WILD HORSES HISTORY
Late in the 80s, with the likes of Bon Jovi, Guns N’ Roses, and Van Halen blaring over the local radio station, a 25 year old Jim Creel was wrenching on a recently purchased 1966 Ford Bronco. Tucked away in the back alley behind his one room studio - wrenches, screwdrivers, and buckets of grease strewn about - Jim had little knowledge of the adventure he was getting ready to embark on.
While Jim thought the Bronco would just be another 4WD vehicle that he could enjoy with his buddies, what has evolved from that back alley in Stockton, CA has proven to be one of the most familiar and respected companies in the Bronco community. But how did we get here?
The Evolution of Our Bronco Stable
From Alleyways to Warehouses
While the back alley served as headquarters for Jim to part out classic Broncos, as Broncos began to stack up, eventually Jim had to rent a one car garage a few feet away from his studio. Word spread, as it was known to back in the day, and in no time, Jim was fighting for space and time to keep projects moving forward. In order to alleviate this issue, about 20 miles outside of Stockton, in a small town called Clements, Jim found his first real shop. With space for eight Broncos, things were really looking up for this young roofer! Jim decided it was time to quit his roofing job, and in 1989 he dove head first into the Bronco business.
The 90s would become the building blocks for what WILD HORSES 4x4 is today. As inventory piled up, Jim decided to move everything to a 3,000 square foot warehouse in Stockton. Just like the 35” tires he ran on his Bronco back then, this warehouse was considered HUGE at the time. As fate would have it, Jim married local mud bogging phenom, Sheyla, who owned a 1973 Ford Bronco. With Sheyla taking over the office work, this dynamic duo worked hard to keep the shelves stocked and orders fulfilled, all the while increasing the impact that WILD HORSES 4x4 had on its customers. In 1995, Jim took it upon himself to produce the first ever WILD HORSES catalog. Soon after, Rames Creel, Jim’s younger brother, created the first WH website. As the Bronco world slowly began to spin faster, more staff had to be hired, and it took little time before the office trailer was clearly too crowded. Just as the century was wrapping up, with the world in chaos over Y2K, WH moved to its first 28,000 square foot warehouse facility located in downtown Stockton.
The 2000s arrived with seamless transition. With over 10 years of business experience, WILD HORSES 4x4 was truly beginning to take the shape of the amazing company that it is today. During this period, Sheyla instituted the famed “customer service” policies that our customers openly admire.
“We aren’t just here to sell parts,” she would say. “Our job is to go above and beyond for our customers in whatever way we can.”
Putting that idea at the center of our company has improved our trajectory in the best way possible. From the product line to the support, we do our best to make it obvious that WILD HORSES 4x4 is here to offer a service that no other company can offer. With this mission driving our efforts, our phones began to buzz non-stop, and within a decade we had outgrown a facility that we never thought we would. While the WH team tried to make it work for as long as possible, we eventually began the hunt for a new location. In 2014, the team loaded trailers full of lift kits, body parts, and just about every nut and bolt you’d need to build an early Bronco; and we moved the entire company 10 miles north to an abandoned Ford dealership in Lodi, CA.
Sitting on 3.5 acres, with approximately 41,000 square feet of space, this new location has proven to be yet another launching pad for the dream that the WILD HORSES 4x4 team has of being the best Bronco community support system on the market. This facility has given our team all the tools necessary to continue to aid the community in keeping the Bronco dream alive. Our showroom highlights some of our most popular products, and our sales team works 6:30 AM to 5:00 PM PST Monday thru Friday answering phone calls and interacting on social media regarding any questions customers have about their Bronco builds. Our warehouse team sifts through thousands of products, shipping and receiving hundreds of orders every day in hopes of getting our customers and their builds that much closer to the finish line. Our marketing team is hands on, updating the website with better photos and better information, making sure that we are doing our best to help customers make the best possible buying decisions before ever getting on the phone with our customer service team. Our office staff keeps all customer information safe and in order, sending out tracking information, and keeping everything up to date so we can continue to be around to support this great community.
From the back alleys of Stockton, California, WILD HORSES 4x4 has been blessed with the opportunity to serve some of the most loyal customers in the world. While we pride ourselves in striving to be the best support system for the Bronco community, we also believe that the community is the best support system for us. We believe God has blessed us with some of the best customers in the world, and our aim will always be to continue to show our appreciation for the backbone of our success.
-The Wild Horses Family
