Industry Insights | Ft. Rob Salcedo 2

In this week's Industry Insights we talk to the U.S. Marketing Manager for Leatt, Rob Salcedo, about his days at Fox Racing, his path to Leatt, and raising awareness of all that Leatt offers.

For the full interview, check out the Vital MX podcast right here. If you're interested in the condensed written version, scroll down just a bit further.

Jamie Guida – Vital MX: Give us your background. Where did you grow up, and how did you get into riding?

Rob Salcedo: I grew up in Hollister, California, a little town just south of the Bay Area. It is relevant to the motocross community because of a famous riding area and a track from back in the day. Then, I started working at Fox in 1994, located in Morgan Hill at the time. I started in the warehouse and worked my way up through some positions in the warranty department, warehouse, and sales. In 2001, the team manager for Fox, Todd Hicks, came to me and offered me the position to be the team manager for Shift. Shift was the sub-brand of Fox. Of course, I jumped at it because it was a great opportunity. At that time, the brand had had a bit of a lull after the Jeff Emig, Seth (Enslow), and the freestyle era. It was in a rebuilding period, and I looked at that as an opportunity and we started building an amateur motocross team. That was awesome because I loved going to all the amateur races. We also had a pro team at the time that consisted of the White Brothers four-stroke team. That was back when they had the four-stroke nationals. It was Spud Walters and Paul Carpenter. White Brothers was the premier team within that class at the time. The following year, we had the opportunity to work with the Factory Connection Honda team, which was rad. We were with that team for a number of years. During this time, I rode mountain bikes and went to the moto races. So, during the week, we'd come home, ride mountain bikes, and go to Supercross on the weekends. 

Vital MX: Before going to work at Fox, did you race motocross or trail ride? 

Rob: I did not race. Mainly, I rode mountain bikes. My friends and I used to drive up the road in San Juan Bautista to the top and ride mountain bikes through Hollister on the moto trails. We would do drop runs. We would also ride some moto and trails because that's like mountain biking, but I never had the chance to race. 

Vital MX: How did you get the job at Fox Racing? How do you get your foot in the door of such a legendary company?

Rob: I worked at my Uncle's Mexican restaurant in downtown San Jose. I was commuting an hour in each direction. I had a friend who worked in the warehouse at Fox, and during the holiday season, they would hire additional seasonal help to take orders. I did that and got my foot in the door. I spent four months picking orders, unloading pallets, stocking products, and all the warehouse stuff. The business was pretty small then. Something like 45 people in the Morgan Hill location. So, I started from the bottom. It was also the time when the Fox video department was growing. Fox was distributing videos such as Terrafirma and the Crusty era. The guy running the warranty department asked me to be his assistant, so I worked there for a bit. A few months later, he moved to the video department and asked me if I wanted to take over the warranty department. I did that for a few years, dealing with returns and customer service. After that, I worked my way up to assistant warehouse manager, where I helped run the warehouse. The business was booming then, and we had implemented swing shifts. So, I was working the night shift with a crew of guys, and it was fun. The business was still small, and the owner/founder, Geoff Fox, was still very involved. So, he was around quite a bit, and working with the Fox family was awesome. It was tight-knit and family-oriented. 

Vital MX: I find it cool how they allowed you guys to promote from within learning different departments.

Rob: One cool thing about Fox was that it was a huge global business, but the office we worked out of didn't have a lot of turnover. Many of the employees were there for ten or more years. I left in 2014, so I was there for 20 years. The company started in '74, so it was already hitting its 20th anniversary when I arrived. It was a small business, and guys like Todd Hicks and the Fox family were pretty tight. John Fox, the youngest son, lived with Todd and Matt Story, the video guy at the time, and Jason Mitchell. They were these old-school guys who had been there forever, and they invited me in. We all hung out and lived in Morgan Hill, and it was a great time.

Vital MX: Eventually, you moved on to Bell Helmets. What brought that decision on?

Rob: While at Fox, the company moved to Southern California, and I moved down South. I was living in Orange County, and my girlfriend, now my wife, had started thinking about moving back. Our family and everyone was from Northern California. A friend of mine, Chris Sackett, was running Bell at the time and hit me up, and this was before the Flex technology was released. He showed me Flex, and I said, "OK. This is big." I saw the opportunity in that. This was about a year before it actually launched, and he offered me the powersports marketing position there. We wanted to move back to NorCal anyway, so I took that offer and started working on Flex. We started building the athletes around that and the plan to bring it to market. It was cool timing.

Vital MX: How comfortable were you with the marketing side of things? You didn't go to school for that, so I assume it was all 'hands-on' and figuring it out as you go.

Rob: It definitely was. I learned at the moment doing the job and in the field. A lot of marketing is contacts and knowing the right things to do. Being at the races and learning from guys like Todd Hicks and the Fox family, one of the most successful action sports companies, was a great learning experience. That was my school. It wasn't easy, but I came from all these different positions and learned all those business aspects along the way. I learned a lot. 

Vital MX: With you being a mountain bike guy and Bell having a large MTB side, did you get to be a part of that? 

Rob: At Bell, it was two divisions internally that were run separately. It was powersports and bike, and I came in on the powersports side. Two or three years in, they decided to combine them, and that's when I took over the mountain bike side as well. I hired a guy to deal with the street side of Bell, so I was concentrating on moto and MTB. I was super involved with that and then started building the team. We had an established team but brought on a new team for the downhill side. This was before the Moto 10, so when Spherical was launched, it was in a bicycle product and we built teams around it. Through the years of being involved with Supercross and the moto side of the business, I never got to go to all the mountain bike events I wanted to because the schedule was so crazy. Events like Crankworx and those things. So, I brought on Benny Tozzi for the moto side, and he eventually completely took over, and I focused on mountain biking, but for a while, I was doing both. If you think about just one of those sides, moto or MTB, and all the trade shows, global business, and travel, it's crazy. I was doing double, but it was awesome. 

