FATBMX Your Online BMX News Resource Since 1998

Shop name: Mr. B's
Location: 250 S. Ronald Reagan Blvd #118 Longwood, Florida 32750 USA
Years in business: 11
Best year yet: 2019
Worst year yet: 2001-2003

What were your first thoughts on Covid-19 when it hit?
Chad DeGroot: Little bit of panic and wondering if my shop would have to shut down. Very worried about losing business.

Did you take any action from the start or were you thinking this would be over in a few weeks?

Shop name: Powers BMX Shop
Location: 3119 Williamsburg Road, Richmond, VA 23231, USA.
Years in business: 16
Best year yet: Every year gets better and better
Worst year yet: Will be when people stop riding BMX

What were your first thoughts on Covid-19 when it hit?
Chad Powers: I freaked out! Told the dudes we were all working a rotating schedule and if they wanted to file unemployment then to do so. That only lasted about a week.

Shop name: GRIND BMX
Location: SWANLEY, KENT, UK
Years in business: OVER 10 YEARS
Best year yet: LOOKS LIKE 2020 IS GOING TO BE OUR BEST YEAR
Worst year yet: PROBABLY ABOUT 5-6 YEARS AGO

2020 has been, well, different. When did Covid-19 turn up and start influencing your business?
Trev Grind: THE FIRST LOCKDOWN IN MARCH WAS PARTICULARLY DIFFICULT. IT WAS THE UNKNOWN AT THE TIME WHICH WAS THE MAIN CONCERN

Did you take any action from the start or were you thinking this would be over in a few weeks?
Trev Grind: WE BRACED OURSELVES FOR INCREASED MAIL ORDER ITEMS FOR SMALLER STUFF LIKE SEATS, GRIPS, TYRES ETC. WE ORDERED A LOT OF STUFF WE THOUGHT PEOPLE WOULD BUY ONLINE AND FORTUNATELY FOR US THAT WORKED OUT QUITE WELL.

Shop name: Paul’s Boutique BMX Hardware Store
Location: Dorpsstraat 66a, Aarle-Rixtel, the Netherlands
Years in business: 25
Best year yet: 2012
Worst year yet: 2017

2020 has been, well, different. When did Covid-19 turn up and start influencing your business?
Paul de Jong: I closed the shop on March 14 when the first Covid-19 Lockdown was announced in the Netherlands and haven’t been open on regular times since then.

Did you take any action from the start or were you thinking this would be over in a few weeks?
Paul de Jong: I already knew it was for the long haul so in the beginning I didn’t order any new parts in Taiwan but for the rest it was business like usual.

Now, being in this situation for many months, how did you manage to keep your business rolling?

Shop name: Alans BMX
Location: Wigan, England
Years in business: 40 years coming up!
Best year yet: 2020
Worst year yet: 2020

2020 has been, well, different. When did Covid-19 turn up and start influencing your business?
Alan: Straight away in March really. Things just went crazy. We were having some work done separate our building and this gave us the opportunity to close our retail space to get this done finally.
Tom G: As soon as we went into lockdown things got mad busy, everyone was wanting parts to get back into BMX or even normal cycling (We also sell MTB bikes), we ended up furloughing a staff member as we were not sure how things would go and instantly regretted it.

Shop name: Entity BMX shop
Location: Poole UK
Years in business: 7 years woop
Best year yet: All the best, work in BMX
Worst year yet: 2020 due to Covid

2020 has been, well, different. When did Covid-19 turn up and start influencing your business?
Matt Nicklen: Lockdown started March in the U.K, it’s been a hell of a rollercoaster!

Did you take any action from the start or were you thinking this would be over in a few weeks?
Matt Nicklen: We’re always ready for war! To start with I removed all the items I was drop shipping online as I thought everyone was gunna stop working and just uploaded the stock I was carrying in store.... turned out the industry didn’t stop so had to completely rebuild the site.

Shop name: Kunstform BMX Shop
Location: Stuttgart and Berlin, Germany
Years in business: Since 2003
Best year yet: 2020 (sales)
Worst year yet: 2020 (emotional)

2020 has been, well, different. When did Covid-19 turn up and start influencing your business?
Daniel Fuhrmann: March 2020

American BMX Company (ABC) is busy developing a ling of modern BMX components that will features the legendary Cook Bros. racing name. ABC recently acquired the rights to the brand name. The company announced earlier this year that it bought Race Inc. Quality BMX Products and acquired the rights to Bottema Forks, two more legendary BMX brands. Cook Bros. Racing, founded by brothers Gary and Craig in 1972, was an early player in the high-end world of BMX racing, making chromoly frames and forks and a range of CNC-machined components. Among the company’s innovations is the Uni stem, a predecessor to the threadless stems found on most bikes today. The brothers also produced mountain bike frames and components through the 1980s and into the 1990s. They sold Cook Bros. Racing in 1984.

“We are very excited about acquiring the rights to the Cook Bros. Racing brand. We already have a full line of Neo Retro and retro-mod components in development. We’ll offer handlebars, stems, seatclamps and other parts suitable for the retro crowd or even BMX racers looking for something unique for their modern race bikes,” said Marc Côté, the owner of Montreal-based ABC.

Among the products in development are Neo Retro products such as handlebars and stems in 22.2 and 31.8 diameters, seatclamps, headsets and cranks. ABC also plans to sell brake sets and hubs co-

BMX do's and don'ts with Thomas Stellwag from "360 Grad"

American BMX Company (ABC) signed a long-term licensing agreement with Jeff Bottema, adding the iconic BMX fork brand Jeff Bottema Forks to its portfolio. ABC recently announced it bought Race Inc. Quality BMX Products, another legendary old school BMX brand. Bottema is a BMX racing legend whose career spanned the mid-1970s through the mid-1980s. In 1979, he launched Jeff Bottema Forks with a heavy-duty fork design that featured thicker tubing and legs that extended about one inch below the dropouts. The look was unique, and the forks immediately found a place in the booming BMX market. Unfortunately, a series of relationships with shady business partners doomed the fork along with Bottema’s dream of having his own company.