Brooks Factory tour
Jun 30, 2025
We were incredibly honoured to have been invited to the Brooks Open Factory 'trade day'
The first open factory at the Smethick unit in 159 years! It really felt like not much had changed since Brooks started in 1866.
It was great to meet some of the people behind the scenes, the people that have made the saddles that my behind spends so much time upon, and 90% of the saddles that our custom builds roll out the door with.
The machines are impressive, but theres still a lot of manual labour that goes into every part of the process, and you can feel it in the product.
The hospitality from the Brooks team was a dream! A rabble of brand owners, frame builders and industry folk were treated to great coffee, a tour of the factory and pasta for lunch.
Seeing all these one off and limited edition saddles was one of my favourite bits! Ive never been that into white saddles, but ill make an exception for that Swift!
On the way home I stopped for a quick lap around the Cotswalds on my Stooge Mk7, with a new appreciation for my beaten up old Ti Swift!
Thank you to the Brooks team and all involved for having us!