Vital MX: Let's jump ahead. You stepped away to be a stay-at-home dad post-COVID. Then, an opportunity at Leatt came about. How did that happen?

Rob: Yeah, I left Bell and took a little break. I went to work for Stacyc for a short time. Ragz (Ryan Ragland) and Mike Dettmer were friends of mine so I went there. That didn't last super long. Maybe eight months or so because they were undergoing some changes, so I left. That was right before Covid, and I was a stay-at-home dad for almost two years. I had started a little agency helping some brands with friends of mine from GoPro. We were doing that on the side, and randomly, one day, I saw a job available at Leatt. Todd Repsher ran the U.S. side and I had worked with him at Fox, so I hit him up to see if it was still available. He hit me right back and started the process. It happened quickly. When I say quick, I accepted the job on Wednesday, and on Saturday, I boarded a flight to South Africa. This was the first week of December last year. The reason for that was a big marketing meeting in South Africa, and it was important for me to meet the marketing team. It was strategy planning, budgeting, and all that for 2023. I jumped right in. I was brought in to do mountain bike and moto for Leatt in the U.S. I hit the ground running, and luckily, I've been doing both for quite some time and know a lot of athletes, agents, media, and promoters in both categories. 

Vital MX: I'm going to be honest. I had a certain perception of Leatt, and I believe a lot of people share it. I thought of Leatt as 'that neck brace' company, and I had no idea how many other products you have. What was your perception when you went to work there, and do you agree with that being the public perception?

Rob: Yes, you are correct. It started as a neck brace company and, thank God, expanded outside of that into moto and MTB. The category range is huge, from gear, goggles, helmets, boots, and, of course, protection. The brand is really known for protection like neck braces, chest protectors, and all that, but we have a huge range of products. We have low to high-price point riding gear, which includes helmets and boots. Head-to-toe offerings for moto. On the bike side, it's the same. We have a huge apparel line, including shoes or whatever. The brand has been doing a lot of work. Let me tell you, coming from Fox and Bell, when I saw the amount of product, I knew what it takes from a product team perspective to make them all. Now that I've been there a year and I've met the team multiple times, I've been able to have input into the products myself. I thoroughly enjoy doing that. The first meeting I went to, I remember sitting down and looking through the catalog and saying, "I had no idea Leatt made this much stuff." I think that's a lot of people's perspective. The first time they look at the website or catalog, they say, "Man, I didn't know they made jackets or whatever," because we're known as a protection company. That was a huge opportunity and something I could work with. I got excited about letting the world know we make these products and how good they are. 

Vital MX: Yeah, as the Marketing Manager, that must be the main thing you do. How do you work towards letting people know and raising awareness of the brand?

Rob: My main goal is to get more athletes. Right now, we work with Team Solitaire, and they are a great partner. They've been with the brand for quite some time. This year has been crazy and a bit of a lull year, but at some point, the goal is to either have a premier athlete and just more athletes in general. Whether it's more 250 teams or multiple 450 riders. The apparel side is more unknown, so my job is to turn that around. Once people see the gear, because I send it to media, or guys I know, they'll call me and say, "This stuff is good. I didn't know it was this good." It's cool to hear because it's a big opportunity for me to elevate the brand and bring it into the mainstream perception of other brands like Fox or whoever. 

Vital MX: Looking at your website, one of the things I didn't realize you had was knee braces.

Rob: Yeah, and when you look at the product range, typically, it's a range of products. We don't just have one knee brace. We have multiple models of knee braces, and the same goes for boots, helmets, goggles, and everything on the MTB side. That is another cool thing. We don't just do one thing. It's a range, and they are all good and priced well. We look at what is on the market and what needs updating. What is a hole that needs to be filled? What's working? One thing we're good at is new stuff. For instance, just last year, I went to Crankworx, and we launched a new MTB goggle called the Velocity 4.0 MTB X-Flow. In mountain biking, you either ride with glasses or you use goggles. If you use goggles, you usually use them downhill, trail riding, or in enduro. When climbing, you must pull them up on your helmet. So, our new goggle is the first of its kind in the market. It has foam at the top and around the side but nothing at the bottom. It's totally open at the bottom. So, it's a cross between a pair of glasses and a goggle. It will protect you if you're behind someone because it has a goggle lens, but you can still wear it while climbing. Leatt is good at looking at the market and seeing what people need. 

Vital MX: Let's close this out by you telling me a story of one of the coolest things you've been able to do because of being in this industry.

Rob: The absolute coolest thing was going to the races during the hay day when Ricky Carmichael and James Stewart were racing. I wasn't working directly for Fox because I was on the Shift side, but I was there. Being a part of that era and able to stand on the Supercross and motocross track while those guys were riding was awesome. I remember being at Unadilla or whatever race during those battles. Also, during my time at Shift, I built a big amateur team. A lot of kids came through that program, and it was a fun time. Justin Barcia, Adam Cianciarulo, and a lot of others came through as kids. I've known Eli Tomac since he was on 80s. When I got the opportunity at Bell, we brought him on board since his dad was a Bell athlete back in the day. Cooper Webb, too. I've known those guys since they were kids, and it was rad hanging out with them and getting to know their families. Now, seeing them be the top guys in the sport is cool.