MXA INTERVIEW: MILT REIMER ON BREAKING INTO THE AMERICAN MARKET

 

 

BY JOSH MOSIMAN

WHAT WAS YOUR ENTRY INTO THE INDUSTRY LIKE? I started working at a small rural Honda/Polaris dealership in 1980 selling dirt bikes in the summer and snowmobiles in the winter. I dropped out of high school in 11th grade, because I was learning more at the dealership than at school. I worked there for 10 years before I purchased the shop and got the real context on the financial side of operating costs. It had been losing money when I bought it, and eventually we were making a little bit of profit, but it was a grind. I was 27 and the youngest Polaris dealer ever. I was all about playing the game and understanding what customers wanted. We did well with our parts because there was a ton of mail order at that time. The fulfillment side and learning how to balance the books  were valuable experiences for me. 

HOW DID FXR COME ALONG? While running the dealership, I had the idea of starting something in the performance space. I wanted to be producing products, because I’ve always had a creative mind. It was either going to be high-performance parts or apparel. I lucked into finding a manufacturer nearby in Winnipeg, Canada. I had a lot of sketches already, and I found the right place at the right time.

The first year after starting FXR, I shut the dealership down. I didn’t even sell it. I just had an auction. I sold off the assets and let it go. I had $250,000 in personal debt at that point. It was a Travis Pastrana move where you throw your parachute out of the plane and then you jump out after it, hoping you can catch up and put the chute on to deploy it before you hit the ground. It was an all-or-nothing kind of thing. 

FXR Racing’s Canadian headquarters are just outside Winnipeg.

WHAT WAS THE DEBT FOR? Some personal debt, like a small mortgage I had on a house, but mostly the accumulated debt that I was walking away from the company with.

FXR as a brand made money from the first year because our overhead was so low. We worked in the basement of my house. It was unfinished, and I just framed up an office down there. We would do all the mail-order stuff out of there. We’d be running to the U.S. border multiple times a week, doing all the customs paperwork for shipping. I had to learn it all. I did everything from design to photography to testing the product and just learning the process.

Here, Milt is ripping his 2024-1/2 Rockstar Edition FC350. No, Husqvarna doesn’t actually have a Rockstar Edition FC350, but Milt wanted the new frame, so he put his FC350 engine in an FC250 chassis.

DID YOU HAVE A PASSION FOR MOTOCROSS FROM THE BEGINNING? Right from 1980, I started racing dirt bikes. That’s why I took the job in the dealership. I started racing when I was 17, and I have had that passion all my life from that point forward. Once I had the dealership, I was racing a lot in ’92, ’93 and ’94. That’s where the development for the FXR snowmobile gear started. The inspiration for snocross gear was always motocross. There weren’t any strong brands making race-pedigree snowmobile gear. I saw a vacuum there. Motocross was the prevailing passion for all of it, because even then motocross gear was way ahead of snowmobile gear. 

I was inspired by AXO back when they had Ricky Carmichael on the SplitFire Pro Circuit team, and I had their glossy catalog. How they wove AXO right into the fabric was so next level. They were the premium moto brand at the time. I got inspired to bring that style into the snow market.

FTA stands for “Full Throttle Addiction” and it’s an offshoot brand for FXR, allowing them to spread their wings even more with more options for the consumer.

HOW WELL DOES MOTO GEAR TRANSLATE TO SNOW? The ergonomics, such as pre-curving the elbows, knees and hips, helped on snowmobile apparel, but it’s hard when the winter is short because you have such a limited timeline for both the sales and the design. We would test snow gear during the summer, working on the ergonomic fits of the patterns and seeing what we could do to shape a knee. Immediately, I started making motocross gear, too, but I realized it would be virtually impossible to bridge from the snow to the moto market. 

Milt on the line for Amateur Day at the Manitoba Canadian National with his right-hand man, Andy White (left), and MXA’s Josh Mosiman (right).

WHAT HAPPENED WITH THE HARLEY-DAVIDSON LAWSUIT? Building motocross gear has always been a dream of mine. In 1998 and 1999, we started making some motocross gear. Then, Harley-Davidson sued us for the FXR name. That had me freaked out. They had launched their apparel brand FXRG as “Functional Extreme Riding Gear.” We had launched FXR as “Factory Extreme Racewear.” Our first sale was in November of 1996, and their first sale was in February of 1997. Thankfully, that settled it. Harley had an FXR motorcycle, but that’s a completely different tariff group, so it never mattered. We had already trademarked FXR in the U.S., so we allowed them to trademark theirs as long as they never used it on the outside of a garment. We beat them in the lawsuit, and they never opposed us. 

