2021 Review Part 2 April - July

So here’s the next part of our review of 2022. April - July.

In April we revealed our latest collaboration. The Unicorn design from Heather Millar was the result of our design competition the year before. I always had my eye on it and approached Heather to work on getting onto decks and clothing. This was a great addition to our line up and landed with us in June. Only 4 or 5 of these remain on the website as of writing this. !

We took the opportunity in April and May to get screen printing a new Street Dreams deck. Loved how they came together and looking forward to doing another Street Dreams in 22! Getting my hands dirty printing our own stuff to compliment the other print methods is integral to what we do.

In June we kicked off a regular stint at Curated Aberdeen. A great opportunity to get out there with a pop up and support a local charity in the form of Charlie House.

July started to see the first of the skate jams we supported, starting with one at Glenrothes organised by @dontcomplyfilms along with the Saughton Skate Jam in August amongst others.

We were back at Curated Aberdeen in July too. This time we launched our latest design there - the Jaws deck and clothing from Chris Graham aka DFunkt Robot. Reaction to this one has been great. Cheers to Chris for this belter!

July also saw us have our decks stocked in a few skate shops. Clan Skates, Wight Trash and Big Aye Skateboards. Thanks to those folks for the support.!

Later in the month we donated to Peterheads Blue Skate Group for a giveaway to help raise their profile. Like many places they are looking for funding to renovate their skatepark. Happy to help and hopefully 2022 brings them some much needed funds.!

And that was Q2 2021. A really busy time and thankful for all the opportunities afforded me.

Part 3 August - October is next up very soon.!

2021 Review Part 1 January - March

Much like 2020, 2021 has been an odd year to say the least.

I’m still working from home, at the time of writing another lockdown seems imminent and nothing seems certain. However, with vaccines being rolled out 2021 gave us safer options for getting out and about, which was great for us!

 So here’s a rundown of the highlights of our year. It was a busy one so I’ve split this into 4 parts.

Part 1 Jan – March

I kicked the year off by sharing some of what I’ve learned into 6 Parts. You can read them on our blog by starting HERE. I tend to this sort of thing from time to time – it helps me to retain things I’ve learned and appreciate how far I’ve come, and if it helps anyone else then that’s great.!

Mid January we kicked off a fundraiser for C-Fine. They are a cracking organisation, here’s their mission statement:

“CFINE improves health and wellbeing and the environment, tackles poverty and builds resilience through a range of support and services for and with disadvantaged, vulnerable, low-income individuals, families and communities in North East Scotland.”

Its easy for business’s to give other peoples money away. But we put our money where our mouth is and donated £500 of our own. You guys more than matched that and I think the total was nearly £1300 altogether.

Its sickening to see society return to some kind of Victorian era values – the poor and needy aren’t treated well by our Governments and instead are left to charities to assist. Not good enough. But right now all we can do is try to help. We’ll be doing something similar again this year.

February saw us kick off our Deck Design competition in collaboration with Your Custom Skateboard. It’s the second year we’ve done it and the standard was just as good. You can see the winners here and the accompanying blog post. This took us through to Mid March.

In March I was lucky enough to be asked to speak some young folk via the Foyer / Prince’s Trust. I don’t think for a minute that I do anything special but I do remember being young and am acutely aware of the mistakes I made back then. So if I can help nudge someone onto the right tracks – great. I’ll be doing something similar again in 2022.

The end of March brought us an amazing photo shoot with Katy Shewan. Models Davie and Mya did a great job and it’s worthwhile for anyone looking to sell anything that using professionals makes a difference! This also coincided with our 4th Birthday – we wrote about all of that here. Very keen to do more pics this year.

And so the first quarter of the year was busy – we were also working on new designs that were yet to launch! More of that in Part 2, 3 and 4.

New Team Member - Gus.!

A Blog post with a difference. Just wanted to welcome Gus to the team again and point you in the direction of our YouTube Page with a Playlist of each of our team and some other bits and pieces.! Plus on this very website we have a page dedicated to them which just links to the YouTube stuff. Enjoy and say Fit Like?! : )

A very warm Fit Like and welcome to the Doric Team for Augustas Buozius aka Gus.!

We did a wee Q&A to share a little more about him. Read it below.

But also take a moment to marvel at these photographs. The subject matter and quality of pic is 👌🙂

𝐍𝐚𝐦𝐞: Augustas

𝐀𝐧𝐲 𝐍𝐢𝐜𝐤𝐧𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐬: Gus, guist, augis, augucio, gloop hahaha.

𝐘𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐬 𝐬𝐤𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠: I started in 2007 so 14 years? Wow it‘s been a minute!

