AmSnow.com is now SnoWest.com
The solution?
The high school dropout mechanic, Reimer, sat down with some blank paper and pencils and started to sketch out designs for jackets, riding pants, and gloves that were made to address the needs of the modern aggressive rider and racer. Milt Reimer was no Ralph Lauren or Tommy Hilfiger and knew 10 times more about adjusting a snowmobile track or tuning a set of motorcycle carbs, but he did what millions of entrepreneurs have done: he developed a solution to address a unique problem.
Then he found a clothing manufacturer job shop in Winnipeg that was willing to make his designs a reality and give him some trade credit terms so he would have time to sell his wares before he had to pay. How sweet is that?
In the world of entrepreneurship, we use cute, edgy terms like “bootstrapping” to describe how Reimer got started. Years ago, we simply called it tenacity and luck. No matter what it’s called, FXR Racing was born.
Now Reimer’s once little niche clothing company is the largest aftermarket snowmobile clothing manufacturer in the world. It’s a multinational corporation with headquarters in Canada and China, along with warehouses all over North America. And Milt Reimer is still a self-described “motor head.” He still rides motocross bikes all summer and snowmobiles all winter, testing FXR’s new clothing designs personally. And he still lives in the same home that, up until a few years ago, served as FXR’s corporate headquarters.
It made me stop to think where our sport would be without dreamers like Milt Reimer. The kids who sit bored in 6th hour English class doodling out new designs for windshields because they got frost bit over the weekend or the garage-shop engineer who finally stumbles on the perfect clutching combination using a rummage sale gram scale and the tree line out back.
Big corporations can sometimes only provide the canvass and it’s up to you, me, and guys like Milt Reimer to complete the masterpiece.