Scarborough teenager Billy Thornton launches his own clothing brand

Rapid538Clothing was launched by Billy Thornton, who is a motorbike racer. He wanted better clothing to wear riding around on his motorbikes, and he also saw it as a way to fund his dream of being a YouTuber.

The brand has slowly taken off within Scarborough’s local biking community.

Billy, 15, said: “I love that I started Rapid538Clothing at 14 and at less than a year on I can look back and see how far it’s come. It is great being a brand in Scarborough because it is my home town and it’s an awesome place.”

Billy wants his brand to bring comfortable, smart and simple clothing to the biking world and his inspirations include Vans, dcshoecousa, stance and 50to01.

He said: “When I have made enough profit, I would like to source more sustainable clothing. As I believe a lot of things need to change in the clothing industry to help the planet.

“I would love to be involved with the Hairy Bob’s skatepark anniversary jam and donate some prizes and in the next five years I hope to grow the brand enough to buy a piece of land to build a bike compound so I can grow my social media presence which can help grow the brand and my YouTube channel.

“In the future I would like to sponsor Pro Motocross, mountain bike, slope style, trials and BMX riders and have them wear my clothing.”

Billy has been involved with bikes since he was two years old, and was involved in Motocross racing at a national level until the Covid-19 pandemic.

His other hobbies include mountain biking, dirt jumping and visiting Hairy Bobs skatepark, and he says his life “just revolves around bikes.”

Billy said: “My earliest memory was of a PW50 with a rope tied to the back when I was aged two. I was born three weeks early after my mum went to watch my dad race motocross. Motocross is in my blood as my great grandad Harry got my grandad Dave into it, who then got my dad into it. Bikes are my life.”

“I would still love to be a YouTuber because biking is my passion and YouTube and the clothing brand go hand in hand as a lot of my favourite riders have their own clothing brands.

“I would love to be an inspiration to the younger generation of bikers to keep the sport alive

because many kids are always indoors gaming instead of being outside in nature. I would also like to post great content for everyone to enjoy, not just bikers.”

Rapid538Clothing can be found on Instagram.