There's a version of the Fox Racing story that's just about business — market share, sponsorship deals, revenue growth. And that story is interesting enough. But the more interesting story is about how a gear company from Morgan Hill, California, accidentally (or not so accidentally) turned motocross equipment into cultural currency.
Photo by Martin Pettitt / Flickr / CC BY 2.0
Photo by Martin Pettitt / Flickr / CC BY 2.0
By the mid-90s, Fox had achieved something that basically no other action sports brand had managed: they were simultaneously the most legitimate brand in the sport and the most popular brand outside of it. Factory riders wore Fox because it was the best gear available. Kids in the suburbs wore Fox because it looked cool. And somehow, neither group felt like the other group's existence diminished theirs.
The gear itself made this possible. Fox's design team — led for years by Pete Fox himself — understood that the graphics on a pair of pants or a jersey had to work in two completely different contexts. On the track, they needed to be identifiable at speed from a distance. In a schoolyard, they needed to look intentional and aspirational. The black-and-red colorway is maybe the best example of this dual-purpose design: it reads as aggressive and technical on a bike, and as clean and stylish everywhere else.
Fox's dominance during this period extended beyond sales. They were setting the visual language for the entire sport. When Fox went bold, the industry went bold. When Fox cleaned things up, everybody cleaned things up. For about a decade, the Fox Racing catalog was effectively the trend report for motocross aesthetics.
The brand's vintage output has become one of the most collected categories in moto culture. 90s Fox gear — particularly in iconic colorways like black and red — represents a specific moment when the sport was at peak cultural influence and the gear was at peak design quality. Finding clean examples is the challenge, and it's getting harder every year.
We have a pair of vintage Fox Racing pants in black and red from this era. One pair available. Take a look.
Related Reading
- Why Blue and Red Became the Default Motocross Colorway
- Field Notes on the Honda EZ90: A Motorcycle Designed to Scare Nobody
- The Fox Racing Yellow and Blue Jersey Is the One Nobody Photographed and Everyone Remembers
Header image: Photo: Julian Henke via Unsplash