By Allison Watkinson
TLL Reporter
The motorcycle brand Brough Superior is roaring back to life, having appointed LMI as its global licensing agency.
Brough Superior is a unique brand that remains a legend among motorcycle enthusiasts more than a century after the company was founded. In fact, the most expensive motorcycle ever sold at auction was a 1929 Brough Superior machine, the SS 100 AGS model, which sold for £315,000 pounds when the Bonham’s auctioneer finally dropped the hammer in a 2014 sale.
The company was established in 1919, when George Brough built the first Brough Superior bike. It was critically acclaimed as “the neatest-looking and most luxurious sporting machine offered to the public”, and dubbed “the Rolls-Royce of motorcycles” in 1923 by HD Teague in The Motor Cycle newspaper, which was later endorsed by the Rolls-Royce company.
Classic Brough Superior motorcycles are highly sought after, with only 3048 ever being built during 21 years of manufacturer, and with only 1000 remaining in circulation today.
Life-long Brough Superior enthusiast, and an icon in the vintage motor-cycle world, Mark Upham has been dedicating his efforts to revitalise the Brand for more than 15 years. Upham says prestige, style, performance and outstanding quality have been at the core of the Brough Superior brand since 1919 and remain so today. There is a long and storied history attached to this luxury brand, including numerous world records and a list of “celebrity” owners and enthusiasts, including T.E Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia), Orson Welles, Jay Leno and Jason Momoa.
Upham says the deal with LMI is critical for the campaign, giving the group scope to elevate the brand further with extensions focused on timepieces, gentleman’s accessories, rider essentials and other coherent product categories.
Established in 1982, Licensing Management International (LMI) is a multifaceted licensing agency which has represented some of the world’s most recognisable properties, from the motorcycle brand BSA to Game of Thrones.
“This new partnership with LMI will enable the Brough Superior Brand to extend into lifestyle categories that are hugely relevant today and into geographies around the globe where Brough Superior brand values recognition are second to none,” Upham said.
For more information or to explore licensing partnerships, interested parties can contact Andrew Maconie at LMI: andrew@lmiuk.com / +44 (0)7970 696876/ +44 (0)1425 403430.
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