Johnson Motors Inc. was founded in 1938 in Pasadena, California by Bill Johnson and Wilbur Cedar. As the largest Triumph Motorcycles dealer in California, the company was an active supporter of California Motor Racing. Whether it was Catalina, Laconia, Langhorn or Ascot Park, the Johnson Motors Triumph Racing Team was always present at these race tracks. The first T-shirt designs were created for the team back then.
The Petrolhead
James Dean as casual as his role model Marlon Brando
James Dean already owned a Triumph T110 and bought a 1955 Triumph TR 5 Trophy from Johnson Motors shortly before his tragic death.
Today, for example, Johnson Motors T-shirts refer to James Dean's famous Porsche 550 Spyder. The starting number, the name of the car or even the intersection where James Dean had his fatal accident are immortalized on the shirts for connoisseurs.
James Dean
Triumph Motorcycles gained attention when Ed Kretz Jr., the son of then very famous Indian Racing rider Ed Kretz Sr., finished several races of the AMA Grand National Championship in Peoria on the podium with a Triumph.
Marlon Brando made the brand's final breakthrough in 1953 in the film "The Wild One". At that time, no one drove a Triumph TR 6 Thunderbird as cool as Johnny, the leader of the "Black Rebels Motorcycle Club".
The prints are produced on an old screen printing machine in the designer's studio, depending on the creative designer's mood. Unfortunately, it can happen that designs and sizes are out of stock for a longer period of time.
The designer
The icons of the past provide the current owner Sean Kelly with the designs
Johnson Motors Inc. has nothing to do with the Triumph motorcycle dealership of the past. Unfortunately, the company did not survive and in 2000 the designer Sean Kelly took over the brand rights.
A lifelong dream, because Sean was already closely connected to the Californian motorcycle scene in the 1960s. As a child, he happened to move into the house next door to James Sherwin "Bud" Ekins. And he quickly became friends with the Triumph Motorcycle dealer in Sherman Oaks, California. Bud Ekins became known as one of the most legendary motocross racers and also as Steve McQueen's stunt double.
Bud Ekins began riding off-road every day in the Hollywood Hills at an early age. His hard work led him to become a highly talented motocross rider and by the mid-1950s he was the best motocross and desert racer in Southern California. Bud won the AMA District 37 championship seven times. In 1955, Ekins won the Catalina Grand Prix and in 1959 he became the third three-time winner of the prestigious Big Bear Hare & Hound Desert Race, the largest off-road event in the country at the time.
In the mid-60s, Hollywood stars such as Paul Newman and Clint Eastwood came and went to his Triumph Motorcycle shop. This included Steve McQueen, whom he taught motocross racing. Bud not only became a close friend, but also Steve McQueen's stunt double and, for example, performed the jump over the fence in "The Great Escape" or drove the Ford Mustang in the 12-minute chase scene through San Francisco in Bullitt.
In 1962, both of them rode in the USA team on Triumph Scramblers in the Six-Day Race in the GDR and won gold. Ekins later also did pioneering work for the toughest off-road race in the USA, the Baja California, today's Baja 1000.
Sean Kelly was always able to be in the orbit of these legends and later even inherited, as a kind of foster son, photos, clothing and motorcycles from Bud and Steve McQueen. To this day, all of these icons and their stories are the source of inspiration for today's Johnson Motors brand.
Steve McQueen
High quality
The stories of these heroes require the best quality
We had the pleasure of meeting Sean in person in the Johnson Motors Inc. studio on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles in 2015. When he talks about Bud Ekins, this seasoned man quickly becomes very emotional. It is important to him not to market the stories of these men, but to tell personal stories with each design.
So it goes without saying that he only uses the best cotton available in the USA and everything, from the yarn to the cut, wash and print, is "Made in California". Johnson Motors products have become icons in their own right and are absolutely worth their price.
