Rapha and Palace Skateboards' wild capsule collection will be available to buy from 9 October, with priority access given to Rapha Cycling Club members who joined on or before 4 October.
First revealed at the Giro d'Italia's team presentation on Friday, the kit and matching bikes from Cannondale (more details below) are being worn and raced by EF Pro Cycling at this year’s race.
Alongside cycling kit, matching casual clothes (if you can call the designs ‘casual’), helmets from POC and a natty musette will also be available.
Lachlan Morton in a hoodie with a duck on it? Yes, please.
The whole collection is said to only be available in limited quantities. Pricing information will be released when the collection goes live on Friday (9 October).
Palace is not the first streetwear brand to release limited-edition cycling kit, Castelli and Supreme teamed up in 2019 to produce a line of jerseys that have now become rare collectors' items.
Click through the gallery below to look at the whole collection. We have no doubt you were going to anyway but, as always, let us know what you think of the kit in the comments.
Who is Palace Skateboards?
Palace Skateboards is a streetwear brand founded in 2009 that has quickly become one of the most desirable on the market for fashion-conscious millennials.
Known for its strictly limited-edition collaborations with brands such as Reebok, Gore-Tex, Ralph Lauren and teams including Juventus F.C, rarer items command a truly outrageous price on eBay.
A full overview and history of the brand can be read on High Snobiety.
Palace x Cannondale EF Pro Cycling limited-edition bikes
EF Pro Cycling riders are also riding limited-edition versions of Cannondale’s SuperSix Evo, SystemSix and SuperSlice bikes at the Giro d'Italia.
Each of the bikes features “a graphic design complete with bright logos and unique graphic elements” that “seamlessly integrate with the Rapha and Palace Skateboard capsule collection”.
There is no word on whether the bikes will be available for sale to the public.
BikeRadar’s take | Great fun and genius marketing – what's not to love?
It really didn’t matter who won the opening stages of the Giro this weekend because there was only ever going to be one talking point on social media – Rapha and Palace’s wild collaboration kit.
There’s no doubt that the collaboration has – in Rapha’s own words – “disrupted the status quo” of kit designs in the pro peloton but, in addition to that, it has thoroughly disrupted our social media feeds.
Since the kit and accompanying bikes were launched last Friday, everyone has been collectively asking the same question in article comments and social media: "But what’s with the duck?"
We can’t recall a single launch in the last few years that has so totally overwhelmed the race-watching public’s consciousness and, whether you personally love or hate the kit, we welcome it.
Even if you think the kit is ugly beyond compare, there’s no denying it’s different and, in a sport often accused of being too heavily tied to tradition, razzing things up with an unexpected collaboration with a London skateboard shop should be celebrated.
We're sure Rapha and Palace are also welcoming all of the self-perpetuating hype. The kit will no doubt sell out almost immediately and, in years to come, we’ll probably see it pop up on the resale market for outrageous sums, too.
