At that stage, the Norwegian native had spent more than 20 years in the design and brand development industry, helping others dream up innovative products and build businesses that "transformed their lives".
Johannessen, who’s lived in Queenstown for the past nine years, had long thought about creating a global business immune to the ups and downs of the local and NZ economies.
The crunch point came on the second day of the 2020 lockdown, when he told his partner "this is what I want to do, but we’ll have no income for three years".
Two years later, he released the first version of his ‘DirtSkirt’ product for mountain bikes.
Five years on, his company, Foxfolk, is selling them in more than 80 countries.
The DirtSkirt’s genesis was a friend’s complaint about how the frame of his $12,000 carbon fibre bike had cracked two weeks after he’d bought it.
It wasn’t covered by its warranty because the damage was deemed "normal wear and tear".
After finding the warranties of the major bike frame makers all had a similar wording, Johannessen
learned debris could become lodged in the pivoting swing arm of a handful of frame types, causing catastrophic damage.
Although only a few types have this engineering "Achilles heel" in their designs, they make up about 80% of the full-suspension carbon fibre bikes on the market.
He came up with a flexible guard, attached to the frame with super-strong adhesive, that stops debris becoming lodged in the critical space.
Perfecting its design over 18 months of testing by pro riders on Queenstown’s bike trails, he put the first version of DirtSkirt on the market in 2022.
Version two, which can be fitted to 80% of the major bike brands, was released last year.
Johannessen works with a small R&D team at The Workshop in Glenda Dr, an incubator for outdoor product start-ups.
Manufacturing and robotic warehousing facilities are based in Shenzhen, China, where orders are turned around in 60 seconds.
Foxfolk has four new products in the works — "all world-firsts, all addressing various rider headaches" — with the next due to hit the market early next year, he says.
