The team was basically a tool to promote their motor work and suspension upgrades, not sell gear. Geoff — When I tell this story my remarks go like this: When our rider showed up in their Fox gear on Sunday the phone rang on Monday. Callers wanted to know if they could buy the same thing. This Brad Lackey signature boot from , for instance, is a Hallman product branded with the Fox logo.
Blaze — In , Bob and Geoff decided to separate the shock business from the rest of the brand and created Fox Factory, Inc. The two companies remained distribution partners, but were now separate entities.
At first, this seemed like a great idea, but when the bottom dropped out of the aftermarket shock business in , things began to look grim. In , they had sold 10, pairs of shocks, but by , that number had dwindled to a paltry 1, In response to this precipitous downturn, Bob Fox diversified.
Instead of folding up shop, he expanded his suspension business to include automotive, bicycle and ATV applications. Blaze — After the success of their race team in , Geoff Fox began to notice an interesting trend. There seemed to be huge demand for the unique red, yellow and orange apparel. Once again seeing an opportunity, he decided to listen to what the market was telling him and pivot the brand toward apparel.
Partnering with Yoko of Finland, Moto-X Fox expanded to offer a full line of motocross gear in several colorways and introduced the Superfox brand for the first time.
Goeff — I recognized the opportunity immediately, but the demise of the aftermarket shock market certainly helped narrow our focus. In hindsight, putting the emphasis on GP contenders was probably a mistake for the brand. Even in , American fans were already starting to lose interest in the stars of Europe. Blaze — While Fox may have missed the mark with their sponsorship of Brad Lackey, they certainly hit a bullseye with their early hiring of Mark Barnett.
Blaze — In , Moto-X Fox was still not really in the conversation for many motocross gear buyers. At this point, JT was King, and everyone else was left to fight over the scraps. Geoff — JT was certainly king. They especially had a lock on Southern California. Blaze — This ad for is significant for three reasons. In this case, the yellow and red boots in the middle are actually made by AXO boots, branded as a Fox product.
I mean, I thought Mike Guerra had this on lockdown, but this chick has blown him into the snow fence with this Bride of Frankenstein motif. Fire BAD…. Geoff — This makes me smile. Jim made some important contributions to Fox. When you see these hideous things, it is hard to imagine how great-looking their stuff would become only a few years later. Blaze — Kenny Roberts and Brad Lackey were bad dudes, but the less said about these shorts the better.
Geoff — This is really interesting. They were the first with the idea. Today, of course this is a big business, but even with the top US road racer and motocrosser behind the business, it failed. This guy was an absolute animal. Blaze — For , Moto-X Fox introduced two new products that are worth noting. With Barnett based in Illinois and Fox in California, it was often difficult to get him in for photo shoots, so Geoff enlisted his sons to stand in for ads. Geoff — I was the one doing the ads at this point.
After that, we did all our ads in-house. Jim loved to shoot photos of female models, so the chick-on-the-phone photo is a leftover Jim slide. Geoff positioned Fox to be the low-price brand in the early 80s.
Honestly, this looks like some kind of Christmas wrapping paper gone bad and gives me a headache just looking at it. Tony — With the exception of the Pawtectors, none of this stuff really did anything for me in I looked at five different Moto-X Fox ads for this year, and this little stock photo of his face is the only one that they used.
Geoff — At this time in our marketing was directed to the retail end user. My son Greg worked to change that. We focused on offering customers a solid combination of quality and price. Blaze — The season marked some big changes at Fox Racing. The second, was the arrival of Ricky Johnson to the Fox Racing stable. This acquisition was largely due to the influence of a year-old Pete Fox, who lobbied hard for RJ and traveled on his own to meet with him and convince him to sign.
Blaze — Ricky Johnson was always a bad dude, but good lord, how many nicknames does one guy need? Also, what exactly is he doing here? His new R. Sano signature gear is decent enough, but that odd pose he is striking makes him look like he is trying not to poop his pants or something. Oh well, much better days were ahead. Blaze — In my personal opinion, no gear company has ever made a bigger year-over-year turn-around than Fox Racing did in The influence of Pete Fox who had just graduated high school and moved into a more prominent role at the company brought with it avant-garde designs and daring stylistic choices.
Just look at the contrast between this photo and the previous one. This guy? I had the blue Stadium jersey at the upper left and felt like the Supercross champ wearing it. The new Flag and USGP colorways were also totally badass, particularly if you had the money to buy two pairs of Comp-2 boots, so you could run one red and one blue one, just like the Bad Boy.
Check out a 13 year-old Damon Bradshaw at the top center. Geoff — Back then we even did the typesetting in-house. I ran the machine, since it was basically a computer connected to a laser. Now, you just type and choose a font from a drop-down menu. Pete and I rented an apartment half a mile from the office and began to travel to the races and contribute to the success of the family business.
Blaze — So many amazing Fox products made their debut in The new Comp-2 boot was designed by Fox, manufactured by Alpinestars and better-looking than any Fox boot since the original Brad Lackey model. After a decade of domination, JT Racing finally had a true challenger in the moto gear business.
Unlike the fugly Roost-D-Flector, the new Roost-2 and front-only Roost-3 actually improved the look of your gear. He was a quick study. Greg — Amazingly, the Roost-2 flew off the shelves even though Fox shipped the product unassembled in a plain plastic bag without the stickers applied. Blaze — Who puts birds in their ads? Blaze — After revamping their entire lineup in , Fox stood mostly pat for Even though most of the colorways and designs remained unchanged, they still offered some of the best-looking gear on the track.
Blaze — I always thought this was a cool ad Pete did for the Comp-2 boot in Blaze — Today, kidney belts are virtually non-existent, but in the seventies and eighties, these bad boys if you will pardon the pun were big business.
Blaze — In , Fox had quite a stable of young talent ready to step into the limelight. Blaze — If you ponied up the cash for the new gray colorway, there was a matching Roost-2 available lower left to complete the look.
Man… RJ was a badass. Blaze — The Comp-2 was back for , with one cool addition. Now all models received a sweet signature by Mr. Sano himself on the top Velcro strap. Blaze — One new Fox product for was the Paw All rights reserved. Skip to main content. You are here Home » Industry News. Published January 7, Jump to Comments. Sign up for our newsletter. Posted in New Products 18 hours 10 min ago. Posted in Announcements 18 hours 15 min ago. ABUS recalls some youth helmets.
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