A
S AN ATHLETE in the exciting world
of Freestyle MX, life in the moment
seems to be a never-ending bliss
of easy times, money, girls, and
no hard decisions in sight. But as we all know,
those moments, while great at the time, don’t
last for very long and job opportunities post-FMX
life are lean. There seem to be an abundance of
dead-end jobs and th e realisation that your skill
sets on a dirtbike don’t transfer over into the real
world becomes a harsh reality.
Even with a successful career it still behooves
oneself to be extra prepared for the FMX
afterlife. That’s just what Jeremy Stenberg has
done with the Dirt Bike Kidz brand, mixing
his passion for freeriding in the hills (his core
roots) alongside creating a business that can
continue his name and brand whilst allowing him
to still remain competitive on the bike. Having
a product to sell that will yield fruit way past
his days of turn-ups and turn-downs, Stenberg
is enthusiastic about his new ventures. With a
clothing line and a freeride inspired DVD on the
horizon, FreestyleXtreme got to sit down with
the 15-times medalist to see what he had to say
about his newly formed Dirt Bike Kidz brand.
“S**t, I’ve always wanted to do my own company
in the long run. I’d say it was right around the
time s**t started going south with the Mulisha
that I started thinking about doing my own
company,” Stenberg says about the timing of
starting the DBK brand. “My friend Daniel Sani
used to have this saying - Dirt Bike Kidz – and he
used to always sign it on everything and call us
Dirt Bike Kidz - and so I hit him up and I was like
‘yo: I want to start a company using this name,
I think this name is dope’. So, that’s where the
name came from and I have to thank his ass for
sure on that one (laughs).”
Despite lining up nicely with his departure from
the Metal Mulisha, there had to be a real drive
behind the plan other than just having a cool (or
as Stenberg puts it, “dope”) name. After all, with
a number of Metal Mulisha tattoos inked into his
body, Stenberg was loyal through and through.
Whilst remaining professional about his deal
coming apart, change was inevitable and for the
best.
“I’d say the motivation behind starting DBK was
to have my own brand and start something cool.
I wanted something I was pumped on wearing
- all my previous sponsors’ clothes I was never
really that pumped on wearing. So I decided I
wanted to make clothes that I wanted to wear
and stuff that I thought was cool,” he says “And
for me, I’ve always looked at everyone that
rides dirt bikes as Dirt Bike Kidz. At heart that’s
what we all are. You know, why do you ride
bikes when you’re a little kid? It’s because it’s
something you love doing and I wanted to have a
brand that expressed that.”
Keeping his crew tight and organic, Stenberg
went with a close-knit group of friends that
he knew would best represent the brand in its
infancy. The company is just now cresting its
second year of being in business and doing
things the right way - and if that means taking
things slow, then that’s exactly what Twitch is
going to do. It’s all about quality not quantity
when it comes to building his brand.
“The official DBK crew is myself, Taka Higashino,
Josh Hansen, Andy Bakken, Tyler Bereman,
Justin Aires, Luke Dolin, the #nonamers which
consists of the Reche Canyon crew of Vinnie
Carbone, Trey & Tanner O’Brien, Rowan Law,
Brad Murray, Kevin Imes, Jack Krause from
Jackpot Ranch, and you Doug Parsons are a
big supporter as well (laughs),” he says about
the OG DBK riders crew. “I didn’t want to have
a company and sponsor a million dudes, I
want a dope, select group of guys. I only want
to sponsor a few guys, and then we have our
friends that support it. I hate it when brands try
to sign up everyone they can just because for
whatever reason you know, some
girl is going to ride X Games so
they sign them up. No, I’m not
about that, I have 4 top dudes that
are the main guys and then the
rest is everyone that has passion
to go out in the hills and have
fun. This is what we’re all about.
I couldn’t care less if any of our
guys win Step Up or Best Whip or
even compete at all. I just want it
to be dudes that everyone in the
industry respects because of their
riding ability and not because
of some chance opportunity to
sponsor someone for reasons I
don’t believe in. I couldn’t care