Where it All Started
Our story starts with an obsession to build the ultimate mountain bike shoe.
For the last decade or more, finding the right pair of mountain bike shoes has involved an unavoidable tradeoff between finding what looks good or what functions well — since very few products in the category managed to do both at the same time.
Our Story
A Fateful Crash
After sustaining a bad injury sustained during a Birthday trip to the Whistler mountain bike park on his 30th birthday (2017) our founder and Chief Designer Chris Armstrong was convinced the accident would have never occurred if not for to inferior quality rubber with poor grip. He knew there had to be a better way and set off to find it.
After pitching the idea internally while working at a motocross company—and being resolutely ignored and written off time and again—our founder Chris Armstrong decided to go out on a limb and start a company. First prototypes were developed in 2019, and a Kickstarter was launched two years later in the summer of 2021.
Our Story
Idea Genesis
For the longest time, footwear in the mountain bike marketplace has been notoriously bland,monotonous, and restricted to a limited range of colors and styles.
After taking a trip to local Big Bear Mountain in Southern California, Chris is inspired by a Hawaiian frame guard wrap he spots on the hill.
By taking cues from custom mountain bike frame protectors and mudguard graphics, as well as ski & snowboard culture, he decides to design footwear that’s as stylish as it is functional.
Our Story
Putting Pen on Paper
While still working a full-time job for a motocross protective gear company, Chris starts developing early sketches and working with a manufacturer to bring early prototypes to life.
These first functional prototypes are tested, refined, tested, and refined again — before they'd eventually go on to debut for the very first time in the summer of 2021 in front of the global crowdfunding community.
Our Story
Kickstarter Launch
From just an idea we launched on Kickstarter with an initial round of one-off prototypes and a kooky campaign video. The campaign would go on to reach a base of over 400 backers in 30+ countries worldwide, and would later launch on the sister crowdfunding platform, Indiegogo.
The online mountain bike press quickly picks up on it, and the mountain bike community takes notice. Now the real work begins: developing mass production shoe pairs from the original set of concept prototypes.
Our Story
BBQ & Bikes (& Queso) Collide
Anamoly MTB relocates our team and offices from the West Coast of Southern California to central Texas, just outside of Austin.
Our Story
An Unlikely Partnership is Formed
Kyle Gagner, an original backer on the Kicktarter project (backer #63), comes onboard as partner to help fund the remaining production hurdles and help the project cross the finish line.
Our Story
Fulfilling Our First Orders
Our first production batch arrives at our Texas warehouse, and we start shipping orders immediately after.
Our Story
The Present & Future
Our mission is to spread the joy of mountain biking and grow a thriving community in the land of BBQ and bikes — Austin, Texas — and to inspire active, healthy, and outdoor lifestyles.
We plan to grow a team of talented, driven, unconventionally minded, perpetually curious and passionate folks who can help push the envelope of design & innovation within the MTB space forward — and to explore a bright future of possibilities without limitations. Future is bright!
Meet The Team
Chris is an acclaimed design engineer/product developer and footwear designer, and has spent over a decade in the R&D industry working as the former lead designer behind multiple brands such as Piloti racing footwear, Lift Aviation, O'neill, Hot Wheels and others — which he helped to build from the ground-level into successful, category-redefining new market introductions.
He also spearheaded the successful market introduction of several protective gear design innovations in the motocross, mountain bike, ski & snow, and tactical / military industries — having held senior leadership positions on multiple Advanced R&D / Special Projects teams for companies or clients including EVS Sports, Hazard 4, NFL, Gridiron labs, and others.
His work has been featured in Hypebeast, Digital Trends, Footwear News, TransWorld Motocross (TWMX), Red Bulletin Magazine, AOPA Pilot, Coroflot, RECOIL, Performance BMW, Octane, Core77, Iron & Air, ImagineFX, and others.
Kyle was one of our original Kickstarter backers (backer #63) when we launched the company in 2021, and later came onboard as a partner and co-owner in 2023 to help the project cross the finish line.
Kyle is an avid biker and loves the thrill of hitting the trails. As an entrepreneur himself, Kyle brings his years of experience operating a business to the team. He lives in North Dakota with his smokin' hot wife Melissa and four kids - James, Isaiah, Levi, and Hannah.
Chris is an acclaimed design engineer/product developer and footwear designer, and has spent over a decade in the R&D industry working as the former lead designer behind multiple brands such as Piloti racing footwear, Lift Aviation, O'neill, Hot Wheels and others — which he helped to build from the ground-level into successful, category-redefining new market introductions.
He also spearheaded the successful market introduction of several protective gear design innovations in the motocross, mountain bike, ski & snow, and tactical / military industries — having held senior leadership positions on multiple Advanced R&D / Special Projects teams for companies or clients including EVS Sports, Hazard 4, NFL, Gridiron labs, and others.
His work has been featured in Hypebeast, Digital Trends, Footwear News, TransWorld Motocross (TWMX), Red Bulletin Magazine, AOPA Pilot, Coroflot, RECOIL, Performance BMW, Octane, Core77, Iron & Air, ImagineFX, and others.
Kyle was one of our original Kickstarter backers (backer #63) when we launched the company in 2021, and later came onboard as a partner and co-owner in 2023 to help the project cross the finish line.
Kyle is an avid biker and loves the thrill of hitting the trails. As an entrepreneur himself, Kyle brings his years of experience operating a business to the team. He lives in North Dakota with his smokin' hot wife Melissa and four kids - James, Isaiah, Levi, and Hannah.
