Brady Sheren (Co-founder and Inventor of the Atlas Brace™) and Brad Mclean (Co-founder and President) both grew up racing MX and in the motorcycle industry, their fathers both were Icons in the Canadian motorcycle industry; Brady’s father, Rick Sheren was the founder of R&M Motorsports, President of Tucker Rocky Canada, Mechanix Wear Canada, and SIXSIXONE Canada during his 30 year industry career.

Brady had a very prestigious career as a top Canadian MX racer, racing in both Canada and Supercross in the United States and is now transferring that experience over to designing innovative products made to fit racers needs.

Brad’s father Bill Mclean was a multi time Canadian MX national champion and founder of Pacific Yamaha in Vancouver, BC. Pacific Yamaha went on to have a multi-title winning Canadian MX team in the late 90s and early 2000s. Brad also has many years’ experience as a Professional Canadian MX racer, race team manager, retail shop employee, and sales associate at SIXSIXONE Canada.

Chadd and Cameron Cole have a similar story, being the sons of Eddie Cole who was the founder and President of Answer Products, Protaper, Manitou, SIXSIXONE, Tag Metals, Sunline, and Filtron. Both Chadd and Cameron were introduced to the motorcycle industry at an early age and continue to be heavily involved year after year.

Brady, Brad, Chadd, and Cameron are also the founders and owners of Matrix Concepts. Matrix was launched in 2009 and is now in over 30 countries and is used by nearly every professional Factory Race team in the USA.

We got to catch up with Brady Sheren and chat about the business of neck braces, but also some exciting news that the company will be expending, with a lot more safety products coming in the next 12 months.

MXLarge: Firstly, I know a bit of your story, you used to race, but can you fill me in with your early involvement with motocross?

Sheren: To go really far back, my dad lived and raced in California, back when in the early days of motocross in America. He raced guys like Marty Smith and all those guys from that era, so he has been in the sport for a long time. I got my first bike when I was seven and started racing right away. I grew up in the era of Villopoto and Alessi and with Villopoto living just a couple of hours from where I lived, we would race together all the time. For the amateur nationals, the Villopoto’s would take my bike to the races, to help us get there. So, I grew up racing in that era. I raced supercross for a number of years and also the Canadian Nationals.

MXLarge: When did you move back to Canada?

Sheren: I always lived in Canada, but I would live on and off in California for those five years I raced there. Like six months at a time.

MXLarge: What made you want to get involved in the business side of the sport?

Sheren: Well, 2009 was my last year in supercross and in 2008, when we had the whole financial crash here in America, and everything went sideways, and it was harder to make money, and it was really challenging. With Eddie Cole and my dad, they were partners in 661 and Eddie had an idea, which turned out to be Matrix Concepts, so that was the first business we did. Around 2009, I was 21 and his kids were in their 20s and we decided to start that business together. It was a good transition from racing, and I didn’t want to stay in the sport in my mid-30s and try and figure something out at a much older age, so I got out early and started on the business side pretty early. My dad had been in the business for many years, and it was an easy transition.

MXLarge: And the making of Atlas and the braces, how did that come about?

Sheren: In my last year in supercross I first wore Leatt and then I rode with Alpinestars, and I believed in what they were doing on a safety perspective, but I hated the execution. I hated how it felt as a rider, it was too restrictive, it was too stiff, too rigid, it didn’t move, so, it was just a poor experience. I had always been an innovative kid, doing a lot of metal work and woodwork as a kid. I would make a lot of my own stuff, parts for my bike, so I always had that gene I guess, I just didn’t have access to the best tools to do it properly. When we started Matrix, I was helping the engineers who made a lot of those products and I was helping refine a lot of those products, before we launched. I was making hinges for ramps, gas cans and tie downs. I made all kinds of mechanical stuff and that was what I liked doing. With Atlas, we started in 2009 and worked on the brace for three years, before we launched it. It was a complicated project, with a lot of moving parts, and of course, the safety involved and all that. My philosophy was from a riders perspective and I thought, can we actually make something that is safe, but also a good experience riding with it and if we can cross that road, then lets take it into the lab and make sure it does what we intend it to do. Which was kind of the opposite of the birth of Leatt, where he was a doctor and wanted to make this safety thing, make it in the lab and then there you go riders. I came from the other way, because I knew in the lab, we could make it possible, but I wanted to cross the bridge for the riders first.

