I remember that compact black and white television; it’s antennas half cocked, like an insects head inquisitively inspecting its prey. It sat patiently marveling at my vulnerable awe as my five year old legs dangled lifeless like wilted ivy over a stool that was always too big for comfort. I sat in examination, my small head cupped in my two hands, my elbows perched to position, my eyes as close as possible as I leaned forward, eyes drawn with my mind trying to understand what I was watching. That kitchen corner, dark in the evening light, would become host to my curiosity, my innocence, and the images that would forever cast a macabre impression on my future.

I was young when I fell in love.

While children giggled in petty delight to tepid cartoons and familiar family feature fare, I was watching the classic expressionistic horror masterpieces from Universal Studios, Hammer Films, and the influential performances of Boris Karloff, Max Schrek, Bela Lugosi, Lon Chaney, Christopher Lee, and many more. There was a vacancy in their eyes, a solitary existence; a banishment from humanity. They were outcasts, misfits in civilization, and the thematic resonance of their imagery would give me identity in adolescence and an understanding of the often misunderstood complexity of good versus evil.

To understand deity, our art, and who we truly are, you must understand where it all began.

Inspiration can be gathered from many sources. For many companies this can simply be driven by the constant need to meet a quarterly number or being a part of the annual rat race to join the new ever- changing marketing fad. They walk past their competition, watching their calculated seasonal strategy in the hope to be ahead of their curve, and this “influence” can many times strip the potential for a true identity, style, and voice.

We never wanted to become a bicycle industry giant where every aspect of the business is channeled through extension numbers, employees with self-professed titles, and a governing dictatorship of investors, loans, debt, and partnerships. I have always figured that the component giants uphold their industry position well and instead of trying to become one of them, we would be the complete opposite. Since day one, we marched to our own beat and although our outlook and philosophy was at times foreign to the norm, our self-alienation reinforced that we were, in many ways, misfits in an industry of transactions and faceless corporations.

It was an interesting proposition contemplating the formation of deity in 2004. I had become so disenchanted by working for owners that lacked a pure passion for this industry, riding, and their disjointed relationship with the actual riding community made it a challenge on integrity to set foot in the door every morning. Starting a small business of any shape, form, and degree takes risk and although I had quickly climbed up multiple ranks throughout the industry and could have settled into a successful long term job title, I wanted to put the pressure of success, failure, and adversity on my shoulders and create something solely in my vision whether it would go against the grain or be embraced by everyone.

It was an opportunity to channel my influences and art into a brand with a goal to be much more than just a product manufacturer. Sure, the goal is to be in the positive and move numbers, but the fuel for the endeavor took shape in a hyper-stylistic branding that truly came from a place of passion, life long inspirations, and the liberating ability to form a business around an uncompromising mentality. Could we sell a lot more product if our “image” was tailored for the masses? Of course, but to me, I knew that we would simply become a “product” and even though many companies would want their brand represented on every OEM bike with the sole driving focus based on volume, we wanted to be a guerilla effort that started with the roots…true riders who bleed for their love of riding. I knew they could relate to us, because we are exactly like them.

With a limited start up budget of $15,000 and a calculatedly distinct vision for the brand, we formed on April 4^th 2004 with a relatively minimalist line up of components and a strong voice for who we were and our long term goals as a company. We did not have the luxury of having someone design a site or head our bookkeeping department, so we taught ourselves the tools needed to do every aspect of this business and to this day, we continue to do every aspect of our site, graphics, product design, and more as the purity of relaying your vision onto paper without having to rely on someone else to decipher your intentions, is priceless. Limitations breed creativity and when you have money to dispose into certain avenues of a business, you do not necessarily achieve a better end product. It was about being calculated with every decision, penny, never sacrificing our voice, and to this day, we operate in the same manner.

It is rewarding, yet complicated, to fund your business solely out of pocket. The credit card companies want our business, local money moving investors want to become involved, and even high profile industry names want to partner with our brand, but the ability to keep every aspect of a brand in house and controlled by one voice and wallet, has allowed us to protect our stake in the struggle. When things go wrong and other people’s financing is involved…control, voice, and passion can many times dwindle to a crawl.

Our product line was widely accepted when deity launched, but I was never content with the initial line up. In fact, I look upon it as our company’s greatest failure, my haunting failure that to this day I work against like a burden that would be required in order to stay hungry year after year and season after season. I only had so much money to invest into the first five products and with a need to start somewhere, somehow, the financial limitations made it impossible to launch a product line that I could truly be proud of. You may be able to start a business with only $15,000, but with only this amount available, it is impossible to truly create a product line that could compliment our brand. It was a necessary evil to allow us full control over the direction of deity and to this day, images of the initial product line stare at me through small compact glass frames on our office walls serving as a reminder that we will never settle for anything less than perfection.