𝐆𝐨𝐨𝐟𝐲 𝐨𝐫 𝐑𝐞𝐠: Reg

𝐅𝐚𝐯𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐞 𝐓𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐤: Definitely 360 flip. After the kickflip, the next barrier to break was to learn how to tre. I recall landing the 1st ones and I don’t think anything has felt as rewarding since haha. Then when you get them more consistent and can throw it randomly in a line it’s the best feeling I swear haha.

𝐅𝐚𝐯𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐞/𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐩𝐢𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐬𝐤𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐫: Andrew Reynolds hands down. I‘ve been a big fan of him since I started skating. Before you could view every single skate video on youtube, I managed to download Baker 3 and would watch it on repeat before I went to school. Then Emerica Stay Gold came out and we all know his part blew everybody’s mind. He’s still shredding to this day and working hard to make sure he can still skate and spread the love, so much respect for this guy!

𝐂𝐮𝐫𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐥𝐨𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧: Norwich, UK. Sadly had to depart from Aberdeen :((

𝐎𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐚𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬: I wouldn’t say talents but more like hobbies: I like to play music, bit of guitar, bass, drums, piano. It would be good to start jamming with some people again haha. I also got into film photography over a year ago and I’ve been really enjoying it. You can really get into trying different films and getting different textures and colours.

𝐀𝐧𝐲𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐲𝐨𝐮’𝐝 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐚𝐝𝐝/𝐬𝐚𝐲: I wanna thank skateboarding for bringing good vibes, good friends and good memories over the years. Looking back, I have absolutely no regrets but only feel joy for spending everyday of secondary school on the board and having a laugh with the boys. It‘s sad to hear stories of people having had bad experiences during their school years and I feel I was blessed to have avoided that by skating.
I‘m also very chuffed to see the women’s skateboarding scene being so progressive over the last few years. Keep pushing the boundaries ladies and thankyou all for inspiring us!

𝐌𝐚𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐤𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐆𝐮𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐭𝐚𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐬𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐬. 𝐊𝐞𝐞𝐩 𝐚 𝐥𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐜𝐥𝐢𝐩𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐰𝐞𝐞𝐤 𝐚𝐬 𝐡𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐚𝐧 𝐢𝐧𝐣𝐮𝐫𝐲.

𝐏𝐡𝐨𝐭𝐨𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐩𝐡𝐬 𝐛𝐲 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐭𝐚𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐝 Vilius Bareikis

#printlife #handmade #brand #branding #tees #hoodies #clothingline #style #shirts #illustration #screenprinted #love #digitalprinting #customtees #clothes #ink #tshirtshop #hoodie #screenprinting #skatewear #streetwear #skate #skateboard #skater #skateboarder #streetstyle #streetfashion #thrasher #skateboarding

Whats New?

I broke my own promise to myself that I would write regularly on here. As I’ve said before - its as much for myself as it is for anyone else. I like being able to look back and see what’s changed, what’s remained and what I didn’t see coming.! So here goes!

We’ve been really busy trying to pull together a variety of new designs over the last few months. Its been a challenge. I’m not at my best just now - see the last blog post from July here - and with working from home my line between day job and Doric has merged to an extent I’m not comfortable with. Although I’m very fortunate to be working I still have that part of me the resents the intrusion into my “life”. And so I’ve found myself spending less time up in Doric HQ because of this. But I still have to get stuff done so all that happens is I end up with tighter deadlines! Lesson Learned there. And I’ve had a shot of enthusiasm from some screen printed designs that I can do myself - that’s helped me a lot.

So what’s new?

• Restock of the Jaws Tees and some new kids ones in grey with more of a restock to follow (blue hopefully end of October).

• The latest design from local creative Mimi Hammill will be launched at Curated Aberdeen on 9th October with them going online that night. There are Tees in Mango and Blue plus Mango Hoodies. All screen printed by us in house. : )

• After that we will be launching another design with a Halloween vibe - on or around 31st Oct but possibly at the November Curated Aberdeen. Not a scary one - just a fun one! This will come in Burgundy Tees/Hoodies for adults and kids. Again - all screen printed in house by us.

• Then we’ll be looking ahead to the collaboration with Big Up the Deen! This will be in the form of Decks, Tees and some other merch. We hope to share some news on that one very soon including how/when we will launch it.

• We will also be back at Curated Aberdeen in Oct as above and November too - 5th to the 7th.

• December will see us somewhere too - more news on that soon though.

• We are also going to be adding someone to the team this week. We’ll announce that at the weekend/start of next week. And after that we’ll be on the hunt for a local star to be number 5 on the team - I’m not keen on even numbers! : )

So until then - shout if you have any questions about our stuff and thank you very much for supporting. I’m hoping that after the last 18 months or so we can make 2022 a massive year for us as we celebrate our 5th Bday in March.

Mental Health

I posted the below on social media the other day. It was great to see some discussions/comments going on and greatly appreciated.

