Dyno Shoes Are Back, Kinda!
Companies within companies, especially BMX brands, has always fascinated me. In its late ’80s early ’90s heyday, GT Bicycles boasted quite a few sub-brands with the same manufacturer and offices at GT, including Dyno, Robinson, Powerlite and Auburn.
While Robinson, Powerlite (at first, they later made freestyle frames and bikes) and Auburn were focused on racing, GT encompassed all forms of BMX (racing, freestyle) and beyond (trials), leaving Dyno solely focused on the freestyle side of BMX.
Originally started by Bob Morales (no relation to Robbie) in 1982, Dyno was a BMX softgoods brand that offered racing jerseys, race leathers and t-shirts. He quickly added number plates, brake guards, and moved from a garage into a small warehouse. Two years later, annual sales grew to about $250,000, and GT Bicycles offered to buy Dyno.
“I accepted their offer because Dyno was severely under capitalized and in need of investment. I negotiated a contract with GT to design bicycle frames and components and to consult on a marketing strategy for them,” said Morales. Their first freestyle frame was dubbed the D-30 and featured a steep headtube angle, a unique fork design that pushed the offset into the fork legs (allowing for “stronger” dropouts) and colors that were not GT-centric at all (lime green, purple).
Bob Morales left Dyno in 1986 to helm the American Freestyle Association as president. And Dyno became a unique brand within the GT factory. Actually, the brand became the antithesis of what GT was. Most of their team riders (Dave Voelker, Dino Deluca, Brett Hernandez) were the second place guys at contests (not including Voelker once Meet The Street happened), but their style was so unique that contest placings didn’t matter (whereas first place seemed to matter to GT.) Dyno was distinctly its own thing, under the GT umbrella but independent because the graphics, bikes and styles of riding from the team all varied dramatically from what GT offered.
- Dino was the lookback king, bar none. Armed with a coaster brake, Dino Deluca was the subject of some of the most stylish quarterpipe air photos ever shot, to this day.
- Voelker was on another level, riding to AC/DC, eschewing trends and fastplanting to the moon. When street was introduced, Voelker’s carefree approach and ability to blast three feet higher than anyone else made him the first official street champion in BMX. He also invented manuals.
- Brett Hernandez was hard to box in as a flatland rider: He was original, the older of two brothers who rode and could do everything from scooters to street.
Later on, Dyno would add a few notable riders: Ruben Castillo in 1988 and Dave Mirra in 1989. But that was it; they were not a farm team for GT by any means. They were all distinct, creative and groundbreaking. As were the bikes: Dyno pretzel bars were instantly identifiable, and the frame and forks were intentionally designed to not look like GTs. To a kid like me drooling over the BMX magazines, they were the cooler underdog brand to GT.
As 1987 vanished and 1988–89 came onto the BMX scene, things were changing fast. The bright colors and structured formats of the mid 1980s gave way to a more loose atmosphere, where uniforms were replaced with t-shirts, shorts and neoprene pads (introduced by Hammer). A sense of personal style became almost omnipresent, and it wasn’t unusual to see pro riders wearing Cure t-shirts with loose fitting shorts and shin pads as their competition uniform.
Dyno was one step ahead though, literally. By 1986, they added low-top Vans-like shoes to their lineup, complete with a unique outsole pattern and Dyno logos on the laces. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe that Dyno shoes were the first BMX-specific footwear to grace the BMX markets, decades before brands like Orchid and Lotek (RIP to both). The shoes became the official shoe of choice for every team rider under the GT umbrella, including Josh White, Martin Aparijo and Greg Hill.
And by 1988–89, the softgoods and apparel arm of Dyno was a complete outlier within the walls of GT. Their t-shirt designs were subversive. They made shin pads similar to Hammer, but with zippers for easy removal. And their apparel line included unique items such as canvas jackets and sweatpants.
Dyno Shoes continued to grow as well. New designs were released that included fish print, killer bats and targets. High tops were introduced, and it seemed as though Dyno was aligning themselves with the more street-friendly brands of the time, including Life’s A Beach, Vision Street Wear and Airwalk. Their ads became even more distinct from GT, and it was easy to see that Dyno had helped to connect Voelker’s street exploits with the new street riding subculture emerging within BMX.
It allowed GT to remain the straight lace brand while captivating a different audience. But unfortunately, the cyclic nature of the BMX industry, is, well, cyclic. And by 1990, GT pulled back the reigns on a shrinking market and shuttered the Dyno shoe and apparel division.
- Dino Deluca and Brett Hernandez would eventually fade away from the BMX limelight.
- Bob Morales founded a new brand called Kore that made a removable BMX bash guard.
- GT formed a co-sponsorship deal with Vision Street Wear, so all of their riders were outfitted in VSW.
- And Dave Voelker would eventually merge with GT in the mid ’90s to enjoy about two more decades of BMX notoriety.
I am told that Dyno’s VFR complete bike from the early ’90s was one of the best selling BMX bikes to ever be produced, but to riders that knew, it was just an introductory Dyno bike minus any of that mid to late ’80s Dyno magic.
This past week, out of nowhere, I learned that Vans had partnered with a brand called Our Legends that produces updated versions of classic designs from GT, Mongoose, Schwinn and Dyno. And in the process, they brought back the Dyno shoe. I immediately dropped $80 on a low top shoe that will probably never leave the confines of my closet. But it offers me a tiny window back into the influence of Dyno, the subversive sister brand of a BMX company that pined for world domination, pushing fun and freestyle over contest placings, leaving an indelible mark on the point when BMX got loose.
That’s worth $80 to me.
Honorable mention to Kevin Jones for not wearing Dyno shoes in a Freestylin’ Magazine interview. He instead chose to wear the Nike basketball shoes he usually rode in, and apparently, this prompted a scolding from GT. Instead of making amends, Kevin quit. As much as I like Dyno shoes, I like that story better….
