Redefining partnerships with Canyon bicycles

In 2018, we were hired by Canyon's founder and CEO Roman Arnold to create a strategy and vision for their most important brand partnership that was up for renewal. The goal was to create a new vision for what a brand partnership and bike rental programme could look like in collaboration with Rapha. This meant going back to the drawing board to greatly expand on what had been agreed in the original brand partnership three years prior. At this time, Canyon was undoubtedly the leading brand in D2C bike sales and Rapha were still regarded as innovators in the apparel space. These two powerhouses of the cycling world would both benefit from continued collaboration, but the devil would be in the detail for how it should be implemented.

The strategy proved to be so successful that Rhys was brought in-house at Canyon to oversee the negotiations of the agreement and to write the new contract, and see its implementation. Negotiations and amendments were finalised over the course of a six month period.

The partnership culminated in the production of a limited edition Canyon Rapha bike – sold exclusively to Rapha's RCC members.

• Developed a new vision and scope for the Canyon x Rapha partnership.
• Negotiated and authored a new three year contact.
• Oversaw the delivery of around 200 new Rapha-branded and dispaly bikes to Rapha global retail network.
• Launched and sold a new 'limited edition' Canyon x Rapha bicycle for Rapha members.