Hartwig Hofherr

As a young man, Hofherr worked as a professional photographer, which took him to Formula 1 and to the USA with Niki Lauda. He has always been a tinkerer and even owns a patent for duplicating slides from his time as a photographer.

As both his son Hans-Joachim and his daughter Daniela were keen skaters, Hofherr began to supply them and their friends privately with skateboards and spare parts. Demand increased and so in 1978 he opened a skateboard shop at the well-known address Oppenheimer Landstraße 54 in Frankfurt under the name "Hajo's", short for Hans-Joachim. After a visit to the steakhouse, the shop also had its logo: a skateboard with wheels and horns.

At some point, two Americans stationed in Frankfurt stood in his shop with their imported BMX bikes and aroused Hofherr's interest. Around 1980, he added BMX bikes to his product range and received the first BMX bikes for his shop from Messingschlager: three different models from Diamond Back, a red aluminium model with two gears (the most expensive model), one with a chromoly frame and one made of steel and chromoly. At this time, he also gave up his old job selling photographic equipment to concentrate fully on his business "Hajo's".

In the beginning, he travelled a lot with his business partner at the time, Wolfgang Renner. They travelled to races together and visited companies in the USA. The BMX bike business developed quickly, countless bikes were sold in Frankfurt and the scene at the famous Hauptwache grew.

The Hajo's mail order and retail shop has always been characterised by its high-quality range: In addition to Redline as a premium brand, it also stocked products from Torker, CW and Kuwahara, among others. Many well-known riders were signed up as team riders for these brands. The Redline team included top riders such as Andreas Tittmann and Ivi Vidakovic, the Torker team Ralf Früchtl (later Redline) and Patrick Voelkel, and the Kuwahara team Chris Brown, Wayne Hammerstadt and Thomas Wensch. Uwe Sturm later joined the Redline team.

Although the extensive portfolio was reduced somewhat a few years later, the core brand Redline was retained. As general importer of Redline, Hofherr met Linn Kastan, the founder of Redline. The two became friends and travelled together many times. Once they went deep-sea fishing in Mexico, where they caught the largest blue marlin at the time - a catch that was recognised as a world record for several months.

The business flourished. Around 1984, the BMX sport continued to boom and Hofherr opened a second BMX shop in Munich, which had to close again after a few years. The main business was and remained in Frankfurt. With the recession in the BMX market after 1986, the BMX shop in Frankfurt also had to close, but the import and mail order business continued.

It was not until 1990 that Hofherr was forced to close the shop and give up the business. He retired from BMX and returned with his wife to his old home in the Allgäu, where he became involved in local politics. Today, he still enjoys collecting old cameras, a passion he has not given up since his childhood.

With Hartwig Hofherr, we welcome one of the great pioneers of the German BMX sport to the Hall of Fame. He supplied the young sport with high-quality bikes and spare parts and supported up-and-coming talents on their way. BMX in the 80s would have been unthinkable without "Hajo's" and for that we thank Hartwig Hofherr.