Hopefully it helps trigger something in someone to either reach out for help or to reach out with an offer of help. What I find frustrating is knowing exactly what would help - exercise, eating well, reading, relaxation etc but having absolutely no concentration or drive to achieve it. But I’ll keep chipping away and hopefully feel a lot better soon. But also aware that quite often these things never fully go away - only becoming manageable peaks and troughs.!

Also hope to god no one thinks this is for “likes” or “content”.

Thanks again.

I’ve not been myself lately.

I’m sure it’s not just me, the world has been turned on it’s head this last year and I’m more confident that I’ll kick flip than the current UK Govt leading us anywhere positive.

I’ve given up a few responsibilities in my day job including being a Mental Health First Aider. It wouldn’t do someone any good to have called me lately. And I’ve missed some of the rare social occasions that have popped up too. Just not in the right frame of mind.

My mental health is poor at the moment - that’s the truth. I’m not just miserable - I’ve always been like that….ask anyone that knows me.

It’s something deeper but I know I’m going to be ok. I think saying this out loud is healthy. And if yer reading this and perhaps feeling similar then I hope your ok and I hope you’re getting help and or surrounded by good people. I’m lucky.

If yer pals or family members have gone quiet or seem out of sorts have some patience and reach out. And then reach out again.

#mentalhealthawareness #mentalhealth #mentalhealthmatters #mha #mentalhealthaberdeen #wellbeing #wellness #aberdeen #aberdeenshire #mentalhealthsupport

Illusion of Success

Last month I posted up something on social media about not making a sale in 8 days – turned out to be 10 actually. It got some press coverage but the headline may have been misleading for some.

The point I was making wasn’t around feeling sorry myself or concern that I wouldn’t make another sale – I was more trying to redress the balance. The perception people might have is that of success and making loads of money. The truth is of course very different – not just for me but for many.

For all that social media has given us in terms of opportunity to get ourselves seen, it has also allowed us to see others. And compare and contrast.

I see a lot of small/micro business’s online who definitely only talk success. No challenges, no bad days. To me they are missing out on connecting with people. In an effort to finely polish our “brands” you can see these business’s becoming tiny little corporate looking entities. They rarely if ever share any personal information, they follow no-one, engage with no-one, share nothing of anyone else’s. But it seems to work for some. Maybe they’ve found their people that way.

However, I think the key differentiator for most micro/small business’s is the person behind it. Their values, their personality, integrity, character. If we only talk success, avoid sharing our hopes, fears and failures then I think we are only one step from a hyperbolic Apprentice contestant who thinks you can manifest success out of thin air. Or maybe bending the truth about how popular your creations are – hoping that you will attract people who get caught up in hype and FOMO.

What’s more important to you? The perception of “winning” or the truth? Maybe somewhere in the middle?

Social Media seems to be losing the “social” and becoming more “selling”. I’m guilty of it too but I am trying my best to resist that and be more “social”.

Most of us don’t like the hard sale in a shop environment. Why would we like it on our phones? Its all becoming like a billboard. A paid billboard for that matter.

Perhaps the next phase of Social Media will be rougher around the edges. Look at Tik Tok. Huge numbers and certainly to begin with the content was less than polished. But the paid adverts have started there too and then the anxiety for small business’s start.

Should I get a slick video promo made?

Do I need to do professional photos?

Should I “fake it till I make it”?

I’ve done them all but also try to keep things grounded. Its not the same for everyone but it works for me. I see success as feeling happy with what I am doing and how I am doing it. The outcome from that could result in financial success – if that’s your starting point then maybe the illusion of success will get you there quicker. But the journey won’t be as much fun. Success should be defined by you and not anyone else’s metrics.

And for all the worry I had about not having a sale things turned around pretty quickly.

June has without doubt been the best month for Doric Skateboards for a variety of reasons. None of them sales related - we’ve had better months for sure.

Here are some highlights:

• LinkedIn Live with Yekemi Otaru chatting all things Marketing, Creativity, Social Media -watch it on YouTube here;

• Newspaper articles about my approach to having a bad week in terms of sales;

• Newspaper articles about my involvement with Curated Aberdeen;

• Social Media coverage for all of the above;

• Asked to talk to young folks for a second time for The Prince’s Trust;

• Launched one collaboration – planned two more;

• Attended Curated Aberdeen and had a great time;

• A few shops enquiring about stocking Doric;

• And had a meeting about something that will possibly be the biggest achievement of my life. If it comes off - I can’t wait to share it.

All of this feels like the culmination of the last 4 years – momentum. Like the penny arcades – each coin is your effort and with enough and some strategy you will eventually knock that wee pile off the end. Maybe you’d rather be a high roller throwing all your money on the tables - that might just work. But you probably won’t find me there. : )

Fear.....

