Sometimes you wonder whether Rapha's creative team sit around in their office all day wondering "is there anything our customers wouldn't buy if we put a Rapha logo on it"? I think back to the Rapha Chris King coffee tamper, a $125 'pro grade' coffee tamper which even the most devoted Rapha disciple probably has to admit is a little over the top (unless perhaps you are genuinely addicted to coffee).
So I slightly felt the same thing when they released the Rapha Kings of Pain bottle opener, which is priced at $45. The company describes it as "a tribute to the forgotten domestiques and gregarios that furnished their leaders with café-raid spoils. Fashioned from hardened and tempered steel, sold with a durable and adjustable black leather cord.
"Cut from tempered Sheffield steel and laser-etched with Kings of Pain hallmarks, this Bottle Opener pays tributes to the water carriers of the peloton. Key Features: Laser-etched Kings of Pain hallmarks, Made in Sheffield, Adjustable leather cord, Hardened and tempered steel."
But $45? How good can it be?
Well, it is a very nice bottle opener. It is light in the hand but strong and black, which is of course the only truly cool color in cycling (yes, yes, I know black isn't technically a color).
It comes with a special beer mat explaining in detail about the importance of bars in Tour culture and if you take the beer mat to your local Rapha Cycling Club they'll give you a free beer (but then I guess you lose the beer mat, which of course is aesthetically very pleasing and is probably a collectors' piece to keep pristine for when Rapha is bigger than Gucci).
And it is collectable too. The Kings of Pain exhibition was the first exhibition Rapha held when they launched a decade ago. The small number of items (there is also a jersey and a cap) in this limited edition range which mark you among Rapha's customers, probably.
So, is it worth it? I'd have to say that I find it difficult to justify the expenditure but I would be very happy to have one in my kitchen drawer or hanging up next to the fridge. It would probably last 20 years if I could trust my friends not to nick it, so if I spread the cost over 20 years (and forget about a discounted cash flow model for doing that) then a cost of $1.10 per year for the pleasure it would bring me would actually be quite reasonable.
For the Rapha skeptics this will no doubt leave them frothing at the mouth and posting at length on the cycling forums, questioning the virility and IQ of those who have bought this bottle opener. Or perhaps that was the point in the first place...who knows? If you have the money and you like beautiful things, why not get yourself one?
Rapha Kings of Pain bottle opener
$45
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