Losses recovered in price

"Quality does not set the price of cycling clothing. What sets the price is how much the brand has to recover." Rapha: £35M of losses over two years, eight years in the red, valuation written down £169M→£67M by its Walmart-heir owners — recovered through $350 bib shorts. Le Col: crowdfunded 2017 → private equity → administration 2026, crowdfunders wiped out at "nominal consideration." The inversion at the bottom of the market: Van Rysel (Decathlon) dresses a World Tour team at $109. Rhymes with circular-financing logic from the AI-economics thread: follow who needs the money, not the product story.

Source: report