Cole Seely Signature SPY Omen Goggle Launch

When you think of ‘making it’ in pretty much any professional sport, sure, winning comes to mind, but so does having your own signature gear. Cole Seely can now check both of those things off the list. In Laguna Beach, California at the Troy Lee Designs Store, SPY launched its new Cole Seely Signature Omen Goggles. Despite wearing bright and colorful TLD gear given to him by the team, Cole said that he prefers a dark, monochromatic look with just a hint of color, and that’s pretty much what you have with his new goggle. We had a chance to talk with him and Jake Brunet, SPY’s Motocross Marketing guy.

Cole: It's been talked about for the past year, I'd say. We were just kicking around ideas, almost joking around about it, and then it just kind of came up before I resigned my deal. It was a two-year deal before for '15, '16 and now going into '17, '18 I have another two-year deal with them. I've been an athlete with them so long. I was on Oakley for about five years when I was on the Troy Lee Team, but it wasn't an individual deal like SPY is, it was a team deal. I was on SPY when I was an amateur too, so I just kept that relationship with those guys and they are a super cool group to work with. When the whole signature thing came about it was pretty organic, nothing too stressful or too hard. Like I said earlier, it was like two emails and we already had a rendering of what was going to happen.

Cole: Yeah, I'm pretty picky. You know, I don't like to be too flashy or anything like that. There is a lot of stuff like that that Troy wants me to push so I'll do it. It's not that bad of a thing for me and some people really like it. But given my choice, being behind the drawing board and picking the colors out, it's just my style – I like the 'all black' look with a little bit of color here and there. Mostly black stuff.

Motocross Marketing, Jake Brunet: Cole has been with the brand for quite a few years, in fact, after a recent interview with him I learned he was with the brand in the amateur ranks as well. So he has actually ridden with SPY for a long time and we can quote him as saying once he stepped into the pro ranks and could go after his own goggle deal that SPY was the first brand he wanted to go for, even after riding for Oakley so that's a cool thing for him to say. Having him on board, we are just kind of a big fan of how he carries himself and who he is. He's got a great racing career going and I've followed him personally for a long time and watched him grow. It's always exciting to see somebody you've watched through the ranks so to see him develop and that high caliber guy that he is. He's capable of getting podiums and race wins. We saw that even when he was a Lights rider coming up. I think it was an obvious choice for us and he is kind of a refined guy, style-wise – he really looks out for what he puts out there. I respect that about him.

Jake: So the way it comes about, once we feel like an athlete is in a position of having a signature goggle and we just approach them and say, 'Hey, what do you want to do' just to get some initial thoughts. With Cole, the first time I asked him, he knew right away the direction he wanted to go. I was kind of impressed that right off the bat he had an idea and a colorway. It's like he knew in his head that if he got the opportunity where he wanted to go. Now, when we actually went to the design team and product development and said, 'Let's put you guys in contact' he was quick to fire off, 'This is my inspiration, this is the way I'd like to see it," and so, like we said, it didn't take too long as far as the process because he knew what he wanted and that's honestly the best thing you could have when working with an athlete.