This is what Fox Racing Inc. thinks about its marketing: cool logo, not so great company name.
So the 32-year-old motorcycle equipment and accessories maker is changing its moniker to Fox Head Inc., a play on its logo, which is a fox’s head.
The goal: sell more T-shirts, hats and other gear to surfers, skateboarders, snowboarders and others who live for action sports.
The name change is set for the fall.
“The perception that Fox, a motocross-rooted company, can grow organically in the surf industry has had its moments,” said Jim Anfuso, director of marketing at Fox.
Fox has built a huge business with the motocross crowd. The company posted $150 million in sales last year.
But the sons of founder Geoff Fox, who grew up surfing and riding motocross dirt bikes, also have helped the company edge into surf circles, Anfuso said.
“During the last three decades, Fox has become an international leader in the sportswear apparel industry with its famous fox head logo seen worldwide,” he said.
The company is a family affair. Son Greg Fox is vice president of sales, John is director of development and a third son, Pete, is creative director. Sister Anna runs Fox’s Northern California call center.
The company, which is based south of San Jose in Morgan Hill, has busted out of the 4,500-square-foot Irvine office it opened in 2003.
The Irvine site was set up to support the launch of its first surf and casual clothing lines, Anfuso said.
Fox doubled its size and expanded into two Newport Beach offices totaling 15,000 square feet last year.
The company has 75 workers in Orange County, up from 10 when it opened in Irvine three years ago. There are 400 employees in Morgan Hill.
Anfuso said the company will add workers only as sales grow.
“Fox doesn’t have a ceiling set on employees or a timeframe in which we have to do anything,” he said.
Fox’s design and marketing departments are expected to see the biggest boost.
The units were moved from Fox’s Northern California headquarters and have fueled Fox’s growth here.
Fox has no plans to move its distribution and warehouse operations from Morgan Hill, Anfuso said.
The company has expanded its lines of men’s, women’s and boy’s clothing, board shorts, rash guards, accessories and shoes as it looks to attract more surfwear buyers.
The garb is sold in surf shops, including Anaheim-based Pacific Sunwear of California Inc., Irvine-based Tilly’s, Jack’s Surfboards in Huntington Beach and Killer Dana in Dana Point.
Fox also plans to expand its line of sunglasses, which it launched a year ago. The sunglasses are made under license by Foothill Ranch-based Oakley Inc.
Fox sells sunglasses, prescription frames and goggles. Snowboarding and motocross goggles are set to debut later this year.
Fox plans to continue running ads in surf magazines, sponsoring local high school and college surf teams, surf contests and having its own list of professional athletes.
“Rather than buying our way into the industry, our preference is to organically grow a healthy surf program,” said Luis Caldering, Fox’s director of lifestyle marketing.
To stand out, Fox must continue to sponsor popular athletes and push its marketing efforts, said Jamie Ivins, operations manager at Killer Dana.
The company is up against huge marketing machines from the likes of Huntington Beach-based Quiksilver Inc., Irvine-based Billabong USA and Costa Mesa-based Volcom Inc.
So far, Fox’s T-shirts and surf trunks have sold well, Killer Dana’s Ivins said.
“The majority of the kids are shopping by brand,” she said. “You have to have ads in (publications) that appeal to them.”
