Women's Pro Cycling Team 'Go Further' in Powerful Campaign for Rapha

Knucklehead’s Paola Morabito directs a film at the heart of Rapha’s campaign to transform women’s cycling and its kit.

Since its launch as a brand, Rapha has been arguably at the front of the women’s focus, launching a range and creating the market in 2010, paving the way for other brands to follow, developing high performance clothing specifically for women, using real cyclists in marketing, telling real stories and championing women’s cycling through their sponsorship of athletes and events.  However in 2019 they started to push further with innovation in product and their on-going commitment to building communities through a greater focus on the female only Women's 100. 

2020 is an even bigger year for Rapha Women - having listened to feedback from female riders throughout the years, they want to transform women’s cycle-wear - no longer will it be an afterthought; a poor relation of men’s. And Rapha’s commitment to growing and developing this category is evident in the updated Women’s Pro Team kit (worn by Canyon–SRAM), and a new collaboration with Outdoor Voices.

Central to Rapha’s mission to exploring new stories within women’s cycling, is the new film 'Women 2020', directed by Knucklehead’s Paola Morabito. 

Morabito is a multi-award winning filmmaker whose unique approach to storytelling involves a beautiful visual style potent in its portrayal of humanity. Unafraid of dealing with culturally taboo themes, Morabito’s films have a visceral intimacy with a strong emotional hook that draw from her love of real-life stories. Known for her ability to capture intimate and naturalistic performances from athletes (such as Serena Williams), Morabito also possesses a deep-seated technical knowledge honed by years assisting the director Jane Campion. Shot at the Spanish training base of the Canyon SRAM team, Morabito captured the unique bond that cements the team and keeps them pushing forward.

Morabito says: “I was lucky enough to work with a really trusting client like Rapha who gave me creative freedom. I want to show all that women are: The sport industry has become overly saturated with stories about women - who are powerful and amazing - but in this film I wanted to show what intimacy and shared strength in a team looked like. In most cultures when women are together, we lay around sharing our stories, to laugh and cry with no shame. Women circles in history have proven to be an important part of the female psyche - it’s how women support one another. It doesn’t happen often, but when it does, it’s transformative. Rapha’s philosophy of 'Go Further' meant I had to also as a story teller. It’s how I decided to frame the story to juxtapose the physical strengths and qualities of an athlete and their humanity. To add depth to their character and contribute more to the screen to say a little more about the female way of being.”