My list of fears are large and varied.

One of my earliest memories is being at my brothers school assembly of some kind at Bramble Brae Primary Northfield circa 1980.

There must have been a performance and we had to clap. Surrounded by strangers I felt something that made me clench my fists and clap like that instead. Somewhere inside I realised that clapping made a noise, noise brings attention, attention brings people. And I didn’t want that. At least thats my memory of it.

A few years later I may or may not have swallowed a bit of lego (it never “passed”). I had to stay in hospital overnight and as I lay there tucked in like I was planning an escape (I probably was) I felt a cough coming.

I held it in because I didn’t want the attention of the staff on the ward. But what happened was a small cough turned into a loud splutter and my intentions were in tatters as the staff came running.!

It seems bizarre to me and possibly disingenuous to you that I would write this blog post, do videos, podcasts, social media, work shops etc all in the name of starting a business and be scared of attention. But then we are complicated creatures full of contradictions and I’m no different.

What has any of this got to do with Doric Skateboards, skateboarding, screen printing, design blah blah?

None of this started out with a plan and a destination. It ‘s just morphed and grown in various directions organically. Perhaps if I had been more business/financially focused I’d be writing this on a brand new macbook (and not my day job laptop) and be doing this full or part time. Perhaps I would be following a Dropship type business model for the clothing. But I do things my way for good or bad! Thats not to say I don’t take advice, I really do. No one is a one man band.

I work on my fears all the time. Each time I post on social media or do one of these I am already second guessing what people will think, followed swiftly by the other part of me that tells me people are way less interested in me and what I do than I think. ; )

I’ll always be a fearful person. Its like that game where you whack all those moles with a hammer, then one more pops up! I conquer one for a day and then it transfers to something else. My main fear now is getting back on my skateboard. It consumes my thoughts at times and the longer it goes the bigger its built up. I am 100% embarrassed by how bad I am and that is part of what stops me.

My approach to handling these things has always been the same. When I was young and went to the skatepark I was elated when it was empty. That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy skating with friends (shout out Team Oatcake!) - I did. But if I was solo I didn’t have the social skills to adapt if there was a group there. So if it was empty I would anxiously have fun until more people turned up then I would slink away.

And 25ish years later when I started to learn to screen print I would turn up to Peacocks Studio with some screens under my arm. But if anyone else was there I would either:

1. Change my mind and go home.

2. Do the absolute bare minimum and then scurry away.

3. At all times keep what I was doing hidden so no one could see it.

I’ve become way more relaxed when going to Peacocks now. I understand when people think of these places as pretentious, arty places that are impenetrable.

Some of that is true. ; )

But mostly its just normal folk getting on with their own thing.

Will I find the same peace of mind with getting back on my board? Will I find the confidence I had a few years ago when I would go for wee night time skates on my own?

Who knows?

Happy Birthday To Us. 4 Years Old.

Normally this blog post would be a summary of the free skate and cake session at Transition that we’ve done in the first 2 years. But obviously that’s not been able to happen - so we’ll plan one for later in the year or maybe just wait until our 5th Birthday and go all out!

So instead I just wanted to say a huge thanks to all that have supported me over the years.

To coincide with this we worked with local creative Katy Shewan on a product photoshoot. This also landed at a time when we were launching some new colours to the Plenty of PoP range.!

I’ve written about photoshoots previously. You can read it here. In that post i was exploring what a photo shoot means to me, to Doric and very broadly how different approaches are perceived.

Katy’s approach worked great for me - we chatted about what I liked and what I didn’t, looked at a mood board, talked about models and then I just left them to it.!

A few days later i had photographs for everything i currently have and one or two others for later. ; )

I think my hesitance to do something like this is just my pure self consciousness - I don’t want people to think i am taking myself seriously, getting beyond my station, etc. What I have discovered about myself is that whilst i don’t take myself seriously - I take what I do very seriously.

So I wrestle with the prospect of treating Doric Skateboards like a legitimate business. But I shouldn’t worry - its ok to take this seriously and want it to be a success. It really doesn’t make me some capitalistic twat. This was never set up as some kind of altruistic endeavour. I think in the early days I was almost apologetic about what I was doing. Embarrassed. But now I feel more legit. And that’s got nothing to do with popularity, takings, profit, exterior validation. Its just something in me.

4+ years ago we wrote a mission statement. Some of it has changed over the years but one bit has remained:

“create a skateboard brand that we can be proud of.”

This used to say the North East. But it really starts with me. If anyone else wants to be part of that “we” then that’s absolutely amazing! : )

And so photoshoots like this one help give me a wee sense of pride and make sure I keep on track with the hows and whys of starting this in the first place.

Happy Birthday to Us. : )