Markets, merch and money.

So recently, apart form a plethora of blogs, twitters and feed from riders and sponsors (which of course is a big boost for the scene having continuous and widespread coverage filling the nettwerwebs) I'm also seeing a lot of longboard shops/businesses starting up. Not big things; it's difficult to topple the Big manufacturers who spend tons of rider time and customer money on R&D, but stuff like clothing, good quality and novel pucks and similar other things. Recently shops have POURED gear into the scene (eg Octane , Shred , and even Mindless) and it's encouraging that they can, because it means it's worth it cos there's the market out there that will respond to the stimulus.

Previous attempt, redshift longboards

It's no real secret I've wanted to build my own boards (a couple of failed attempts at starting something) and run a working shop, either apparel or otherwise, and even with the blog (one of which I started last year but flopped due to my then shoddy time management) I've managed to miss the boat somewhat. At least the trend for content-production (physical or digital) shows how big everything's getting in the UK. Regardless of competition I am going to be pushing to get a brand off the ground hopefully before the end of the year, partly in conjunction with XSS, but mostly to provide funds to allow bigger events. Handling the money outside the club may make things somewhat difficult from time to time in terms of relevant group affiliation, but being able to go to the council with a mad plan and only having me discredited is better than the club losing face. Hence the minimal club involvement in the Outlaw up to the point at which it was over. Painful as It would have been, I'd have taken the flak for a failure/public liability case/major complaint, and although I may have been dismissed from club roles the club would scapegoat me to remain cushty with the Uni.

Enough rambling; back to the brand.

I still need branding though...

Plans are afoot for board production locally, but there's still a market for good solid longboard culture themed  apparel and goodies, and a market of skaters who are likely to pick up a t-shirt or hoody at a cheap enough price if it's going to represent the culture. As i'm still working full-time and the brand is a spare time thing (sunny skate days permitting) the margins are much smaller - Any profit is a bonus, and will end up offsetting events, and perhaps one day my attendance of them as well. £2 profit on a tee for a shop is difficult to maintain, but that's tons when you're overheads are nil and to match inflation on a batch of teeshirts is the only loss balancer versus having it in a 5% ISA. Having a safe supplier with a good rapport also makes getting club tees cheaper, although Reskue have done a pretty good job with our most recent set.

Another reason for me to start this is i'm bored of my current clothes and want custom new ones - If you ever end up buying a teeshirt off me, I'll probably wear that same design before you :)

BACK TO WORK!

A proper race, fees and all.

Soton common isn't steep, and the outlaw ended up without ramps on, for better or for worse. Now to organise this as a proper race may require roughly 30-50 racers each paying £1-5, and will require a lot of my (and some other people's) time. I'm not out to make money, and any made will end up back in the scene either in retrospect (money I've already or will have already spent on events/prizes/club gear) or on future shenanigans. I realise this is not particularly enterprising of me re: personal gain, but hey, I love skating!

Here's the breakdown of a race on the common, (because the common will cost nothing to close, and we don't have to manage traffic)

1) Public liability insurance   = £73 for 250 persons worth of cover
       Having spoken to a nice lady at some random insurance company, the underwriters decided they could do it at a base rate. Winner! Ideally racers would cover this; more racers, less cost. Would you pay £2 to race a properly closed path with ramps and stuff?

2) Closing the hill                = £50 if application successful and 8weeks
      Soton council have an events team that organise and approve events. I'd have to provide them with risk assessments, parking plans, loo plans, site layout, detail of vendors etc etc.... I'd also want to put £25 aside for marshals - this would basically pay for 8 marshals to get a free drink and nosh for their efforts, but this may be offset by a catering company's fee being waived in exchange for marshal food.

3) Toilets/facilities               = free if we can convince the bellemoor pub, quoted at £150 for a portapotty for the day. Being a real event means we're not allowed to just simply piss in the bushes. Sadface. Facilities refers to hiring St John's ambulance for the day. It's usually free, but there'll be a donation bucket for them people what  feel charitable

4) Vendors
     Having an icecream van, the art house running a veggie BBQ, and also perhaps trade (market-style or shop) stalls means that some cost can be offset against these guys taking a prime spot to take people's money. 3 groups paying £17 each for access to the event covers the event setup fee.

5) Sponsors/media
      More difficult, but having groups like red bull, drench, powerade etc turning up to provide free refreshment would be cool, but obviously detracts from the sales of the icecream van. Local companies could pay money for banner space at the event, and this would offset costs perhaps more than vendor spaces. We'd also advertise - it's free if they interview you for the local paper, and most standardly attended pubs would be able to advertise with posters. Websites would be trickier, but longboard websites are a cinch to get ads on.

