I can't wait to tell you about my latest trip to Guatemala and the changes I discovered there. But first, there's a back story that needs to be told. See below.

I've also prepared a State of the Oxx address. Twenty years since my father started the company, and hardly a moment to stand still and savor it. Now we're doing KanBan, baby, and the sky's the limit...

Perry wants another product tester. Answer a couple questions?

Cheers,
Jim Markel, Co-owner, Red Oxx Manufacturing

It all started with those handy little cords on all of our travel bags. The ones that make it easy to pull open the #10 YKK zippers. They feel good between the fingers, and look cool at the same time. Little did we know that when our fearless leader decided to make them standard issue across our line of adventure travel luggage, he'd be drawn all the way to Guatemala.

I noticed my first "monkey fist" zipper pull-knot years ago on a customer's ski jacket. "Hey, where did you get that cool zipper pull? That knot looks like a tiny fist?" I said.

Little did I know the monkey's fist already had me in a knot! And just what is a monkey fist anyway? I discovered they call 'em a monkey fist because the knot looks like a miniature fist.

I was in luck. My customer told me there was a load of zip knots in a storage locker in Bozeman, Montana. After a quick negotiation, I was soon rolling to the "Zone" (One of Bozeman's nicknames) for a pile of 250,000 monkey paw knots.

Man, was my business partner Perry ticked off! "But they’re so cool!" I argued. "Yeah, what're you gonna do when you run out?" Good question... cross that bridge when we get there I guess. In the meantime, we had plenty of Zip Knots.

Well, things were fine while Red Oxx was still quite small. The mountain began to disappear until one day we were down to just a few boxes. Hmm, guess I better figure out where to get these...knots?
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