MXLarge: Obviously a brace is a safety thing and for sure in America, where it seems a lot of people want to sue people for all different reasons. I can imagine with a neck brace, which is really a tricky thing, and you need to be sure you have the correct text on the documents when somebody buys the brace. Have you had any problems with that side of it?

Sheren: Yes, it is complicated and until now, we haven’t had any issues with being sued, which is pretty good. We are fortunate that Leatt was the first out of the gate and they took the most bullets. They made a bunch of mistakes, took the bullets and we learnt from that. We didn’t make claims in marketing, about things we couldn’t do, or claim it could do something, and the brace couldn’t allow that, because then you are opening yourself up for problems. Of course, warning labels and the legal side of it, that is a frustrating process. The biggest proof is in our testing, where we can prove wearing it, reduces the forces to your head and neck, so that is better than not wearing it. In an injury case, they will say, would this rider be better with or without the brace and we could show you are better wearing it.

MXLarge: Once you started production and marketing, I know you had Ryan Villopoto wearing your brace, which must have given a lot of people the feeling it was a good product. Was that something that came from your knowing Ryan from your youth? Riders want a lot of money for wearing a product, for sure somebody like Villopoto. How did that come about with him, and did it help Atlas, with him wearing it?

Sheren: Knowing him helped getting a deal done and he was getting paid big money from Alpinestars, but we couldn’t match that money, so, we made him an offer that Alpinestars couldn’t make and that was giving a share of the business. He is a part owner of the company. He believed in what we were doing, and he liked the brace a lot more than what he was wearing.

MXlarge: Neck braces went through that period that everyone wanted one and then a period of a lot of riders not wearing them anymore. How has that been for you and business?

Sheren: It was a slow process over many years, and it is hard for me to watch. Not from a sale perspective, but from a safety perspective. We all get sad when somebody gets hurt, but it is a bit like being in a car accident with no seatbelt. It is sad, but you could have done more to avoid this. It is a difficult conversation to have after the fact. People should make their own decisions, but after 20 years, there is no negative data on a neck brace, it just doesn’t exist. After some time, you look at it like seat belts, it took decades of litigation and people saying seatbelts are dangerous, but eventually, there was so much evidence, seat belts were implemented. Sure, if you crash into a river, a seatbelt is a bit of a problem, but that isn’t a normal situation. For me, no matter what negative things people want to talk about, the tracks, the level of experience, level of talent, whatever, what is sure, we are still going to hit the ground. All we have to do is prepare ourselves for when that happens and wear safety equipment to protect yourself, when it does happen.

MXLarge: How does it work for product awareness, because back in the day, you just placed an add in Cycle News or RacerX, but now, there are so many options, with social media, websites. How do you cover that?

Sheren: We just try and get around everywhere, where budget allows. It is expensive to be everywhere and obviously social media is great, websites are great, because you can lay it all out there, podcasts are great as it’s a popular medium, as its long term and you can break own the issues and dive into it. I remember when we started, dad said, he used to just put an add in Cycle News and the phone would ring.

MXlarge: I have no idea if you have been into Europe for some time. When did you start to market Atlas in Europe? Obviously, the market in America is much bigger than Europe for motocross products. What can you tell me about that?

Sheren: It is good, and we got into Europe early, like a couple of years after we started, with different distribution companies. With neck braces falling off and being a North American company in Europe is tough, because we don’t have boots on the ground. We don’t have a team big enough to really hit Europe as hard as we would like.

MXLarge: And you will be expanding your product range?

Sheren: Yes, we are expanding, far beyond braces. We have needed to do for a while and we have relaunched if you like, with Atlas 2.0, reinventing the company. We have just launched the Traction boots, for adults and youths, and in the next few months, we will have youth and Peewee protectors. That will be followed by adult protectors, also knee pads and other items. We want to be a full body protection brand. We won’t do gear. It is an exciting time for Atlas, because we have some really good products coming in 2025.

Find out more about Atlas, right here: Atlas Brace™