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Red Bull Hardline Tasmania Merch: A Chat with Hills Draws
Designer Nick Hills aka Hills Draws returns once again to create the official merchandise for Red Bull Hardline 2025. Learn about his connection to Tasmania, bikes, and more.
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Nick Hills aka Hills Draws still remembers the moment he heard Red Bull Hardline was coming to Tasmania.
“It was crazy – there was a rumour floating around all the crews down here that Simon French, who owns Maydena Bike Park, had locked Hardline in for Tassie. And we're all just like, Nah, Surely not. That's not a thing,” he laughs. “But it turns out it was.”
Red Bull Hardline, the world’s toughest mountain bike race, came to the Apple Isle for the first time in early 2024. It’s back again in February 2025 and not only will Hills be in the crowd watching, he’s also been working behind the scenes on designing this year’s poster and merch.
It’s been a marriage of two lifelong loves for the Tassie-based biker and designer.
“Biking and drawing are my two passions, really,” Hills says. “My whole life I've just ridden bikes and drawn pictures. Now I'm 37, and I still ride bikes and draw pictures.”
Hills first started riding BMX, before transitioning onto bigger wheels in his 20s. He’s watched the Tasmanian mountain biking scene explode in the last five or six years, becoming “healthier than ever” as more and more riders have started to hit the trails at parks like Maydena and Derby. From afar, he’s spent the last ten years tuning into Red Bull Hardline on TV in the UK, where the race was born. He says it’s got an intimidating reputation among riders.
“It's known as the most extreme downhill event that there is,” Hills says. “Red Bull Hardline is basically testing the gnarliest riders, the ones that can ride the craziest stuff and do the biggest jumps – the bravest, most skilled riders.”
The entire course only takes a few minutes to ride. It’s the terrain they’ve got to conquer that makes it difficult.
“It doesn't seem like a very long time, but when you're pushing your limits, and you're going as fast as you can down some real crazy stuff – I can't speak for the riders, but I imagine that's a pretty full-on thing to do,” Hills says.
Hills has put together a design for Red Bull Hardline that’s full of very deliberate references to Tasmania and its tight-knit mountain biking scene.
Take a look at the poster for next year’s event and you'll spot Tasmanian waratah flowers, which are native to the state and only grow at a certain altitude – including up on the hill at Maydena Bike Park. There’s a wallaby firing up the engine of a chainsaw, a nod to the way chainsaws, with the cutter tooth removed, are often revved at biking events to spur the riders on as they come down the hill. And there’s a lyrebird, a species that was introduced to Tasmania, but has thrived there – Hills’ way of inviting mainlanders to come down and watch Hardline along with the locals. (In a double-layer reference, the lyrebird is even mimicking the sound of the chainsaw being revved).
Nick Hills (Hills Draws) holds the 2025 Red Bull Tasmania Hardline design
© Kristina Vackova
“Last but not least is the big guy in the middle,” says Hills. “This is the Thylacine, AKA the Tasmanian Tiger, thought to be extinct from I think the 1930s – he's a bit of an icon down here. And I just thought, I did a Tasmanian devil on last year's illustration. So I definitely have to do a Thylacine on this year’s.”
It’s also a tongue-in-cheek reference to a persistent urban legend.
“There’s this thing with Tasmanians, myself included, where there's this tiny little glimmer of hope that they still exist,” Hills laughs. “I just thought, I want to bring this guy back to life and show him throwing a sick whip.”
Merch bearing Hills’ design will be up for sale at Red Bull Hardline when it hits Tassie this year (also via pre-order), and he’s also putting a limited edition print of the poster up for sale for the week of Red Bull Hardline only via his website.
Hills encourages anyone and everyone to come on down to watch Red Bull Hardline in action. It is, he says, a very special experience.
“Another really cool part of it is you just don't get to go and sit in a grandstand like you would at a car race – you've got to physically go into the bush,” he says. “You’ve got to climb a mountain to go and watch these guys and girls race. I think that's just a really cool part of it as well – from a spectator point of view, you've got to work to see it as well.”
Hills says it’s an event the entire Tasmanian mountain biking scene is stoked about.
“This is such a massive thing for Tasmania,” he says. “Everyone’s so excited. Everyone who knows rides or knows anything about mountain bikes in Tassie will be there – we're all so keen.”
Be sure to check out Nick Hills on Instagram and his official site for his Red Bull Hardline Tasmania design and his other work.
Love MTB? Rewatch the incredible Red Bull Hardline Tasmania 2024 live stream on Red Bull TV for free!
Livestream – Australia
The world’s toughest downhill MTB race is drops into Australia for the first time.