6) More ramps/features
     Because only having three in 700m of track is a little dull. The additional kickers will become a bank (perhaps with a kink in it) and I'll have to sort out a low roller and a euro gap. 6 items should be ok, but i'm still going to encourage other crews to come up with items to put in, and perhaps help them find local sponsorship for materials. Hopefully being able to sell sponsor logo space on ramps will offset not only that ramp but my previous ramps. A mad notion may be that as it's 2 down, we could get octane sports and the start ramps and timing systems for the heats as well. Extra features!

7) A fantastic pitch (for each of the above items)
    This is the bit that needs the real work: the pitch MUST include Health and Safety stuff, neat maps, press-grade information, nice graphics, logos, and full information. Emergency procedures and marshalling details would all have to be confirmed beforehand and a mad good press pack would also make my council pitch a lot easier. For anyone interested in the process, here's the event page.

8) Example costs
Portaloo case
- £73 - £50 -£25 -£150 = £298 to run the event
30 people, £2 each    £60 offset, £238 loss
Bellemoor case
-73 -50 -25                   = £148 to run the event
30 people, £2 each    £60 offset, £88 loss
5 Sponsors at £30 each (remember that ramps will be used multiple times at many events, £30 is cheap!)
-73 -50 - 25.... +150   = £2 profit.
30 people, £2 each    £60 offset, £62 profit!

9) Conclusion
I guess the final goal of the event would be to make 100% profit - we'd be looking at the equivalent of 10 sponsors in that case, or indeed 40 attendant paying a fiver to race. I've currently dropped about £220 on ramps and material (still have lots left though) And Ideally I'd like to offset that cost with money from the event, or at least not have to use any more of my own money for repairs and future upgrades to the set.
Big project for a day's skating, eh?

Until next time.

Race Debrief

Props to Declan Dawkins for
centre-marshalling and photos

Sorry I havent updated in a while: I've been working in Germany doing a waterwheel installation and opening. The local press were there and so a quick scavenge found this article!  And a shaky google translation here.
It were much fun and much Bavarian food was consumed.

Now on to Outlaw race debrief that I've wanted to post since the monday I arrived in netless Germany:

The XSS outlaw went well, it seems everyone had a rad day out, so cheers to everyone who came and raced it/made it awesome. Sorry it dragged on so long! In a town where we don't have easily closed hills and all our good ones are on heavily parked residential streets, the common is a safe although mundane place. Hopefully the shenanigans kept it spicy enough for most of the people.

       Sorry to all you groms out there who didn't get their own race - I still have the points so I may be able to work out the highest ranked grom from that, but mega thanks for turning out to watch or race - I think this was the largest turnout of any race, both in total (inc spectators) and in racers (36 or 38 signups-I forget).

Jon Braund distance jump

Nathan's huge varial boneless

 The ramps seemed generally well received, if quite intimidating for the numerous Soton, and some Isle of Wight, groms as well as more seasoned riders looking nervous about the roller. Bournemouth however shredded them as kickers - respect due there. The narrowness of the path made it more awkward to deploy ramps while maintaining access and due to the fact the park warden turned up as soon as we arrived and gave us the standard "it's your own fault" speech, I had my concerns about disruption/complaints.  Early freeride injuries from the chicane included a local getting concussion enough to need an A&E checkup (he was fine, thanks to the lid he was wearing) and some impressive scrapes added to my feeling that maybe ramps weren't the best idea for racing. In the end I stand by my decision to not have ramps in the race; we got more riders willing to compete, and we didn't piss off any authorities - I have a feeling they would not have been as kind if we'd blocked the path up.
       I would have liked to have run a ramp freeride, but the attention we'd received and everything taking longer than expected put me off deploying it on the path we'd raced on.

However! The ramps are not a one-use piece of kit, and I expect to roll them out/lend them out to anyone who wants a decent race out of them. If anyone has a closable path that can be done without injury/police hassle they're here for your use! Also, as they are (kinda) modular, i'll be adding to them over time.

If people want a rerun let me know - The race can be made official - it'd take me 9 weeks from confirmation of people wanting to do it to the event day. so let me know!  I've written another post for the blog outlining the event so as not to tl;dr this one. I'll post it tomorrow I guess!

Have fun!

Timmy