Little Firs: A Sit Down With Shred & Butta

Let’s cast our minds back to May 2024…

We went puddle hoppin’, met the Shred & Butta crew and laid eyes on the bus for the first time. It was a pretty epic moment and a big step forward for troop ‘Made To Roam’.

A huge thank you to Shred & Butta for putting up with our mad ideas and many questions over the last two months(-ish). So we thought to ourselves—surely another five can’t hurt?... We managed to corner S&B CEO and creative genius, Jim Stewart, for six minutes total - A new record, maybe.

“I’ve had petrol in my blood since a young age of motorbikes and cars, getting in the motor trade and camper vans, then going off to the mountains trying to progress the snowboard career, coming back and merging everything into one.

“We used to tour around, so we would get really involved with the conversions and everything that went with it, you know… The tours, the road trips, the content - things like that. It’s just progressed into this madness of a company that is today, um, 12 years down the road.”

“Every single build that’s been through here has been individual, unique, different in some way or another. We’re not just pumping out the same job every time - Double-deckers, lorries, fire engines, vans, trikes, tuk-tuks, boats, trains, planes, and automobiles… Some of these builds were incredible!”

“I was very happy when Passenger came knocking. It’s a brand that I love, live, breathe and wear already. I’ve known them since the early days back when we were on tour doing our surfing and bits and pieces.

“It’s great when a brand that you want to work with comes and finds you, you know, and I think that’s always a great kind of merger when two brands get together like that. You can really put passion into a project ‘cause you believe in it, you love it and you want it to succeed.”

“I think what’s great about the whole ‘Made To Roam’ ethos is that it’s very much about the adventurer, the outdoorsy kind of person, which is gonna really bring that community together because we’ve kind of created that space where people can come in, they can hang out… 

“There’s a lot of reclaimed materials, there’s a lot of really cool feature walls and things. We’re bringing the inside out, with a big service hatch on the side. We’ve got light boxes going on to really attract people over to the bus and make them feel welcome.

“So that’s gonna be the really key thing here is, you know, bringing those colours alive and the feel, the different textures of the woods and stuff like that… So people will see it and go, yes, this is a bus that is made to roam.”

“I think everything about this build is gonna be unique. Everywhere you look, it’s gonna be like: “That’s cool, that’s cool, that’s cool…” and there’s not one part that’s left alone apart from like the cab, which is very much original, like a Schooly bus, which is… Cool.

“So, everywhere you look, there’s gonna be something to be like, to make your eyes go: WOW. And that’s what’s cool about this build, right?”

So, here’s to kicking up dust in the rearview, soundtracked by the shake, rattle ‘n’ roll of Little Firs truckin’ it along the lanes. Follow @passengerclothing for all things Little Firs, keep your eyes up and ears to the ground for more updates coming soon.