Indian Motorcycles->ke3292 has launched a partnership with businessman Phil Zanghi of Debonaire Cigars to launch a new collection of Indian-branded cigars in time for the 2015 Trade Show of the International Premium Cigar & Pipe Retailers Association.

For those who didn’t know, there is such a thing as a convention for cigar and pipe retailers. Zanghi himself is no stranger to such events and after reacquiring the Indian Tabac Cigar Company trademark last November 2014, he decided to launch a new brand called Indian Tabac Motorcycle Ultra Premium Cigars.

The new brand is actually a collaboration between his company and Polaris Motorcycles, which owns Indian Motorcycles. Together, the two set a plan to launch a new line of cigars that fit into Indian Motorcycles’ ethos as one of America’s oldest motorcycle brands.

The newly formed Indian Tabac Motorcycle Ultra Premium Cigars brand plans to launch two new blends at the trade show, one using an Ecuadorian habano wrapper and the other with a Connecticut broadleaf maduro. Each blend will also come in four different sizes - robusto, toro, Churchill and toro gordo - and will cost anywhere from $6 to $8 per cigar in 20-count boxes.

I’m not a cigar smoker so I honestly have no clue what that all meant. That said, the cigars are expected to become available in specialty stores after the event, although there has been no announcements on whether they’ll be for sale in Indian Motorcycle dealerships. We’re going to have to wait for word on that.

Continue reading to read more about Indian Motorcycles’ new line of premium cigars.

Why it matters

Motorcycle companies aren’t immune to cross-promotion. Whether it’s establishing its own clothing line or venturing into collaborations with watchmakers, there’s always a way to take advantage of whatever branding and sales opportunities are out there. Indian Motorcycles is no different than the rest. It has, after all, a fashion line that includes, among other things, a collaboration with Mark Wahlberg.

Cigars though are another matter entirely. That's not because nobody has done it in the past but because not a lot of companies do it in the first place. But Indian Motorcycles has been an exception and when the 83rd IPCPR Trade Show opens its doors on July 17, 2015 at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans, Louisiana, we’re going to be a treated to the return of high-quality, Indian-branded premium cigars.

Now I’m not the foremost authority when it comes to premium cigars. Actually, I know very little about them. But what I do know is that from a branding stand point, Indian Motorcycles is cornering a market that not a lot of its competitors are into these days.

That’s a good way to get its name across, especially today when it’s become more and more difficult to separate one brand from another. That’s why this collaboration with Debonaire Cigars is a boon for Indian Motorcycles.

It’s one thing to compete against other cigar brands. That’s a line I’m not too familiar with. But when it comes to throwing its name in an industry it’s not accustomed to being a part of, that’s where the Indian Motorcycle will reap the benefits of not having a motorcycle brand as a competitor.