On Track Off Road No. 189

FEATURE
and the Vue goggle that we launched
in 2017 are examples that we don’t just
want to be see as a racewear company:
and that belief is around this whole
building. We are all pushing. With the Instinct
I think we surprised ourselves with
that product and the goggle – from a
financial perspective – far exceeded our
expectations. Oakley with the Airbrake
set the standard in the industry so for us
to put something out with a quick-change
system and a polycarbonate lens – we
really worked closely with Ken Roczen to
give him a goggle that he’d race with –
was really impressive and the consumers
responded.
The size of the racewear business is
important for pushing innovation, pushing
materials and function. The same as
safety and function in helmets. There is
no lack of attention for racewear. Tomorrow
we are actually doing a 2021 review
for our racewear here and the graphics
and colours are getting a lot of attention
and are so important. Obviously the hard
goods guys like taking inspiration from
the racewear for their graphics and colours.
A lot of the hard development with
the helmet has been done now so for the
next few years we’ll be making tweaks
and colour changes.
Has it become complicated, as a firm, to
split those priorities and still put equal
priority on both areas? It must have
taken a lot of time and resources to
make that split between cool racewear
and viable safety goods?
There are different groups but the way
our building is laid-out means they are
all in the same area. There is a feeling of
team pride when a product enjoys some
success. But you are right, when we do
our major design review meetings the
racewear is just as important as the hard
goods.