The man making darts for the world’s best players

He has a long list of world champions to his name and is one of the most successful sports designers.

Lee Huxtable’s status in the darts community is unknown, though.

Luke Humphries won the 2025 Premier League darts championship on Thursday night, sealing his victory at the O2 in London with his own creation.

For the tournament, which has been running since February, Mr. Huxtable has also made darts for Gerwyn Price, the semi-finalist, and Dutch player Michael Van Gerwen.

Mr. Huxtable attempts to name every world champion who has created darts for Red Dragon Darts while heading up development.

“Terry Wright, Gerwyn Price, Michael Van Gerwen, Luke Humphries, Trina Gulliver,” by Gerwyn Price. “The names keep coming,”

Mr. Huxtable has contributed a significant amount to the success of many players, including World No. 1 Humphries, through his leadership in his field.

A long-shaft, front-weighted short barrel with a good amount of drag and a perfect angle on the board allows Luke Humphries to score points.

Every darts player is unique, and Peter “snakebite” Wright’s world titles mean a lot to him, me, and him and hundreds of concepts, he said.

His darts are “all-encompassing,” with a long range of thicknesses.

“We had chemists working on one diamond-coated dart for 18 months. However, with it, he eventually won a world title, which was very satisfying. “

Mr. Huxtable created darts for the PDC and BDO world champions in 2020.

Both Wayne Warren and Wainwright praised Mr. Huxtable for his contribution to making them the world’s best.

The engineer said that while working with players can take years, there are times when you experience a eureka moment, which can greatly improve a player’s game.

Jonny Clayton, a Welsh dartsman from Carmarthenshire, has won four titles with his darts, and Mr. Huxtable is also making darts for him.

“Jonny Clayton’s game changed overnight, and it went from strength to strength,” he said.

He has a great personality. “

Before he and Price squared off at the O2 on Thursday, Mr. Huxtable has been finessing his former world champion’s darts from Caerphilly county.

He claimed, “I’ve never seen Gerwyn Price’s focus be that strong.”

He made it into the top 32 as a former rugby player who had only ever played socially.

He continued, “He said that’s not good enough, and he was unhappy with how he made it to the top 16.”

Mr. Huxtable, who has spent about 25 years working for Nodor’s Bridgend headquarters, has also traveled to Kenya where their darts are mass-produced for the retail market. He is from Pontypridd, Rhondda Cynon Taf.

Red Dragon Darts is a subsidiary of the family-run Nodor group, which moved its darts and dartboards production to Kenya after buying the Winmau brand about 20 years ago.

The east African nation’s sisal plant grows naturally, making it the best material for bristle boards, lowering operating costs.

In 2023, Nodor opened its own sales and distribution center in Dallas, Texas, where it employs 1,000 people and produces 30,000 sets of darts and 20,000 dartboards weekly from its factories in Kenya.

According to Mr. Huxtable, “It’s always about the technology that goes into the dart for performance enhancement,” which is most crucial to me.

We forged 95% tungsten at the front and 85% tungsten at the back of one of my favorite darts to propel the center of gravity further.

Darts is currently referred to as having reached its third golden age and is now watched by the second-highest viewers on Sky, after Premier League football, with the Luke Littler effect fueled by the junior game.

Luke Littler, 17, won the world championship at Alexandra Palace in January, with the help of more than three million spectators.

“The youngsters have catapulted the game; we are seeing 12 and 13-year-olds throwing yet another level of darts for that age,” said Mr. Huxtable.