Throttle Down Speed Co. Cafe Racer Socks

In lieu of Cyber Monday, we launched another new product on ThrottleDownSpeedCo.com today! Now available: Cafe Racer Socks that feature a sketch I had drawn quite a while ago and a Throttle Down Speed Co. logo on the reverse side. Initially we ordered a sample of the socks to test the quality of the print. To our surprise it printed better than ever and no detail was lost. Therefore, we added it to our inventory and are now sharing it with all of the other gear heads. Get yours here.

CB360 Progress

This weekend was a good one for the CB! I went on a shopping spree at my local hardware store to get a bunch of things for the garage. I also polished my front wheel that will get its new tire this week along with my rear drum. I am forever fascinated by the power of Mothers Aluminum & Mag Polish. I camped out outside in the shade and polished the wheel and spokes for a good hour and it looks brand new. I have a few more things to purchase and then it'll be time to get down and dirty in the garage.

Transition: From Paper to Clothing

One of my favorite aspects of art and design is seeing how an original idea can transform itself throughout different mediums. Since my work for Throttle Down Speed Co. is highly experimental, a t-shirt design for example, typically originates from a fine-art piece. Below is one example of how this has been done in the past.

Our Mens & Womens "Cafe-X" design was one of the first garments designed from a drawing. Below is the initial ink drawing that was later scanned and transformed into vector art.

Everything about it was handmade including the hand drawn typography. Once in vector form it was cleaned up and slightly modified to be a sleeker design.

Having this design in vector form, opened up the opportunities for not only a design for a garment, but also to be cut as a vinyl sticker. There were a few additional revisions for the vinyl application, especially when considering the black to be inverted to white.

In addition to vinyl, we got this design printed on a variety of heather grey t-shirts. The black on grey turned out seamless and it is one of my favorite shirts because of it's roots in raw creativity. 

I believe it is essential to know where the ideas are coming from and how they are evolving throughout time and through varieties of applications. One idea can transform itself to endless possibilities, which is what makes my career exciting. Stay tuned for more design transitions!

Throttle Down Speed Co.

Throttle Down Speed Co: a lifestyle brand revolving around motorcycles, founded by two friends looking for an outlet to explore business & creativity. It's a vague sentence, but for now the minimalism will work.  Essentially the company originated from an idea, a name, a logo and an Instagram account.

The logo was inspired by the many handwritten typefaces and hand-painted signs throughout the vintage culture. From there, I started experimenting with painting motorcycle tanks and helmets just to get my feet wet. Going into it, my business partner Brian had come up with the business idea while emphasizing that this is a side gig that will allow us to explore many other things that we just won't get in our day jobs. For me it allowed for a very creatively experimental world that is not managed by anyone but myself.  The creative liberty was all my own, which was very exciting. "All things creative" was my loose "title" within the company, if you will, and so it began. We started with one t-shirt design, the Garage T-shirt, or what I refer to now as the OG.

It features a silhouette of a cafe racer, a bobber and a tracker along with a secondary version of our logo on the back of the tee. It truly represents the origins of the Throttle Down Speed Co. brand. Two-wheels was the primary theme and so it began. Throughout the first year we relied heavily on sales to everyone we knew and our growing Instagram following. Brian and I went to a ton of events that includes professional and amateur flat track races, hillclimbs, motocross races, vintage motorcycle shows, the race of gentlemen, bike nights, motorcycle shops, etc. The list was endless and is still growing today. We managed to make a lot of essential connections on the way to build our network that has benefitted the lifestyle brand quite well. 

The first time the Throttle Down Speed Co. logo began to make public appearance was on August 8, 2014, at the AMA Pro Flat Track Indy Mile race mounted on national number 51, Steve Murray's XR750.

It was an exciting moment to begin with, and even more thrilling when Steve Murray put his XR into the main event. Looking back, this moment feels like somewhat of a turning point for the company as we opened the door wide open to the flat track community and other forms of racing. Steve Murray later represented the Throttle Down Speed Co. logo within his graphics on his frisky two-stroke Yamaha in the various motocross events he rode in the 2015 season.

In 2015 I traveled to the 74th Annual Daytona Bike Week in Daytona Beach, FL. At the opening flat track races I was unofficially "scouting" to pick up our first sponsored racer within the GNC2 class. Dan Bromley, #54A really stuck out, and shortly after he would be one of the first professional flat track motorcycle racers to be sponsored by Throttle Down Speed Co. Throughout the year he represented the brand better than we could have ever expected. With stickers on his Motorcycle Superstore helmet, stickers on his 450 and t-shirts and snapbacks in the pits, he wore our name proud that initial season. He ended the season with a win at the Flat Track Finale in Las Vegas, NV and finished in second place in the GNC2 Championship. Did I mention he did us proud?

Aside from a successful race season, Throttle Down Speed Co. also launched several other t-shirt designs, snap back hats, beanies, long sleeve shirts and hoodies throughout 2015.  The long sleeve featured above on Bromley was one of my favorites showcasing that various bikes within the flat track races. I could go on for days telling you about my connection with flat track throughout my life, but I'll keep it brief. Art and motorcycles have been with me my entire life in one form or another. Those two things are the only things that have been with me from the beginning, so they mean everything. As far as flat track goes specifically, I got into it before I ever knew which way the bikes were going around the track. My dad always took me to watch the races, his parents always took him, and the family tradition lives on. Therefore, whenever I get the chance, I try to work in motorcycles within my art and art within my motorcycles. It's a pretty good deal if I do say so.

Below are several other designs that developed the brand early on. All designs originated from either a drawing, painting or sketch of some sort.

View all of the others here: throttledownspeedco.com.  2016 is looking to be a promising year for Throttle Down Speed Co.  I can't express how exciting it has been to build this brand to what it is today and to invent what it will become in the future.  A spring launch has been in the works for a few months, so please stay tuned to see what we come up with next-we've put in a lot of hard work and passion into it.  I look forward to traveling to even more events and exploring the culture further to continue to build the brand's culture.  I hope you all hang out with me along the journey because it's a fun one.

Cafe-X Design

I briefly mentioned Throttle Down Speed Co. in an earlier post and wish to expand upon that eventually. Unfortunately, tonight is not that night. I will, however, give you a look at one of my favorite pieces I have designed for the motorcycle lifestyle brand. It originated as a sketch on paper, turned into a one-color vector piece. Inspired by the vintage cafe racer motorcycles and the tape X on the headlight, you can purchase this original design here (also available in Mens crew.) Shirt Modeled by Colleen Bauer; photo taken by Brian Matthias.