Our Story.
Origins.
This fine, upstanding gentleman is my Great Grandfather, William. Born in Cardiff, he worked as a grocer’s assistant and an insurance agent. He then moved to Birmingham and worked as a bricklayer before running the business in the years leading up to WW1. When William decided to sign up for the war effort, every member of his team followed. Pictured here before he shipped out, he was ultimately shot and killed on the 21st of August 1915 during the Chocolate Hill advance at Gallipoli.
His photograph was the spark that ignited my obsession with military jackets. When I started looking into the idea of launching a clothing line, my mind kept coming back to this image. I started researching WW1 uniforms and almost immediately, I found a black and white photograph of a British officer sat astride a motorcycle, speaking to a man balancing himself on two wooden canes.
The officer was T.E. Lawrence. Otherwise known as Lawrence of Arabia, his story was popularised by the 1962 movie of the same name which dramatises some of his time in the Middle East, primarily in Saudi Arabia.
Connections.
The other man was George Brough, who was recovering from a motorcycle accident at the time. Up until 1940, Brough built bikes that were dubbed the “Rolls Royce of motorcycles” due to the build quality and his attention to detail. Lawrence was a huge fan, buying seven Brough Superiors before his death in 1935.
The more I learnt about Lawrence, the more his story became an important part of mine.
I was born and grew up in Bahrain, an island that sits just off the Eastern coast of Saudi, the country where Lawrence made his name. Brough built his bikes on Nottingham's Haydn Road, just over 10 miles North of where I'm now building custom motorcycles.
Small Giants.
Brough Superior was never a big company, over the course of 21 years they produced 3048 bikes. That's an average of just 145 a year. But they were and still are, incredibly influential.
I have no interest in creating a large company, producing hundreds of styles and pumping out low quality at high quantities. Not only does that approach fly in the face of all the evidence that's laid out in front of us every day demonstrating our impact on the planet, it just doesn't feel right. I want to be proud of every single piece of clothing that we produce and for me, the only way to do that is to focus on quality and attention to detail.
My hope is that by doing so, I can create something that connects with like-minded individuals, that creates a community and that provides a platform for launching products that people love.