The experience of selling in public. What you see across TJSM came to life. The week of boardmasters was here. It was Monday 6th August when we ventured down to Fistral. It felt strange. Simply because Newquay is somewhere that close friends have showed me around, i go there a lot but im not from there, so to head down to Newquay early and to feel some kind of importance due to the fact we have a stall and people are essentially waiting for us is crazy.

The first guy i met was Sam Fitton, who works under Elliot. These two are the main guys involved with 'Vision 9' which is the company that makes sure everything runs smoothly. Sam introduced himself and straight away everything felt real and excitable. Sam showed me according to his plan where abouts the stall was going to be pitched and i could not have been happier with the positioning. Everything about the introduction was better than i could have hoped for.

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THE BIG DAY! Wednesday 8th August 2018. TJSM is going live at boardmasters. Move away online content, we are here in real life for your eyes to see. It was an early start, 8:30am to be precise. The first stop off was the fistral beach bar cafe where i could grab a bacon sandwich and a latte to takeaway. Luckily it was a beautiful day once again meaning that i could stroll around and take in the scenery with my bap and coffee before getting the stall ready.
The nervous thing was knowing that at some point you are going to have to say a simple "Hey, good morning!" to a potential customer for the first time! That starting point is a nerve-racking time, not knowing what to expect and not yet feeling comfortable. The first steps was to make sure everything was set up right for the public to see & set up the square card reader so its ready to use. Whilst i was larking around outside the stall i became friendly with people either side of me. TJSM was positioned in the middle of two other clothing lines. One known as 'JIBBN' who focus on wax products for surfers but have recently started a clothing line to help boost the brand. On the other side was a women who runs a swimwear brand called 'Mimpi'. Her and her boyfriend watched over the stall. I became quite close with the two couples either side of me as we spoke about the brands, how we got to where we are and much more. It was quickly known to me that i was the only actual Cornish based clothing line there. Brands ranged from London - Leeds - Yorkshire and more.

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The opening day was very exciting as a group of friends that i went to Barcelona with 2 months prior to boardmasters arranged to visit. These guys are studying media at college (soon to be university) and we arranged that they could shoot some footage to make a little video for me. They turned up to the stall and stayed for a number of hours whilst they chilled out, filmed, played some music and had a laugh! They were able to mind the stall for little periods too which was cool. Familiar faces came and went throughout the day from the Newquay area. The first couple of items sold at around about 12pm-12:30pm. It was only a waiting time of 2 hours before things got moving. Olli (good mate of mine) actually sold a t-shirt to someone whilst i walked off for 5 minutes to buy some nachos.

 

THURSDAY: This day had a whole new vibe to it. This is the day that we would expect a lot of festival goers and boy did we. The thursday is the day where 90% of people have set up their tents and wonder into newquay as tourists to see whats up. This is the day before the music and headline acts starts so a lot of people venture in Newquay in groups after hearing about Fistral trading, the surfing and the BMX competitions. The stall saw a lot of groups of girls or boys in numbers ranging up to 10! these were friendship groups that are camping at Watergate that are all sticking together. It was a pleasure to meet and greet so many sober teenagers and engage in sober, normal conversations rather than being in a drunken state at 1am over at Watergate. So many people were intrigued in the brand and thursday quickly outdone Wednesday in terms of sales. A number of jumpers and tee's were sold on the thursday and i met great individuals and groups. One example is a group of lads who kept coming back and forth to the stall who were very intrigued and inspired by what TJSM was doing. The connection was there as we shared creativity with one another. This group of lads are all video makers and creators in separate fields, each carrying a skateboard or camera. Its a great feeling when someone is looking up to you in terms of what you are achieving. Thursday was once again a gorgeous day and Friday was set to be the same.

 

Friday was the first day of boardmasters and the stall was getting the same service as thursday. People kept coming and going to the stall and the vibe was on another level. A number of stray festival goers and families that are down on holiday visited the stall. Some great characters who were all so friendly were asking about the brand. The most common questions other than "where is TJSM based" was definitely "what does TJSM stand for??" which was obvious going into all this. One item that captured peoples attention that i was incredibly happy about was the TJSM Collaboration t-shirt with Natasha who actually visited the stall and had a photo with me with one of the t-shirts before i handed her with one! 
The festival itself was amazing. It's hard to come to terms with the electrifying buzz you gain from finishing a day on a stall that is your own brand to then celebrating that with your close friends at a nearby festival. It was just incredible. The stall closed at 6pm and by 7pm we were on the alcohol. It was incredible.

 

Delving into the weekend, tiredness starting to kick in, the reality of the long eventful days becoming a thing. It was soon known that this takes up a lot of time and energy, yet is all worth it. Saturday was not all that fun. With the rain forecast for the weekend, people weren't going to be about as much as they were the last 3 days. A long, wet walk to fistral on Saturday morning proved to be quite horrible. A bacon roll and coffee was on the cards by about 10am along with the wet trousers, hair and socks. A quick little change inside the tent and TJSM was ready to rumble by about 10:30. It did not seems that pleasing looking out of the pitch to see the odd couple of people walking past with ponchos covering their face to the point where they cant even raise their head to acknowledge the stall and myself. It seemed likely that this day was going to be long, boring and a little wet if not very. A father of a friend of mine came along which was unexpected. It was such a good feeling, knowing someone for so long, but here i am out of my comfort zone ad displaying everything around me to him. For him to pop round in the rain too was good of him. He purchased a limited 2018 tee.  It was a very quiet Saturday afternoon and everyone got the vibe that they people around them wanted to pack up and go, to try tomorrow on the last day instead. Around 5pm i decided it was time to go. This gave me a lot of time in the evening to freshen up and prepare for the festivities! It was nice to wind down earlier on and chill out for much longer before usually rushing my way around things.
 

Sunday. The final day. This was the one day to shine, and boy did it. The sun was not meant to shine. Weather apps across all devices promised us it would be torrential rain and that it would be a no-go. However, after waking up late and missing the opening of trading, rolling up late.... it happened to be sunny! The unexpected happened and everyone at fistral was in for a lovely day. As it was a Sunday it meant that local family & friends have their time off work. Many locals and non-holiday makers made their way down to fistral. It was incredible to see so many peculiar faces. Sunday was the best day also in terms of sales. Items flew out the door and at some points the marquee became overcrowded. At on point there was a queue of around 3 people who were holding their items, waiting to pay. It was such a buzz, so many photos and good memories were being made which was an incredible feeling.

 

Overall, Boardmasters was a huge success. The name TJSM went out there and it could not have been better. The pure buzz and emotion stayed constant. To have put so much work into collections over the period of 3 years, to then show it off into a large footfall of people from all around the country is insane. In terms of sales, it was succeeded. A target of 5 per day was made prior to Wednesday, meaning over the course of the 5 days that would total 25 sales. In total after Sunday TJSM hit 36. That includes 2 people that used the online website to buy items that was not in stock at the trading event. The atmosphere, surrounding brands, friends and family made sure that TJSM had a blast. Everything was well worth it and it makes TJSM more exciting and full of inspiration for the coming year. Next year, Boardmasters 2019..... will be twice as good. Now we've seen it, has our taster if you like... we know what to do. Watch this space, Boardmasters.
Much love x
 

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