Renegade Classics: A Name Riders Gear Up With
In 1991, Kent and Debbie Mortimer opened a small store in Fresno, California. They built it for one type of rider: the Harley, cruiser, and V-Twin crowd. No dirt bikes. No ATVs. Just leather, denim, and the gear that biker culture actually wears.
The shop sat off the main road, hard to spot unless you already knew where to look. That should have killed it. Instead, riders found it anyway. Word moved through the community the way it always does: one biker telling another where to get real gear at a fair price. Kent and Debbie showed up at runs and rallies across Northern California, threw their own store parties, and let the product speak for itself. The reputation held.
How Renegade Classics Grew
Being part of a multi-store network gives Renegade Classics real buying power. That's what lets stores keep prices down while still testing and stocking new products faster than a single independent shop could manage.
A Handshake in Sacramento
In 2002, Troy Rowsey came to Kent with an idea: license the Renegade Classics name and open a second store in Sacramento. Kent agreed. The Sacramento store worked, and it worked well enough that Kent and Troy turned the idea into something bigger. They built a licensing structure that let other owners open their own Renegade Classics stores, each one locally run, each one still following the standard that started in that hard-to-find Fresno shop.
More Stores, Same Standard
That structure grew into a national network of partner-owned stores, including a run of locations in Sturgis, South Dakota that open every August for the rally. Every store stayed independently owned. Nobody wrote a corporate playbook and forced every location to follow it. Owners built their stores around their own riders.
The Network Today
Today, the flagship store operates out of Baltimore and is backed by franchise- and company-operated locations across the country, in cities including Modesto, Spokane, Annapolis, Albuquerque, Chattanooga, The Woodlands, and Kansas City. More are on the way. The Baltimore team also runs the full online store, so riders anywhere in the U.S. can order Renegade Classics gear and have their orders shipped within 48 hours. International orders typically take 6 to 10 days to arrive.
"Real buying power. Affordable prices. Faster testing. Same standard since 1991."
The Everyday Gear
Jackets, vests, chaps, and pants, cut for men and women, in styles that range from classic club leather to textile and mesh for hot weather riding. DOT-certified and ECE-certified helmets in full-face, modular, open-face, half, and novelty styles. Gloves in leather, deerskin, and mesh, built for touring, cruising, or short rides around town.
Motorcycle boots, harness boots, and wide-fit footwear for men and women. Flannels, denim shirts, and T-shirts for on- and off-bike wear. Rain suits, body armor, and cold-weather gear for riders who don't park their bike just because the forecast turned.
Still Riding for the Same Reason
Renegade Classics isn't chasing a corporate rollout. Every store is locally owned, and every owner answers to the riders who walk through the door, not to a franchise manual. The goal has stayed the same since Fresno: sell gear that holds up, price it fairly because the network's buying power makes that possible, and treat customer service as the actual product, not an afterthought.
The Small Stuff Riders Collect for Years
Beyond apparel, the stores carry the accessories that separate a biker's bike from everyone else's: guardian bells, saddle bags, sissy bar bags, vest extenders, wallet chains, patches, and the small hardware that riders swap and collect for years. Renegade Classics also partners with established names like LS2, Daytona Helmets, MicroDOT, ZAN Headgear, and Nelson-Rigg to widen the selection without cutting corners on quality, and the company is working with Daniel Smart on a custom gear builder for riders who want a piece made to their own spec.
The company knows its growth came from riders talking to other riders, not from advertising. That's why customer feedback is used rather than filed away.