Every sale and every customer has been the investor in deity as each penny was cycled year after year into the product allowing us the ability to refine, improve, learn, and slowly progress what we offered to the community of riders we respect so greatly. In 2004, I did not have the initial funding to afford expensive molds, tooling, technology, and development. I had to slowly address each part and calculatedly maneuver its affects on our business. The confinement of constantly saving and making sure we relentlessly reinvested by any means necessary, taught us how to survive in financial limitations and forced us to live within our means with the knowledge that the struggle would shift and the day our product deserved would inevitably come to our door.

In 2009, we relocated to the state of Idaho on a multi acre compound that housed every aspect of our business, personal life, land for trails, and with pumpkin patches and miles of cornfields flanking our view, the isolation, silence, and expanse of land would give birth to a new deity and the ability to finally expand and grow the brand into the potential I always knew it had. The initial passing years and daily financial examinations were required to get to this point, this position to inject years of product design, development, and recreate what I always intended.

I had worked on reevaluating our entire product line for two years prior to our relocation with countless product revisions, months to years of real world product abuse regimens, and with an accumulating budget set to give a new lease on life for the brand, I had finally been able to open numerous molds, invest into our own proprietary tooling, and spend months tailoring new technologies to better improve products that in many ways had seen success…just not the success I knew they could achieve. It came down to wanting to deliver the best products possible, to acknowledge every compliment, but focus attentively on every concern, to have each customer be a part of something greater and for their voice to be heard and filtered into the products they had been loyal to. I wanted to introduce new people to our company, erase my failures, and position ourselves against the best, against the component giants who simply looked upon us as a reference point for style and a brand that would come and go. To be their competition, to know how we started and continue to operate, to know each customer and watch them wave our flag incessantly in peoples faces, and to see deity continue to refine itself with each transition while never being interested in the latest and greatest marketing scheme, is truly rewarding and has led to a new product line that is the best metal we have CNC’d, bent, butted, welded, and heat treated.

2011 marks a significant milestone for us with the debut of our two discipline specific frames, countless new products that we plan to release throughout the heat of summer, and a direction that will continue to chisel our mark on this sport.  We have only begun to entertain our possibility and although some may have looked upon us as a passing company, they can rest assured that we will be here year after year working on what makes us great, the love of adversity, the process of creativity, and the identifiable passion that defines the “rider owned” mystique. The endless hours, nights, and the, at times, excruciating self critique of my creative process has led to better work, an avenue to expel my thoughts, and a chance to challenge my failure and make it my ally.

We do not make excuses for who we are, we do not need or want to be loved by all, we are willing to sacrifice a vague acceptance of numbers for the strength and a solidarity of the handful that are devoted, passionate, and share our similar outlook. We understand and relate to the outcasts and misfits that go against the grain, regardless if you or I like it. I admire integrity, a unique voice, a willingness to wear your heart on your sleeve, a clenched fist of commitment, and an ability to put yourself out for people to stare in judgment. It does not come without a cost, but that price can be paid ten fold the day you have stare at yourself in the glaringly honest mirror before you.

There is nothing glamorous about being a small business.  There are no Escalades in the parking lot, vacations take the form of industry events, and with every success, you need to be prepared for the constantly growing tumor of adversity that you must be willing to embrace daily or the struggle will close your doors and strip you of the passion you founded your company on. The bicycle industry is small and our niche within it, is even smaller, so since day one we have had a realistic expectation of what we wanted our life to be and how we could fit within this amazing industry.  To see a small company stand in the midst of giants and never settle for anything but honesty and a love for what we do is a testament that struggle, creativity, adversity, tears, heart palpitations, cold sweats, failures, and manic energy can produce something that lives on it’s own, that breaths the dust that chokes many businesses into cadavers, and yet we are still able to do it on our terms and finally look upon the fond ache of business and be proud of the accomplishment.

I still stare into that small black and white television with the images of inspiration flooding me, the like minded misfits that gave me identity in youth, forcing me to draw, paint, draft, and envision possibilities far greater than just a logo or anodizing chip. I digest their creativity and salute their struggle to create their own voice as we have struggled to share ours. You can never just look forward to the end success, to dread the day to day building of a foundation, to worry what others think, to simply want to watch the ending of a great story, to skip to the final chapter of your book.

The reward is in the process.

[previously published in Decline Magazine...photos by Ian Hylands...text by Eric Davies]