20 Years and Growing Red Oxx Strong!

CEO Jim Markel’s 2007 State of the Oxx Update.

Greetings friends of the Red Oxx. Though recently we saw the passing of a few milestones here at the Oxx, including our 20th anniversary, we wanted to share with you how the face of business is changing and how Red Oxx is going to better serve you.

Remember the dot com buzz and how it finally burst? Well, in 2006 Red Oxx Adventure Gear toasted its 10th anniversary on the Internet. What started out as the "silent salesman" has grown into a Red Oxx the size of Paul Bunyan’s pal Babe!

The linking of content and purpose has given rise to new kind of market place. A market place where this little outdoor gear manufacturing company, located in the state of Montana, can ship around the world.

This new way of shopping puts you, the customer, in complete control. Now you can shop for any kind of travel gear you can imagine. You can research where a carry-on bag is made; what other customers thought of the merits of a Outfitter duffel bag’s quality and usefulness, and easily compare a rucksack to a backpack, all from the comfort of your own keyboard. Who would’ve thought that would happen?

You, our customers, have catapulted Red Oxx Adventure Gear to the world stage. You’ve shared your passion for exploration and travel with the Adventure Journals.

My business partner Perry and I are hear to give you a Babe the Oxx size great big thank you! All of our customers the world over have shown us continued patronage and enthusiasm. The growth we are experiencing has been phenomenal (if not a bit taxing on the crew here at the plant).

To keep things in perspective and not let our tale (tail?) get too tall, we decided to make the big Red Oxx lean and mean. I brought the KanBan Inventory Control System on board to help lean out the production process. We implemented a two-stage website integration to better serve our "need it now" customers. This helped to boost our on-hand inventory.

We’re proud our back order stats are under ten days and have been for over a year! Meanwhile, though we are ramping up the Red Oxx output, we are sticking to maintaining our famous high quality.

Yet, despite all the hard work, we still occasionally have some issues. It was one of these little emergencies that sent me to Guatemala in search of the Monkey’s Fist, a simple little knot that helped to make a superior zipper.

Cheers, Jim Markel ~ CEO, Red Oxx Manufacturing