For those that stopped by the Arctic Cat display at the 58th annual Sno Barons Hay Days event last weekend, one of the first things you may have noticed is just how accessible the factory people were. People from engineering, marketing, parts/service, customer support, you name it…they were there and happy to talk with us riders. Included in this group was Arctic Cat CEO Brad Darling, talking to and listening to riders. Brad is a guy that is as comfortable talking about his most recent trail ride, as he is discussing the complexities of major corporations.
Amidst the excitement and chaos of any Hay Days event, we were able to have a few conversations with Brad. We’ll share a couple of highlights here with our readers.
ArcticInsider: Brad, if my math is correct, it is only a bit over 140 days since you and your team acquired the Arctic Cat company from Textron, were handed the keys, and walked into the plant for the first time. In these first few weeks and months you and your team have accomplished so much, things that many of us thought might have taken an entire year or more to accomplish, but here we are. It begs the question; how long had you been working on the acquisition of Arctic Cat…likely much longer than I imagine?
Brad Darling: Actually, it happened rather quickly. I cannot disclose exactly when the conversations first began, but, I can say that the efforts to acquire the company really began to move forward only about 1 month prior to our public announcement on April 24th.
ArcticInsider: wow, in our eyes, that makes your progress even more impressive.
ArcticInsider: In the early hours and days after the April 24th announcement it was often repeated that Argo (the worldwide leader of amphibious 6-wheel and 8-wheel off-road vehicles) had purchased Arctic Cat. Soon after, that mis-information was corrected by many but there are still a few folks that are unclear on the Argo / Arctic Cat relationship, can you bring some clarity to this for us?
Brad Darling: Yes, good question. A similar group of investors owns Argo (Ontario Drive and Gear) as to the similar group of investors that owns Arctic Cat. Each investor group is similar, but not identical. I serve as the CEO of both of these companies. Think of Argo and Arctic Cat as sister companies.
ArcticInsider: Will we see shared resources, talent, products and the like between these two companies?
Brad Darling: We are keeping options open. For example, it will be easier to have some collaboration between these two companies versus two companies that have no existing commonality.
ArcticInsider: Speaking of collaborations, many are curious about the future of the Arctic Cat / Yamaha relationship and the engines that Yamaha has provided for a few of our snowmobile and off-road models. Do you see this continuing?
Brad Darling: The relationship between Arctic Cat and Yamaha began nearly 15 years ago while I was VP and General Manager of Arctic Cat. The two companies still enjoy a healthy relationship that continues today.
ArcticInsider: Ok, a question about another company that has ties to Arctic Cat, Motorfist. Am I correct that Motorfist apparel and ride gear remains a part of Arctic Cat? Are there plans to re-enter the ride gear arena with the Motorfist and/or the Arcticwear brands?
Brad Darling: Our intent is to remain in the garment business. We are currently evaluating this part of the business and will be announcing our intentions in the future.
ArcticInsider: people here at your Hay Days display are eager to speak to you too Brad, we’ll make this our last question for now. Let’s talk dirt. Here you have much of the 2026 line up of ATV and SSV’s on display. The line up looks to be some of our most popular models in their respective segments, many of these have some features and enhancements that had not been offered before too…it is a great looking line up. With that being said, many people remember when Arctic Cat offered dirt models in many more segments than what we currently offer. People reminisce about our 1000cc ATVs in trail version and competition models, the TBX work models, Side by Side Vehicles that appealed to woodland trail riders and other models that gobbled up desert terrain. Will we see Arctic Cat returning to its roots and broadening its dirt line?
Brad Darling: Yes, but it is a matter of timing. The moment we acquired Arctic Cat we knew we had to prioritize nearly everything, we could not do all things at once. For many reasons, some obvious, we set our sights on getting a 2026 snowmobile line introduced and out to the masses. The 2026 snowmobile launch was a success at the time, and remains so today. At this time, we are scheduled to build and produce every snowmobile that was ordered, and have them delivered to our dealers in a timely manner too. This has been a monumental undertaking, but is going as planned. We also knew the importance of getting a 2026 dirt line launched as soon as possible, which we have done, and production of those is scheduled to begin in just a week or two. And yes, our dirt teams are working daily on identifying segments we are going to strengthen our presence in, or maybe reenter a segment that we have not been in for a while.
ArcticInsider: Thanks for the time you have given us today Brad, and all of the others here this weekend too.
Brad Darling: You bet!
nice interview,
we ordered a new 26 retro kitty cat,
we’re hoping cat makes apparel to match,
same with the EXT
that would be so cool!
thanks Brad, for keeping the CAT brand alive!
Brad is a great guy and a great leader for Cat. Spoke to him for a bit at Hay Days and told him how excited us Cat guys are that he is at the helm. It feels reminescent of the old days and he’s only been in control for a few months. Troy is great too and you can tell the difference between Troy last year and this year, he’s so excited about the future. It feels good to bleed green, now more than ever.
do you think we will ever see a tripple agine like a 600 or a 700 with efi.??
maybe something lower and Walsall we say stripped down for us lake guys ??
thank you
Amazing what they have done in less than 150 days. Textron saved them, but did nothing. this group will put them back on top! can’t wait to see what’s next.
In the garment dept.
Bring back the TRF made products, its been a while but that stuff was the best arcticwear we ever had.
And we were proud to be the only snowmobile manufacturer that truly had its own clothing line.
The whole Drift then Motorfist clothing lines, well, those were just bad ideas.
Motorfist grew and expanded under Cat. Textron killed it and outsourced the name to powertek, along with all the cat gear.
Better get the hammer down on the dirt side! They are so far behind it will be a long hard pull.
I love the enthusiasm however the reality is this is a brutal marketplace for snow and especially dirt. PII, BRP, Yamaha, Kawasaki, Honda, Deere, Kubota, CF Moto, etc. all. Tons of inventory and a sluggish economy. I wish them all the best and hope they come out with some compelling products.
I have been “acquired”, in a professional sense, and this is the best time to be part of the team. The enthusiasm makes coming to work fun. I hope it continues and I think it will for quite some time. Eventually, the day to day grind of any job becomes routine and the shine wears off. However, one thing about being a part of a manufacturing organization is that you get to see the finished products and get to hear from end users who are excited about what you had a part in creating. For that reason, I’m very happy for all of the Arctic Cat employees, and the community of TRF as a whole.
Having been a proud employee of Arctic Cat for over 35 years, mostly involved in the garment production and procurement, I encourage the current management to retain the Arcticwear quality it deserves.