesque sight of ill proportions. There in the distance were 3 tippers who i now know were evil clone robots. They appeared to be making love to a german shepherd whilst firing blasters at a local council block. Luckily i avoided detection and slipped off into the night.

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