as part of the generation that was completely inspired by the films that Bruce Brown made, there are no amount of words that could explain how much our personal lives have been impacted by his films, and our brand. when we think about it, it's a bit crazy. Bruce Brown's films had such a large influence on our early surfing days and were really the reason why we owned motorcycles as kids. it's as simple as that.
fast forward to the present, we're still frothing while throwing our leg over a motorcycle saddle. why? the same reasons we did back then: to flow through the desert whoops like Malcolm Smith, to look as cool as McQueen, to get as sideways in the dirt as Mert Lawwill. as cliche as it sounds, to do whatever we want.
Bruce Brown Films X Iron & Resin Collaboration
not many other movies out there captured the Golden Days of surfing, motorcycles, and California culture of the 50s, 60s, and 70s like these did. as a group of surfers and motorcyclists that live our lives as if it were still that era, it's important to us that these inspiring films continue to shape the next generations out there.
for starters, we hope that by now you've seen On Any Sunday. in our books, it's still one of the greatest motorcycle films ever created, this 1970s film by Bruce Brown was created alongside Steve McQueen during a time that the general public really didn't think much of motorcycle riders. as youngsters at the time, it really resonated. sneaking into movie theatres to watch the film multiple times a day, going all out with summer jobs to save up for a winging 2-stoke to live up to the Malcolm Smith lifestyle. for those that couldn't afford a motorcycle, our bicycles retrofitted with cardboard number plates and a poker card fluttering in the spokes would suffice our aspirations (for a short while).
there's no doubt that Bruce Brown changed the public's perception of motorcyclists for the better. not only what the sport was all about, but the actual people riding them, whether professional at the time or recreationalists just starting out. Bruce Brown said it himself:
"I think many people changed their minds about motorcyclists after watching the movie." “One particularly funny story was told by Mert Lawwill. Being a motorcycle racer he was sort of considered the Black Sheep of the family. The old patriarch of the family, Lawwill’s grandmother-in-law, went to see the movie and in the middle of one of the scenes featuring Lawwill she stood up and shouted, ‘That’s my grandson!’ Suddenly he was the big hero of the family."
back in 2017 we were lucky enough to actually sit down with Bruce Brown just before he passed away later that year and hear a little bit about what it was like during his early days of films like On Any Sunday and The Endless Summer.
“I talked to a few folks and knew that Steve McQueen was a rider,” Brown said. “Even though I’d never met him, I set up a meeting to talk about doing ‘On Any Sunday.’ We talked about the concept of the film, which he really liked. Then he asked what I wanted him to do in the film. I told him I wanted him to finance it. He laughed and told me he acted in films, he didn’t finance them. I then jokingly told him, ‘Alright, then, you can’t be in the movie.’
“The next day after the meeting, I got a call and it was McQueen. He told me to go ahead and get the ball rolling with movie — he’d back it.”
Inspired By Legends
as we write this, we can't really think of any better fit for a collaboration with such a timeless piece of history. not only does Bruce Brown Films speak so close to our day-in-and-day-out lifestyle, who doesn't want to relive a classic on the daily? take a look at our latest limited edition pieces below - exclusively available online and in-store for a limited time only.
Photograpy & video courtesty of:
Bruce Brown Films, LLC.