Fred Fugen becomes a NEO ambassador. For over a year now, we’ve been working together to develop a technical backpack for the base.
Fred Fugen’s relationship with NEO goes back many years.
It started out at NEO, some ten years ago, with our speedriding equipment and his paragliding.
Fred is the flying man par excellence, the pure flier who makes us dream with his exploits, creativity and expertise.
Very talented, he touches almost every aircraft.
With a strong focus on safety and ergonomics in all his disciplines, nothing is left to chance, a technical philosophy that completely matches the innovative mindset of the NEO R&D team.
The collaboration was a natural one, especially as Fred was born on the shores of Lake Annecy, as were the NEO workshops.
Fred began his skydiving career at the age of 10 with his dad.
In the early 2000s, he turned professional: French Freefly champion, he joined the French national team.
With his best buddy, Vince Reffet, they will be triple world champions and double World Games winners.
As a member of the prestigious Soul Flyers team, which is perpetuated among its members, they devoted themselves to BASE jumping, becoming world references and making a major contribution to the development of wingsuiting.
Then the JETMAN adventure began: a rigid wing powered by turbines that allowed them to fly alongside the Alpha Jets of the Patrouille de France or the Airbus A380!
In 2014, Soul Flyers Vince and Fred set the Freefly altitude record at 10,000 m above Mont Blanc.
In 2017 Fred and Vince created a buzz when they managed to break into a Pilatus Porter aircraft in mid-air, after a BASE jump from the Jungfrau in the Swiss Alps.
At the end of 2022, Fred, Vincent Cotte and Aurélien Chatard completed the longest wingsuit relief flight in history over Mont Blanc: a vertiginous drop of 3,650 meters over 7.5 kilometers, lasting more than 3 minutes.
Today Fred Fugen has made over 20,000 jumps, and we’re very proud to have him as a NEO Ambassador for harnesses and bags.
Since 2023, Fred and NEO have been collaborating technically to develop a technical backpack, enabling you to take your BASE gear and wingsuit with you into the mountains.
This BASE bag will be released in early 2025, with a men’s version and a women’s version developed with his life partner, Laurence Fugen.
Laurence is a former member of the “Equipes de France de Parachutisme,” several times world champion in Relative Flight, passionate about the mountains, and practices Wingsuit BASE jumping at a high level with Fred.
Fred and Laurence also use NEO bags on a daily basis, in the mountains and on their many trips.
Check out all the Soul Flyers videos on their YouTube page @SoulFlyers and on their various networks.
Photos: Alex Pichon