Video: R.M. Williams joins forces with Blitz Motorcycles for its new Craftsman Collaboration

Australia’s iconic boot maker, R.M.Williams has teamed up with Paris-based custom garage, Blitz Motorcycles to create an exclusive custom motorcycle and footwear collection.

 R.M.Williams and Biltz Motorcycles have handcrafted a bespoke scrambler which will launch at Harrods on 29th September, 2017. The collaborative project seeks to celebrate craftsmanship and R.M.Williams’ passion for hand-tooled leathers while referencing the Australian drovers who utilise motorcycles to heard cattle over the vast landscapes of the Australian outback. 

 Many of the original drover motorcycles were based on vintage parallel twin-engine bikes. In order to convert these into a scrambler model, more effective for the outback terrain, the Blitz team has followed the customisations made by drovers in the mid Twentieth Century. The motorcycle frame has been lowered and knobbly tyres added to provide improved handling on sand and desert as well as grassland. To complete the scrambler style, track handlebars have also been added. 

 “As the first instalment in our Craftsman Collaboration Series, this project taps into the spirit of the scrambler and the drovers that reverse engineered them to head off the beaten track, and back again,” said Mathew Hayward, Chief Marketing Officer at R.M.Williams. “The collaboration is the manifestation of the spirit of adventure meeting craftsmanship.”

 To bring the project to life, R.M.Williams has recreated two versions of the brand’s original motorcycle boot, first created in 1993. The Scrambler boots will be available in two leather options, chestnut crocodile, an exotic leather available through the brand’s bespoke service and priced at £4,995, and black New Zealand cowhide, a leather exclusive to the collaboration, priced at £595. The Scrambler boots feature a tread rubber sole and are the result of 85 hand-held processes.

 Echoing the Scrambler boots, the unique motorbike features the same exotic chestnut crocodile for its saddle, handlebar grips and tank straps – all handcrafted at the R.M.Williams workshop in Adelaide, Australia. The bike also features a front plate carrying the RMW initials and a race classification plate featuring the number 32, the date R.M.Williams was founded. Priced at £40,000, the motorbike is supplied with a pair of bespoke crocodile skin Scrambler boots handcrafted from the same pelt as that used for the bike’s saddle, grips and tank straps.

“For this project it was so important for us to partner with craftsmen whose work with motorcycles provided a sincere reflection of R.M.Williams’ dedication to handcrafted footwear,” said Jeremy Hershan, Head of Design at R.M.Williams. “With their uncompromising attention to detail, performance and finish, the guys at Blitz have meticulously threaded a very special R.M.Williams narrative into an exceptional motorcycle.”  

The R.M.Williams x Blitz motorcycle will take centre stage in an installation launching on the Lower Ground Floor at Harrods on 29th September and featuring throughout October. The area will also present a film chronicling the six-month development of the R.M.Williams Scrambler boots and this unique motorcycle. On the Fifth Floor, there will be a bespoke R.M.Williams trunk, showcasing the extensive options offered as part of the brand’s bespoke footwear service

For more information, visit: www.rmwilliams.com.