The Story of Slayco

It’s funny to think about how things turn out sometimes.  

That statement rings true with me when I think about the Slayco Knee Pad from EVS Sports and Axell Hodges.  The following story of how the product and the relationship with Axell came to be what it is today is anything but ordinary. When the opportunity to partner with Axell on a signature knee pad presented itself, both myself and everyone at EVS knew that there would be challenges and obstacles to work through, but it was an opportunity to partner with Axell, one of the most world renowned action sports athletes in the world.  

The history of Axell Hodges and his relationship with EVS is a story in itself.  Axell grew up racing motocross and was a mainstay on the amateur motocross scene for several years.  He had worn and tried a number of different knee braces from competitors of EVS, but after suffering yet another significant leg injury, Axell began to lose his love for racing, ditched his knee braces, and became a knee pad guy.  Axell was quickly on the rise in terms of his popularity when he was first exposed to the, at the time, current flagship knee pad from EVS, the Travis Pastrana signature TP199.   

Axell was getting ready to go riding for the day with his friend, Jeremy ‘Twitch’ Stenberg.  He started to gear up and experienced something that every rider can relate to…he had forgotten to pack a piece of riding gear, specifically his knee pads.  Axell yelled over to Twitch that he had forgotten his knee pads and, much to his surprise, Twitch tossed an extra set of TP199 knee pads moments later.  Axell was hooked almost immediately with the level of freedom and comfort they provided while still feeling confident they’d save his knees if he were to crash.  For the next year or so, Axell rocked TP199 knee pads as his fame skyrocketed, continuing to mooch off of Twitch and get new pads every now and then through him.  No one at EVS knew about any of this for a significant period of time until Twitch ‘spilled the beans’ one day over a phone call.  

EVS products have been worn by some BIG names in action sports over the years, but when Twitch dropped that bombshell on us, everyone was surprised.  There was an initial conversation internally in 2018 about pursuing working with Axell in a more professional capacity, but outside of establishing a more formal line of communication with Axell and supplying him with free product, no further action was taken by EVS in terms of a partnership with Axell.  

Fast forward a couple of years later, EVS Sports had brought on new leadership and staff.  Almost immediately after these new hires came on, the Covid-19 pandemic began and rocked the world.  Events were canceled, the economy shut down, and the world came to a stand still.  EVS Sports, part of a family of brands, adjusted to the new way of work and life like everyone else.  During the late summer of 2020, the team at EVS saw a social media story from Ogio of Axell going through his gear bag as he was getting ready to ride.  Much to the surprise of the new leadership and staff at EVS, the story showed Axell pulling out a pair of ragged TP199 knee pads that had clearly seen better days.  None of the new staff brought in had any knowledge that Axell used EVS product as the only staff that did had left the company.  Once the video was shared internally, a meeting was put together where it was established that not only does EVS need to pursue the opportunity to work with him in a more professional capacity, but that it needed to be high on the priority list. 

In late 2020, EVS attended the 2020 Mini Olympics at Gatorback Cycle Park.  During the long week of racing, EVS connected with Kyle ‘Foz’ Fauscette, the Ethika Moto Marketing Manager, where we expressed our desire to try and work something out with Axell in terms of a partnership.  Ethika has and continues to have a strong relationship with Axell, and Foz offered to help connect Axell with us after the trip to help us get the ball rolling.  After Mini O’s and in early 2021, EVS began to see challenges from the pandemic that many enthusiasts and industry professionals are all familiar with.  EVS, like so many other brands, was struggling to maintain inventory in any of their mainstay products due to the massive spike in demand for product and, as a result, revenue was dipping.  EVS began to take steps to secure their bottom line, and one of those steps was putting many marketing initiatives and ideas, like a partnership with Axell, on a brief ‘pause’ until things began to settle.  As EVS reached the midway point of 2021, the marketing team got the green light to resume pursuing a partnership with Axell.  

Approaching one of the most dominant figures in the action sports world was a bit intimidating at first, but after the first introductory phone call with Axell and his father, Phillip Hodges, or PH, or 'wallet guy', the EVS team began to relax and grow more confident that something would work out long term between them and Axell.  Both Axell and his father, PH, saw the value in working with EVS long term, and were stoked with the idea of a signature product.  Both parties knew that some sort of a collaborative or signature product was a formula for success, but felt that an opportunity was present to go above and beyond that to create a ‘from the ground up’ signature product.  An Axell Hodges signature product by EVS, similar to the TP199 knee pad for Travis Pastrana, would mean an addition to their brand of Slayco casual wear, riding gear, accessories, and more while for EVS, it would be a signature product with a huge name in the industry.  Between both parties, interests lined up in almost all areas pretty early in the conversation, which made for a fairly simple ‘negotiations’ phase of what a contract would look like between EVS and Axell.    Before long, EVS had officially signed ‘Slay’ to be an EVS athlete and could market him in the immediate while working towards a signature Slayco knee pad long term. 

Now that a contract had been solidified, the EVS marketing team began to zero in and focus heavily on the product development front with what a signature knee pad would look like.   The EVS Athlete Manager at the time, Jackson Halsmer, loaded up and headed out to San Diego in the fall of 2021 to meet with Axell and PH for an initial product development meeting.  Unlike what Axell had done with other brands, this would be a ‘from the ground up’ product and would require an extensive amount of initial preferences and wants from Axell.  Going into the meeting, the mindset was that it would be ‘the first of many’ in order to get exactly what Axell wanted, but after the first 10 minutes of the initial meeting, it was clear that the process would be easier than anticipated.  

