Everyone's got a lifestyle brand now. You can't move for the buggers, but many are just surface and well 'curated' reposts, a few good looking people modelling their derivative T-shirts and a got darn lookbook full of daydream horseshit road trip picnics and moody cigarette stops. That's it, no depth, no character, no originality, no balls.
That's many lifestyle brands, but not all. Deus Ex Machina's staff and management are do-ers and racers, none more so than those at Venice store. We featured Julian Heppekausen, the Californian outpost's head honcho, and his Triumph T120 taking part in the Mexican 1000 in Sideburn 27. Any excuse to race and Julian is there, often with his Deus right-hand dude and fellow racer Nevin Pontius. The pair, and some mates, headed down to the recent Del Mar, race promoted by IV League Flat Track.
Often Deus produce a beautiful blog post of their race outings. It's content for the website, it brings traffic back - traffic that might buy a T-shirt, and it reinforces them as true hobby racers. Yeah, Deus could put their shirts on the best racers in the region and win that way, instead they're happy to race at their level, whether than means they get their asses handed to them or they pick up the class wins. Participation is the name of their game and we're big fans.
Go to their Deus Customs blog to read about the Del Mar race in their own words and see more atmospheric photos.
All photos: Deus Ex Machina