Have you heard any cool stories of Cops asking riders what bike they're riding? David Wootten: I have heard several stories over the years mostly from our dealers. One of the best was when someone from the government called asking what we import and we told them we import Stolen bikes from the UK... The lady told me she cannot put that on the form.
What's your background in the Bicycle Industry?
David Wootten: I started racing BMX in 1979 in New York. I got up
to 16X and quit, I didn't have the goods to go Pro. After I got out of the Marines I started working in bike shops around the Buffalo area (Jim C was one of my customers). I started riding bike trials and was decent enough to turn Pro and get flow from GT. When I stopped competing in 1995 one of my sponsors Magura (a German brake co.) offered me a job running their US race program. I did that for a while and did some wrenching for the Specialized DH/Shawn Palmer team on the side. In 1997 Tioga offered me a job managing their European operations out of the Netherlands. I worked for them for 7 years before starting Greasy Comb Distribution in 2003. 
What made you decide to start your own bicycle company? David Wootten: Actually my partner Anthony Revell (Euro BMX racer) started Stolen about a year before I started distributing them. After 2 years of distributing and building the brand Anthony offered me a partnership. Now we each have a piece of Stolen and I handle most of the design, graphics, photo, ads, web etc. Anthony handles the sales, money and deals with our Taiwan agent.
You had a good view on the industry having worked for various bike companies in the past, how hard was it to start? David Wootten: It was a scary day when I quite my "real" job. I don't know how someone stops being a Pro rider one day and says "I am going to start a bike company". Pretty rare that it works without the behind the scenes business guy really running shit. Most Pros don't know anything about bikes besides how to make one fly. Thank God I had Tioga and the others to foot the bills while I learned the industry, marketing, design & especially the nuances of dealing with Asia. I would surely have failed without that training.
What were some of the issues that came up that you had not expected?
David Wootten: The main issues we encountered at the beginning was a lack capital to buy enough stock to meet the demand. I am glad we didn't try to get an investor or get too deep in debt to Taiwan like so many have.
Next to stolen bikes you also run Greasy Comb distribution. What brands do you carry? David Wootten: Ah, Greasy Comb... We actually stopped doing are own distribution recently. We turned Stolen sales over to QBP who are doing a bang up job for us, best business decision we have made to date. The brands we carried over the years in order of appearance: Funn, Perv, Revell Bikes, Stolen, 414 Industries, Proper, Season, Superstar, St. Martin & Knight.
Why those brands specifically? David Wootten: The first two we picked up because they paid us a lot of money. The others were due to their potential in the US market or we had a good relationship with the owners.
Is it hard to stay afloat in today's economy? David Wootten: Not really, we run pretty lean and have posted record sales again this last Christmas despite the current global economy. I think some of the keys are to run efficiently as far as staff, use as much low cost subversive marketing as possible, save for a rainy day (now). BMX will be the last to get hit (in the industry) because most of the people that buy my stuff don't have mortgages to default on and parents ALWAYS provide for their kids.
What do you foresee happening in 2009? David Wootten: I think some companies will seriously struggle, others will pack it in all together but we will for sure see a few new heads pop up as well. A wise man once said; "In BMX to have a million dollars in the bank, you must first start with 2 million."
Thanks/shout outs/props: My wife Christine for putting up with me thinking about BMX 24/7, my business partner Anthony for believing in me from Day 1, our distributors and dealers that love and support our brand, my team for working so hard for so little, everyone I have met in this industry that has been cool, all the haters for motivating me daily & finally Fat for thinking to give ME an interview!
Stolen BMX
After doing a BMX 'zine for ten years (1987 - 1996) FATBMX made it on the internet. The year was 1998. Here to stay.