About Us

Welcome! I’m Brian Meyers, President and CEO.

Around 2001, I was just a guy who loved off-roading and wanted parts for my own Jeep that I couldn't afford to buy.

So I learned how to build them myself.

It started in my mom's 20' x 20' garage. I spent countless hours teaching myself how to fabricate through trial and error. Mostly error at first.

As I got better, members of my off-road club started asking if I could build parts for them too. What started as a way to outfit my own vehicle slowly turned into building products for friends, then customers.

At the time, I was attending community college during the day and spending my evenings and weekends building parts and filling orders.

I still remember getting a credit card machine and taking my first order over the phone while sitting at my mom's kitchen table. It probably doesn't sound like much today, but at the time it felt like a huge milestone. I can still hear the sound of the paper ripping as I tore the receipt from the machine.

In 2003, we officially formed JcrOffroad.

A year later, in 2004, I moved to Kalamazoo, Michigan, and Daryl Hutson joined me as a partner. More than twenty years later, Daryl and I still own the company.

People often ask how our partnership has lasted so long.

The truth is we're very different.

Daryl is exceptionally good at things that don't come naturally to me, and I'm good at things that don't come naturally to him. We've always trusted each other's strengths and challenged each other's thinking. Neither one of us could have built this company alone, but together we've built something we're incredibly proud of.

Over the years, we continued to grow and expand.

In 2015, we launched Victory 4x4.

In 2019, we launched Squatchproof.

Today, these brands operate under Fat American Manufacturing, the company behind everything we build.

One thing that's important for customers to know is that we've never had outside investors.

No venture capital.

No private equity.

No shareholders.

Fat American Manufacturing has always been owned by Brian Meyers and Daryl Hutson.

Every machine we've purchased, every building we've expanded into, every new brand we've launched, and every improvement we've made has been funded by serving customers, reinvesting back into the business, and creating as much value as possible.

We've never been the kind of company that had everything figured out.

When we started, we didn't know much about manufacturing.

We didn't know much about running a business.

We definitely didn't know much about leading people.

Like most things, we learned on the fly.

One of my favorite reminders of those early days came from an eBay feedback comment that read:

"Great hoop, but looks like it was painted by a blind monkey."

Honestly, that was probably fair.

Back then, I was spray-painting parts in a dimly lit garage.

Today, we have a state-of-the-art powder coating process that delivers a finish I could only dream about back then.

Unfortunately, we had to let the blind monkey go.

The biggest lesson we've learned over the years has nothing to do with fabrication, manufacturing, or business.

It's people.

Some of the best ideas we've ever implemented didn't come from Daryl or me.

They came from employees who challenged old ways of thinking, solved problems we couldn't solve, and found better ways to serve our customers.

Looking back, one of the most rewarding parts of this journey has been watching people grow, develop new skills, and accomplish things they never thought they were capable of.

Without our people, we can't build products.

Without their creativity, we can't innovate.

Without their dedication, we can't grow.

What started as a guy building parts in a garage has become something much bigger than myself and Daryl.

It's the story of the employees, customers, vendors, and friends who helped build it along the way.

We're grateful to every one of them.

For over twenty years, we've been building products, solving problems, and spotting customers from their first question to the trailhead.

We look forward to you becoming part of our story.

Sincerely,

Brian Meyers
President - CEO