B K S (Made To Measure) Ltd

General information

Once a fashion design hopeful, fresh from Exeter Technical College, BKS (Brian Keith Sansom) was started in a back bedroom in 1986 as a one man operation. The first motorcycle suit customers were police riders from the Devon and Cornwall and Dorset Constabularies. In ’88 a small workshop saw the first of 15 staff assemble and by ’93 the business outgrew its first premises and moved again. The business continued to flourish gaining contracts with nearly 20 Police forces and set up in New North Road, Exmouth. An old printing works that had been vacant for a few years has become the home of BKS to this day and has grown into a fully equipped factory unit and sales studio.
For the next 10 years or so, a visit to WHSmiths would often reveal a BKS suit on the front cover of many a bike magazine with editors and road test staff from MCN, Ride, Performance Bikes, Bike, Superbike, Fast Bikes and many more.
Celebrity names such as Robbie Williams, HRH Prince William, Daniel Day Lewis, Mark Knopfler, Hugh Laurie and high profile racers, have all had our bespoke leathers made for them.
The big budget “Impossible Dream” Honda advert used BKS suits for the road race rider in 2005 and top British racers have worn BKS suits since the early nineties including - Carl Fogarty, James Toseland, Neil Hodgson, Tommy Hill, Michael Rutter, Steve Hislop, Phil McCallen as well as BBC’s MotoGP correspondents, Suzy Perry and Steve Parrish
New protective clothing laws were introduced in 1994 (CE Approval) and BKS were the very first company on the Planet to meet these requirements!
BKS now supply 85% of the UK’s police, including the Metropolitan Police, Northern Ireland and the Ministry of Defence, along with all sorts of Emergency Service riders ranging from paramedics to Fire Service riders with this uniform.
Since the mid-nineties more and more civilian motorcyclists have turned to BKS, and custom designed multi-coloured racing suits are one of the most popular products. BKS maintain that first and foremost, their clothing is protective equipment with a very important job to do. To this day, BKS have received countless reviews from the press and due to our commitment to quality, we have never had anything less than high praise. Magazines often run features on motorcycle clothing and in test reports BKS suits and gloves always come top.
In 2004, BKS became involved with Frank Thomas, the UK’s leading retail clothing and accessory brand. This provided BKS Exmouth with an opportunity to complete a joint project that saw an all new BKS being formed especially for retail products only, leaving the Exmouth branch to continue specialising in its made to measure service as normal.
BKS felt ready to join in with a wider market and felt it had lots to offer. BKS could not do this on its own but had always had aspirations to become an industry leading brand and so by joining forces with the Frank Thomas Group, the dream could be realised.
That year BKS Leather Ltd changed it’s company name to BKS (Made to Measure) Ltd, to help identify the difference between Exmouth and the new retail brand BKS Ltd. The retail arm developed product s with the likes of two times World Superbike Champion, James Toseland as well as BBC personality, Suzy Perry and Steve Parrish.
A number of other high profile racers wore BKS during the years 2008 – 2011, namely Tommy Hill, Stuart Easton, Gary Johnson, Danny Webb, Danny Kent, Steve Brogan and the new brand was flying high.
Sadly in 2011, Frank Thomas went into administration with financial troubles….and so went with it the retail arm of BKS Ltd.
Brian Sansom was left with the made to measure business to concentrate on once more and so our mission statement still stands as true as it always has -
“To provide the ultimate riding suits never compromising quality, safety, protection, styling or comfort. Our suits offer an unrivalled combination of master craftsmanship and tailoring, via computer design and a desire to build the best suits on Earth.”
If you become a customer for a BKS suit, you will be delighted with the amount of design choices you can have at your disposal. With 12 new styles of suit, over 35 leather colours, specification options for body armour as well as various internal features, your design consultation will take about 90 minutes. This also includes full measurements (33 altogether!) which guarantees customers a perfect fit.
With up to four-month waiting lists for made-to-measure suits at the busiest time of year, buying BKS is something you really should plan for.
We look forward to being of service.