BMX History

ZeroNine was started in 1978 by Owen Scheppman. At the start, the main focus was the Bicycle Motocross (BMX) industry selling numbers 0 through 9 for people to put on their bicycles before racing. Owen started the company by running it out of his parents house in Hoffman Estates, IL. He created a market demand by screen printing vinyl to make 2 colored numbers. He ended up occupying any usable space around the house for drying the printed vinyl. After printing, his whole family would sit around the TV at night and cut the numbers out by hand one at a time. Owen would go to all the races on weekends and sell the numbers to the kids racing for $0.50 a piece. These numbers are still being sold today!

It wasn't until his first international show in Las Vegas, NV that ZeroNine was noticed around the world. The ZeroNine stickers were an instant icon. Cutting the stickers out by hand with scissors just wouldn't work at the pace the company was growing. Owen invested in machines for mass production. ZeroNine grew exponentially in the following years with the growth of the sport and the growth of the product lines. ZeroNine became iconic in also selling number plates, pads, visors, jerseys, stickers, and even bicycles.

In the late 1980s, the BMX industry took a tumble and ZeroNine had to move into other markets to survive. We began focusing on screenprinting t-shirts and stickers. In the late '90s ZeroNine pivoted it's focus to selling supplies for the Gerber Edge® thermal transfer printers.

With the recent growing trend and demands of old-school riders & collectors, ZeroNine has made a resurgence in the BMX world. Starting with selling NOS products that have been stored for decades in our warehouse, we also dipped our toes back into the scene with reproductions of our most iconic numberplates. Now we are back full-force with new designs that appeal to the modern-day BMX rider.