2023 SHOWCASE

Any colour you like, so long as it’s not black

Oxford Products has opened the doors of its Witney HQ to showcase its upcoming developments to dealers. Colin Williams went along to see what’s new

Oxford Products has been on an expansion drive recently. A new £1.1m 24,000sq.ft warehouse has been built to add more storage space for bulk deliveries, and it is already filled to its (worryingly high) rafters. You certainly need a head for heights if you work within its cavernous interior: the wire-guided forklifts raise the driver up to the top level to collect goods instead of moving pallets to ground level for processing.

Move along the road a few hundred metres from the warehouse complex and you soon come to a new building Oxford recently bought to house some of its administrative staff, along with the design departments for both its “soft” products – clothing, gloves and boots – and “hard” parts – lighting, locks and chains, luggage etc. The Design Research & Development Centre is home to around 40 staff, about 25% of the business’ total manpower, although ‘manpower’ is a bit of a misnomer as around 50% of Oxford’s employees are female.

The investment hasn’t just been in bricks and mortar, as the rooms full of shiny new technical kit confirm that serious money is also being spent on research and development. This is something that Oxford Products is justifiably proud of. It doesn’t simply source a product and have it branded with a few buttons or logos; products are devised, designed and developed from scratch within the building. For the hard parts team this means taking an idea and creating and refining the design using CAD. The software is used to define packaging, refine the appearance and to accurately calculate the structural strength using finite element analysis.

A room full of high-tech 3D printing kit is then used to create a prototype. Two printers are available to the design team – one creates models by laser fusing a powder, the other uses a liquid substrate and can make soft-feel and transparent items.

The testing lab is the other location for some big-ticket apparatus. A room full of highly technical kit – a tensile tester to check the strength of materials and components, a perspirometer to see whether new materials are colour-fast, a waterproofness tester, electrical testers… the list goes on. Safe to say that anything Oxford produces has been thoroughly checked over before it is released for public consumption.

ADVENTUROUS RANGES

So what are the fruits of all this investment? Well, for the clothing department, it means a swathe of new kit for the 2023 season, with an emphasis on the burgeoning adventure market and a bid to move into new price points.

The Oxford Hinterland textile suit was launched a few years ago to top the firm’s range of technical clothing, but it has now been usurped by the new Stormland jacket and pants, which take the Dry-to-Dry trilaminate waterproof fabric and throws every technical feature Oxford’s designers can think of at it. Superfabric abrasion-proof material is fitted on the shoulders, stretch panels are fitted under the arms and across the shoulders with stretch Polartec insulation behind, vents have glove-friendly magnetic fasteners, the waterproof collar is removable, a thermal liner is removable, all the protective armour is CE level 2, zips are waterproof and it even has a Recco radar reflector fitted to help search and rescue teams track people down in remote areas. As well as being the most technically proficient textile suit in Oxford’s range, it is also the most expensive. It will come in black or grey/black/orange for £399 for the jacket and £299 for the trousers.

To fill a gap in the adventure range below the Hinterland, the new Rockland suit uses modular (two layer) laminate fabric and CE level 1 armour. Despite its lower price point it still has a plethora of technical features including a removable waterproof liner, a removable thermal liner, lots of pockets, and huge zipped vents on the chest and back. It also has a claim to fame as an Oxford first: it’s the company’s first suit to not be available in black. Instead it comes in red/ white/blue, khaki/black/fluo or grey/black/red for £249 for the jacket and £199 for the matching trousers.

The Stormland jacket and pants are the most technology-laden, and expensive, suit Oxford has produced

For the riders not wishing to look as if they are preparing to cross the Serengeti, there are AA and AAA jeans made using stretch Armourlite fabric for improved comfort. The same tech has been used for new £139.99 AA-rated Cargo pants (in black or khaki) and, for the man about town, AA-rated Chinos in black or sand colourways for £129.99 SRP. Surprisingly, A new display stand for workshop Oxford’s biggest-selling mats joins Oxford’s range of cabinets, trousers across its stands and POS to help dealers make entire offering are its the most of their showroom space range of ladies’ jeggings (which will be available in additional colours for 2023) and they will doubtless get a further boost with the introduction of new AA-rated Wax Jeggings. These are said to combine the style of jeans, the comfort of leggings and the practicality of a water resistant waxed fabric with the protective qualities of CE level 2 knee and hip armour. They only come in black, and are £139.99 SRP. As well as all the new below-the-waist garments, there has been an update to the CE A-rated Super Hoodie 2.0. It now come in two new fashion colours – Sports Red and Sports Grey with fluro detailing and big logo prints – for £129.99 SRP. NEW CAMPING KIT To further develop its already extensive range of accessories, Oxford has been busy sending its designers to biking festivals and weekend events to research what visitors are using during their stays. This has resulted in the development of new motorbike camping kit, including a fold-down steel fire pit, fuel and water flasks and a folding camping chair, all of which come in storage bags with plenty of clips and straps so they can be fitted onto the adventure bike of choice. There has also been an update to the firm’s range of aftermarket indicators. The new “Dark” range – Darkseeker, Darkhunter and Darkchaser – take all the assets of the existing LED range and add in a dark smoked lens and black casing to give a stealthy appearance without affecting usability. Feedback from the sales teams has led to something to help dealers avoid a cluttered showroom: decorative floor mats are big sellers both for keen riders and as an ideal present for the biker who has everything, but they are awkward to display, take up loads of space and refuse to stack nicely. So Oxford has designed a display rack to hold a selection of its large and small mats neatly where they can be easily unrolled for customers to view. The mat display stand, along with other Oxford-designed-and-produced POS material such as a paddock stand display, and illuminated cabinets to display accessories and helmets, are all available as part of the “Ambassador” service. Oxford ambassadors will design the layout of a showroom of any size, and then fit and furnish all the stands with products. It epitomises Oxford’s enthusiasm to equip dealers with as many tools as possible to drive sales, to the benefit of all. ■

Oxford’s recent investments have included a new Research & Development Centre, new 3D printing technology, advanced CAD and design workstations, and the towering new warehouse with hi-tech forklifts

Wax Jeggings (above) are expectd to be a best seller. The new Chinos (right) and Cargo pants extend the range of casual rider clothing