Still, the situation gave me a heart attack for two years because they were this billion-dollar giant, and we were just this tiny little startup. Funny thing, we actually called our motocross line “FR2” for those years that we were dealing with the lawsuit. 

“I WANTED TO BE PRODUCING PRODUCTS, BECAUSE I’VE ALWAYS HAD A CREATIVE MIND. IT WAS EITHER GOING TO BE HIGH-PERFORMANCE PARTS OR APPAREL. I LUCKED INTO FINDING A MANUFACTURER NEARBY IN WINNIPEG, CANADA.”

WHAT WAS YOUR ORIGINAL BREAKOUT INTO THE MOTO WORLD? We signed the Canadian MX101 Yamaha team in 2015, and they had signed Jimmy Decotis. That was kind of our coming-out party, and it was really funny. Jimmy was on the podium at the Calgary National and everyone said, “Your new gear looks so good.” And I said, “That’s actually last year’s gear. You saw it all last year, but in 17th and 20th place, it didn’t look as good as it does on the podium now.” From then on, I was committed to motocross. 

Milt and Josh Mosiman chat after some motos on Milt’s personal track, just 15 minutes from the office.

WHAT MAKES FXR STAND OUT FROM THE CROWD? We’ve gone beyond crazy with how many different styles, colors and graphics we have in the brand. I think that has been vital for us. We started selling so many products, especially to racers, that we wanted to give people the opportunity to look like an individual. We want riders to find their personal color, find their style and stand out with FXR. A lot of people tell us we need to stick with one logo, but every time we come out with a new logo on our gear, people love it. 

There’s something very interesting about it. In moto, the riders are so hard-wired with certain creative dimensional shapes, logos and colors, and they become very inspired by them. I know MXA’s Jody Weisel has said motocross is the only sport where grown men and old guys can ride around in neon colors and tight pants and look like they’re just part of the industry; it’s not out of place. 

HOW IMPORTANT WAS HIRING ANDY WHITE? Hiring Andy made a big difference for our moto division. He came at the right time with the right skill set. He was the race director for KTM Canada for 10 years, and he had experience from owning a dealership, too. I threw the ball into his court. With Andy, we committed to developing a new motocross product every year. Then the snow gear was easier at that point because the platforms all existed, and a lot of the designs could go back and forth between snow and moto with different variations of the same thing. We’ve been able to manage the business side of it fairly effectively.

“I’M PROUD OF THE FACT WE’VE GROWN FXR WITHOUT EVER BUYING AN EXPENSIVE 450 FACTORY RIDER. IT’S THE GROUP OF PEOPLE AND THE
PRODUCT PROVING ITSELF OVER AND OVER THAT’S MADE FXR SUCCESSFUL.”

HOW DID SNOW GEAR HELP WITH MOTO? Moto was a hobby for us for a long time. That’s what was the most critical part of our success. We didn’t have to produce ridiculous numbers of products in motocross. You don’t want to have a warehouse full of products when sales don’t go your way. You always have to manage your overstock. We’ve been able to keep it in check because snow has always paid the bills. We’ve allowed ourselves to incubate our moto division and build the brand correctly.

To people in motocross, it seems like FXR grew very quickly, but we’d already been playing the apparel game for 20 years in the snow world. The infrastructure was there. All of our winter gear and moto gear comes out of Vietnam. My partners there have been amazing to work with. We were never at the back of a line. Every time we’ve had a new idea, we could develop it quickly. And, we have 10-times-better sampling capabilities there than here, like really premium, world-class quality. For snow, it’s a looser fit, but with motocross pants, it has to fit perfectly. Motocross guys are finicky. You’re dealing with 1/4 of an inch difference. This is noticeable to a motocross guy. 

This is one of FXR’s multiple warehouses in Canada.

HOW DID FXR BREAK INTO THE AMA PRO RANKS? We started by getting the Last Chance Qualifier guys. We did that for a long time. I’m proud of the fact we’ve grown FXR without ever buying an expensive 450 factory rider. It’s the group of people and the product proving itself over and over that’s made FXR successful. 

I trademarked the term “factory ride” in the early 2000s. I never thought that we would get to use it, because it was so much of a moto term, but I knew if we ever got to moto, it would matter. People used to see that “factory ride” name and say, “Who do you think you are?” Now, when people use our product, they understand. When top riders switch brands and leave a team that’s sponsored by FXR, they get pretty sad about some of the gear they have to ride in.