Axell was extremely engaged in helping create the Slayco pad from the very beginning.  He was able to dictate exactly what he liked and disliked in his current pad of choice, the TP199, and outline certain ‘must haves’ and ‘wants’ in his future pad.  All of this information was a fantastic start, and by the end of the meeting, Jackson and Slay had gone over what fabric types to be used and where, what density of protective foam to utilize, how durability concerns were going to be addressed, and more.  One of the major things Axell wanted in a signature pad was a more minimalist and low-profile feel compared to the TP199, while still incorporating a feeling of stability, which was what made him love the TP199 so much.  The amount of information collected from just one meeting was astounding, and once the trip was over, Jackson debriefed with the EVS product designers, and let them do their thing to create a round of initial prototypes.

The first round of prototypes arrived in the late spring of 2022.  The EVS team was impressed with them, but also knew that the only opinion that mattered was from Axell.  There was a lot to unpack in terms of how the product fit him, what his initial impressions of it were, and, of course, how he felt wearing the pad on the bike.  And, with the pandemic still an ongoing issue, time was of the essence as further product adjustments/revisions could significantly increase the timeline of the project.  Once Axell received his first pair, he called Jackson after having them for about a week with some overwhelmingly positive feedback.  The EVS marketing and product development teams were thrilled to hear that the first prototype checked many of the boxes for Axell; it was comfortable, breathable, fit him well, was low-profile and minimalist compared to the TP199, gave him that feeling of stability, and allowed him the freedom and movement he craves while he’s on the bike.  He had only been in them for a week, and while it was largely very positive initial feedback, Jackson and the EVS team encouraged him to put these initial ‘V1’ prototypes through the ringer.  

Axell wore those initial prototypes for anything and everything including, mountain biking, snowboarding, riding, photoshoots, and more.  The EVS team would check in occasionally to see if he had anything new in terms of feedback, but he felt right at home with them; so much so that he competed in them!  Axell won the 2022 Red Bull Imagination Free Ride event and competed in the 2022 Summer X Games in them where he won the Moto X 110 event and finished second place in both Best Whip and Quarter Pipe High Air.  When Axell told EVS that he’d been wearing these prototypes during these events, the EVS team was blown away.  It was awesome to hear that he was already comfortable enough in them to compete at such high profile events!  

Another sign that Axell was pleased with these first prototypes came in the form of a phone call from Tyler Bereman shortly after the X Games.  Axell was so happy with his yet to be released knee pads that he started talking to Bereman about them.  He must have done a good job of talking them up because Bereman called EVS and asked if he could have a pair!  Slayco samples were far and few between so EVS had to turn down TB, but it was a great indicator that Axell was stoked on what had been designed so far. 

In late summer of 2022, the EVS team regrouped with Axell and learned about some small changes he would want to see for the next round of prototypes, but again, it was clear that he was stoked on the direction of the pad so far.  The changes he requested were minimal, and as the second round of prototypes were being done up, EVS encouraged Axell to start thinking about the aesthetics of the pad and what he would want that to be.  Everyone at EVS had a pretty good idea of what they thought he would send back as far as branding concepts of the pad itself (lots of purple and skulls), but the designers gave him the whiteboard and let him flex his creative muscle.  

The second round of prototypes arrived in the fall of 2022.  Once Axell received his pair, it didn’t take long for us to hear from him.  The general vibe from Axell in this second round was ‘the changes are perfect - these things are sick!’.  A couple more weeks went by where nothing but positive feedback was received on ‘V2’ of what had been called ‘The Slayco Knee Pad.’  In the late fall of ‘22, both Axell and the EVS team collectively agreed that the Slayco pad from a design and functionality perspective was complete.  The mindset then shifted to the aesthetics of the knee pad and what the balance of branding would look like between EVS and Slayco.  Before the EVS graphics team could even finish asking Axell what he had come up with so far from a branding perspective, he had already pulled out his mock ups and was smiling ear to ear.  

Similar to the process of breaking down the knee pad itself from a design and functionality perspective, Axell dictated for us what he would want to see in terms of logos and colors in certain parts of the pad.  Each one of the mock ups from Axell was broken down and built out in a more professional looking mock up for Axell to review and comment/make adjustments on.  By the late holiday season of 2022, the branding of the Slayco Knee Pad had been nailed down and the EVS team began to focus on production of the Axell Hodges signature product.  

As the pads were being made, the EVS team worked hand in hand with Axell to not only organize and build out what a ‘launch’ of his signature knee pad would look like, but also to coordinate the presence of the pad on his Slayco store website, how the operations and order fulfillment would work, etc.  It might seem like small things to coordinate and plan, but similar to the way the rest of the project had gone so far, Axell was easy to work with.  Even with this phase of the project being the ‘least exciting’ to date, it was clear to see that Axell valued working with EVS and wanted to make sure that even the little things ‘behind the scenes’ were squared away and ready to go for launch.  

After plenty of hard work from both Axell and nearly everyone at EVS, the Slayco Knee Pad launched in mid August of 2023.  There were challenges throughout the project with everything ranging from trying to design and build a product during a global pandemic to trying to coordinate schedules for a meeting with one of the busiest athletes in the world.  But both EVS and Axell worked through it all to create and deliver something that very few other brands had done to date; both parties involved had created a ‘from the ground up’ product made specifically for one of the biggest action sports stars in the world. 

It’s funny to think about how things turn out sometimes.  The path to the Slayco Knee Pad and a partnership between EVS Sports and Axell has been interesting and involved a ton of work from plenty of people.  It’s easy to see how that phrase rings true with so many on this project, but needless to say, Axell and everyone involved with the project are thrilled with the end result. 

Written by Jackson Halsmer

Photo Credits: EVS Sports & Browndog Wilson

Video  Credits: Chris 'Posty' Post