Joe Fox is a professional race car driver who started his company, Dirtball, to keep water bottles out of landfills and to guys warm, dry and styling.
Joe Fox
About Joe Fox
Joe Fox is the founder of Dirtball. He graduated from Elon College in 1994, studying History, Political Science, International Relations and the Cold War. After graduation he immediately pursued a career as a professional race car driver. He raced in his first professional race in 1995 after returning from Europe where Ihe attended the Elf Winfield Racing School. From 1995 to 2007 Joe raced in 47 professional races won the International Motorsports Association's Rookie of the Year Award in 1998 and subsequently raced in Grand-Am, The American Le Mans Series and had starts in the NASCAR Nationwide Series including the inaugural event at the circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal Canada. Joe also worked for the Panoz Racing School as a lead instructor as well as for Porsche, Maserati and Cadillac, among others. In 2008 his career was at a crossroads and while visiting Hickory to see his parents Joe saw how our local textile and furniture manufacturing was being gutted by imports, industries that had been the life blood of Hickory, North Carolina and the South for over 100 years. Unemployment that had once been as low as 4% was now rapidly increasing and reached as high as 14.9% by mid 2009. Joe realized things had to be done differently now and for the future. We need to make products that are sustainable environmentally, economically and socially. This is how Dirtball was born. As for the name well lets just say we felt it fits for other reasons.
Dirtball constructs eco-friendly apparel and gear for active individuals – cutting across age and gender lines. Dirtball only uses recycled materials in their products and all products are designed and produced in the United States the majority within a 250 mile radius of headquarters. Not only does the recycled content add to the ecological-friendliness of the company, but the U.S.-based manufacturing arm adds to the local economy and shortens shipping distances, thereby reducing Dirtball’s carbon footprint.