HOW ARE SALES NOW BETWEEN SNOW AND MOTOCROSS GEAR? Through COVID, the snow market grew at an exponential rate. All our growth in moto was being matched by snow. Now, snow has shrunk a lot because we had no snow last winter. So, that just crushed our sales. Moto is now contributing to the bottom line. Because the snow shrank so much, motocross gear is now a meaningful part of our sales. Motocross could be almost 25 percent this year. In our big years, it’d be hard for motocross to get over 10 percent. Still, motocross is our marketing focus. People all over the world know FXR because they see it on our riders and teams, such as ClubMX in Supercross. 

“WE’RE GOING TO WORK ON TRYING TO HELP OUR DEALERS MORE. WE’RE WORKING ON DEVELOPING SOME ADVENTURE RIDING MOTORCYCLE GEAR
RIGHT NOW. WE HAD DONE IT BEFORE, BUT THEN OUR MOTO LINE TOOK OFF,
AND WE HAD NO TIME TO FURTHER THAT. SOMETIMES YOU HAVE TO PICK
YOUR BATTLES.”

WHERE DID YOU LEARN HOW TO RUN A MANUFACTURING BUSINESS? When I was looking at the clothing aspect, I looked at the longevity of certain brands like Fox, Thor, No Fear, AXO and O’Neal. They have been around for a long time. 

Believe it or not, I learned a lot from reading Motocross Action. I would read interviews with the owners and executives from other gear manufacturers. For example, I learned that 3 or 4 percent of your bottom line has to be spent on marketing. I would see stuff like that in an MXA interview, because these guys would talk about their business models. We just used the same model and tweaked it for what worked for us.

Plus, working at the dealership, looking at the catalogs and looking at how they did their spring bookings gave me that template. Being in Canada, we aren’t “in the industry.” We’ve been on the edge of it, so I was always dreaming, and I would absorb everything I read.

Did you know FXR has retail stores? They have three of them in Canada and one in Minnesota.

HOW DIFFICULT IS IT TO BUILD A BRAND? We got mocked a lot at the beginning as we were trying to figure things out. Even as Canadians, when I launched FXR, we launched it in Minnesota because I wanted the perception of it to be that it’s an American brand. It’s really hard to sell Canadians a Canadian product. For the first five years, 80 percent of our business was in the U.S., and now Canada is by far the biggest part of our business. Ontario and Quebec, the amount of snowmobile gear we sell there is larger than all our sales put together in the U.S. 

The U.S. is where all of our investment was in snow on the marketing side. As we started the moto, it was almost tougher to do in Canada than it was in the States. Americans are more open-minded, and motocrossers are always looking for the next gear and how to get a sponsorship deal.

It’s interesting, because Fox and Alpinestars both say that they’re number one at the racetrack. But, if you go to Loretta’s, it’s easy to count. FXR is almost 25 percent of every gate. You go to almost any local race, and we’re always the dominant brand. Our whole marketing scheme is that we are more passionate about racing. It’s a tough place for dealers right now because the online business in moto is massive—sites like Rocky Mountain, Motosport, etc. There are fewer and fewer customers who walk into a dealership to buy their gear. 

WHAT’S THE FUTURE LOOK LIKE? We’re going to work on trying to help our dealers more. We’re working on developing some adventure riding motorcycle gear right now. We had done it before, but then our moto line took off, and we had no time to further that. Sometimes you have to pick your battles. Our fishing gear line is just taking off for us now. You find the right people with the right passion in an area, and then it grows. All of our dealers in the north who sell snowmobiles in the winter sell fishing gear in the summer. With the FXR Pro Series fish division, those dealers can sell FXR year round. 

Andy White deserves lots of credit for his strategic marketing plays in growing the FXR brand.

HAS YOUR PASSION FOR MOTOCROSS WANED? No! If it weren’t for motocross, I would have gone insane. It balances me out. Managing this company is so intense. I have to make sure riding is on my schedule each week. Even though our main headquarters is in Winnipeg, Canada, I live eight hours south in Minnesota and work out of our U.S. headquarters there. When I moved down there, it felt like home to me because that’s where I started FXR. 

This year, I’ve been racing and riding all over the place. I raced amateur day at the Manitoba National in Canada. I raced at the Red Bud and Millville National amateur days, and I did Mammoth Motocross for the vet weekend. I don’t have any kind of profile on Facebook or Instagram. I do that intentionally, because I don’t want it to be about me. I eat, sleep, and breathe FXR, it’s all about the brand.