How did Loxley come to pass?
I am very lucky in living less than half a mile from 2 of the most famous darts bars in The Netherlands, the home bars for players such as Raymond van Barneveld, Dirk van Duijvenbode, Jeffrey de Zwaan, Maik Kuivenhoven, Marvin van Velzen, Vincent van der Meer, Ryan de Vreede, Bradly Roes, Joey ten Berge and many others over the years. Even 2 million pound (transfer to Cardiff City) footballer Lex Immers had one of these bars as his darts home base for many years.
Being exposed to (and occasionally playing against) players of this calibre opens a lot of doors to those willing to step through and in time I also became friends with international darters, among others Ryan Searle and Matthew Edgar. It was for these latter two players that in early 2020 I was in Germany trying to help broker a manufacturer deal with a darts brand over there.
Having become disillusioned with my former job working for an EU Commission agency, I quit in 2019 and was searching for my new calling, dipping my toes into media and becoming more and more obsessed with darts along the way. I'd already started dreaming up darts ideas so visiting a manufacturer on behalf of Matt and Ryan could have been a way to work my way into the industry. Talks were smooth but just a few days after the visit, Germany got hit with a hard and fast lockdown and the country was done, in turn any progress for the players was done too.
Ryan and Matt still needed new darts however as they needing a little something extra to push on with their careers. I am not one to sit at home on my hands for months on end so wondered if I could just start my own darts brand. With the whole world now closed it wasn't an easy challenge but after a few months of perseverance I'd found a factory, found Zac Thornton who could draw up CAD files and help with designs, I'd cashed in my pension and was ready to go. No turning back now, I've put my entire future on the line for this.
The only thing left was a name. I took a nice long shower one morning (a great place for letting the mind wander and for inspiration) and after a bit of a mental journey I ended up at arrows, Robin Hood, Robin of Loxley, LOXLEY. Excitedly but rather nervously I jumped out of the shower, dried off and got dressed at a super quick tempo and started googling this and that and searching through as many global trademark and business registries registries as I could. I couldn't believe it, nobody had ever put Loxley together with darts in the past. How? It was so obvious, it's a name that belonged in darts.
All things added together it felt like Loxley had found me rather than the other way round.
At the end of August 2020 the Matthew Edgar darts were launched with a few more darts including the Ryan Searle darts launching shortly thereafter and the rest is history.
From day 1 I felt Loxley was a community darts brand and a heck of a lot of people helped in making this journey possible, particularly in the early days so I'd like to take this opportunity to thank some of those people (apologies if I've forgotten anyone):
Zachary Thornton, Matthew Edgar, Ryan Searle, Aaron Beeney, Mark Kerr, Kurtis Bevan, Dom B, Nous H, Danny B, Yvonne v/d V, Chermaine H, Darren Watson, Adam White, Keith Deller, John Part, Steve Hine, Shanna, Hella, Colin R, Fred D, Jonathan H, Germ P, Maciej Chorbinski, Joe Reid, Gianni de B, Tim G, Drummond T, Kevin Vinnie A, Paul R, Ron K, Ron S, Jelle M, Alex H, Conor Bastable, Connor Wagner, Arie van der Rassel, Marc Bennett, Ian Bennett, Adella C, Peter L, Andy R, my parents and all the other Loxley players (past, present and future), all the shops who have supported us and all the other content creators who have put aside their valuable time to make content about Loxley Darts. Also a huge thank you to anyone who has ever purchased a Loxley product. Without you wonderful people there would be no Loxley.
Thanks everyone!
Matt B