London Calling

In two weeks time I will be flying back to London.  I think I might be desperately short on time as I only have three days to film our first video and visit our new stockists.

The product will be packaged and ready to go by then.  The next step is going to be to get it on the shelves.  I am intending to have a least one retail outlet in each major city in the UK.

If anyone wants to be a stockist please blog back…..

Planes, trains, packaging and videos..

The manufacturer has promised me that the samples will be dispatched by tomorrow morning at the latest.  I will have to wait and see.

Once the samples have arrived in Slovenia I will obviously have to test them out!  So I have decided to christen them with my new friends from the bar Open across the road.  I would ideally like to find the biggest, widest, emptiest tarmac hill in Slovenia and see what they are capable of.  My head cam arrives any day so it should be pretty exciting.

I am off to London in two weeks to start filming our first video.  I am really excited as I haven’t been back in the big smoke for a few weeks now.

I have now short listed three possible venues for our Ljubljana Launch party in the middle of next month.  The club I most like is called K4 and is run by the Uni here.

The packaging for the wheels is now underway as well.  I tried in vane to get circular packaging with a cut out on the side, but I can’t find anyone to manufacture it.  I think I will have to settle with plain old circular tube….

If anyone can help with circular tubes with cut outs please blog back…

Triumphant are the Angels if they get there first...

Having driven nearly 2500 kilometres this weekend across Europe I am finally back in Slovenia.  The Milan Textile show was eventful.  The organisers online bookings had crashed so when we arrived at the show on Friday are tickets were not ready.  However this small problem was resolved swiftly thanks to the aid of our translator Anne Testori!!

Today I am trying to finalise the packing for the wheels.  I am hoping to package them in semi-open cardboard tubes, providing it is not horrifically expensive!!

The skins for the website are now under construction which comes as a great relief.  I am desperate to try and get this business to launch as soon as possible but it felt at the end of last week that everything and everyone was conspiring against me….hence the header!!

I am also trying to find a venue in Ljubljana for a launch party.  If anyone out there has any contacts please get back to me….

T-Minus 10 days and still no stock....

T- minus ten days until the soft launch in Slovenian and I still don’t have a website, any samples or T-shirts.  At the moment it would be fair to say that things are not on track but this is the nature of the beast.

I think unless God grants me a miracle this date may have to be pushed back by a week to allow sufficient time to gather/ manufacture sufficient stock.

Richard our fashion designer will be signing the deal this weekend for the T’s so they should be available in time.  The whole launch now rests solely in the hands of the manufacturer- fingers crossed.

I still haven’t received a reply from the organisers of the Milan show so I may have to employ the help of the mob after all- believe me they will not know what has hit them!!!

I have decided on a positive note to launch in Austria the week after Slovenia and then onto Germany….

If anyone knows any German or Austrian skaters, longboarders, kite surfers or anyone of a boarding denomination please blog back…..

Milan & More.....

I am off to Milan tomorrow evening for the Milano Unica textile show, which will be an experience.  I am hoping to find some new fabrics/ materials for a range of trousers and jackets that we will be launching in the Autumn of this year.

The only problem I have at the moment is that the organisers are not replying to any e-mails and the website says the show is SOLD OUT- Oh No!!!

I do however have a trump card in my back pocket, which is Milanese family who are as good as the Mob in this part of the world.  If the organisers won’t let us in we will have to adopt a different approach.

I ordered a new head Cam made by Oregon Scientific in preparation for our forthcoming and first ever video.  The cam arrives today which will be fun….I can just see now how much trouble I can cause with this gadget….

Angle of Repose

Repose 30 formerly known as patches81 was set up to supply a need that I did not feel was being met.  I had tried unsuccessfully for months to purchase a set of off-road wheels that I could use to ride to the park on.  However each time I found a possible supplier of this type of wheel I was met with disappointment.

I had a meeting in London in October and over the course of the meal we decided to set up a hardware company supplying these wheels and a range of clothing that not only looks appealing but functions.  The aim is to launch a lifestyle brand that does exactly what it says on the tin.

Initially I wanted to launch under the brand name of patches81 but this name was latter replaced by repose30.  Repose embodies our brand in a more self-explanatory way as it represents freedom of movement and chaos.  The angle of repose as stated in previous blogs is the point/ angle at which avalanches occur.

When I was riding in Austria at the weekend off-piste on an avalanche risk day of 4/5 the brand seemed to make sense.  The freedom of movement that you get from riding off-piste, being able to choose your own path is exactly what repose30 stands for.  These wheels and clothes help you choose your own path and go against the grain….

Putting the band back together

I finally tracked down a guy called Dom P last night who I was hoping to sign onto the repose team.  He has agreed after some persuasion to join us as a team rider.  This is great news as I have known Dom for many years and really like his style.  I really think he and his friends will bring something special to the team.

We are off to England and the South Bank in two weeks for a photo shoot and a video session so that we have some stuff for youtube & hopefully sidewalk.

I can’t wait I will let you all know about dates closer to the time….