Brad Simms

When Brad Simms was 11 years old, his parents gave him his first BMX bike. There wasn’t a grand design behind the gift; It was intended as a way for Brad to get to school and football practice, and around his neighborhood in southern Maryland. But Brad quickly demonstrated a willingness to push his bike a bit further than most kids. By 13, his riding earned him a sponsorship with the local bike shop, and attention from the surrounding BMX community.

Brad and his riding didn’t stay local for long. Big brands started calling with offers and invitations. His name was getting out, and so was he. A Metro Jam competition took him to Singapore in 2007 and kicked off a perpetual world tour that’s still in progress. Early in his career, Brad mostly travelled to competitions. He found some success, including a silver medal at the X-Games in China, but he didn’t love the format and limitations of competitive BMX. What he did love was exploring new parts of the world. Over the course of his career, Brad and his bike have put on a show in 113 countries and counting.

More impressive than any stunt Brad’s pulled off is that he’s managed to keep it going for decades. Beyond the obvious and ever-present risk of injury, Brad’s faced plenty of challenges in changing market conditions. When the economy crashed in 2008, so did BMX sponsorships. Brad was riding things out with a friend in Peru when an Australian brand emailed with an invitation. They flew him in for a visit, and Brad flew home with the biggest deal of his life and enough to keep the dream going.

“If and when I have to call it quits, I don’t want to wonder if I did everything I could.”

In 2019, travel restrictions, event cancellations and budget cuts had Brad living off his savings. What had worked for all those years was no longer working. Feeling the need for a new scene and new challenges, Brad packed up and left for Austin, Texas. Along with scorching heat, he found a vibrant BMX scene, and friends with couches.

Brad went on a tear. While the rest of the world was quarantined, Brad was riding. He spent 10 to 12 hours a day in the saddle, filmed every session and posted short clips to instagram. Every single day. Brad paid the bills by printing and selling posters to a growing community in Austin. At the same time, he was quickly building an audience on Instagram. For the first time, a real audience of his own. In 2020, Brad gained more than 200,000 followers, enough that Instagram interviewed him about his success. “That was the best year of my life.”

“You really have to be delusional to keep going. To keep grinding like you need to.”

Eventually, events and sponsors came back. But Brad had built something new; his livelihood was no longer tied to air travel. And it’s a good thing, because he’d grown tired of it. He also realized that he’s been all over the U.S., but never fully experienced any of it.

In 2025, Brad made another big move. He left Austin for Nashville, and traded the air mile racket for a new Tacoma. Within weeks of taking ownership, with plans to tour the American homeland, Brad’s truck was wearing a DiamondBack. It’s been securing his cargo since. Today, we’re proud to officially welcome Brad as a DiamondBack Ambassador.