We managed to catch up with Postal Skateboards after seeing their amazing campaign and new designs. We wanted to chat to the founder Alex to get an insight to learn more about him and his brand. Many people dont realise but Skateboarding was my passion when i grew up in Mangere and it was my goal to one day own a skateboarding brand. It never did eventuate but it was the start of my desire to create my own brand one day.
Hey bro, so im more so curious of who you are, where you are from back home and how did you end up in the Gold Coast?
My name is Alex Dawson and I grew up in a few places back home. I started off in Ngatea (Thames Valley) for the first 5 years of my life before moving to Kati Kati (BOP) This is where I learnt to skate and fell in love with the sport and everything that was involved with it. In 1999 I moved with my family to Canberra in Australia and my love of skateboarding really took off! The level of skateboarding in Canberra at the time was unreal and the facilities and parks they had was something that I had never seen before!
I moved back to Ngatea at the age of 15 and finished my schooling at Hauraki Plains college. I really didn’t want to be a farmer for the rest of my life so I moved to the big smoke of Hamilton. This is where I worked my first skate/surf shop where I worked my way up into Skate manager at New Zealand’s biggest NZ owned surf and skate company in North Beach where I worked at the ‘The Base’ store, From there I did a stint at the Snow where I worked at the retail store for RAL (Ruapehu alpine lifts) at Whakapapa and in the same year got my level one and two snowboard instructors certificate.
After that season I learned that I was going to be a father and moved back to Canberra where my father was still living. I worked for Surf Dive’n Ski where I was given the opportunity to express myself and grew into a senior manager within the company. I was given the opportunity to either move to the biggest store in the company in Bondi or move to the national flagship store at Pacific fair on the Gold Coast. After seeing the difference in rent along with having the opportunity to work closely with the amazing minds at our head office in Burleigh it was a no brainer to move to the GC.
I continued to grow as a leader and loved every minute of my time at Surf Dive’n Ski. In 2018 I took an opportunity with General Pants at Pacific Fair and continued to grow my skill set under a different retailer. In 2019 I jumped at the opportunity to work for Celebrity ink as a studio manager. My skills that I had learned whilst at my time in retail over the years enabled me to bring a different approach to the industry which saw success and continued to grow my skill set as a leader. Whilst my time at Celebrity Ink I worked and became friends with another manager that had a skate brand that he was using as a side hustle.
Covid hit and we all lost our jobs we decided to really invest our time and effort into getting the brand off the ground. Long story short got burned pretty bad and we parted ways. Whilst investing my time and effort into building his brand and company I found a new love of potentially owning my own company and could 100% see myself doing it. After all I had just spent the last 10 years of my life running and making money for other companies, it was my time now! Early this year I found myself getting an ankle reconstruction from years of damage through skating which I had continually put off due to my previous work commitments. Whilst recovering with no Job from my decision to leave the previous skate brand I came up with the idea of Postal Skateboards.
Through this time a mate from Canberra with an active wear business approached me and asked me if I would be keen to get his brand off the ground for him. I didn’t have much knowledge of the activewear industry and ended up counter-offering him to invest into my idea of a skate company he was in!!! Postal Skateboards is a Gold Coast based company that specialises in exclusive releases and licensed collective collaborations with musicians, artists and influencers. Our goal with each one of our collaborations is to SENDIT by creating unique pieces of memorabilia/wall art that fans/followers can ultimately hold onto for life!!
Q2: how long have you been skating for and what inspired you to create your skate label? (Only because a lot of people wish they could but don't act) Picked up my first skateboard when I was about 10. I have worked in and been a part of the skate industry for a very long time and have seen it evolve into what it is today. I see a lot of potential in the skate industry to provide value and a sense of identity in the Australasian market.
Q3: your new collaboration with MJC has been amazing, and I have been seeing them all over the place. How did that come about and how has the support been?
My vision with this range was to initially involve 3 separate artists which specialise in Maori, Samoan and Aboriginal art culture respectively to create a range of cultural art that will be used as a platform to not only showcase the beauty and diversity of the art but we believe it will also have the opportunity to educate the community on the different narratives used and the importance they have within each piece of art. The 'Collective Cultures' concept is something that we will continue to grow in the hopes of including additional cultures and charities. We are extremely excited to announce that from the exposure of the current MJC Tā Moko collab we released we have had major interest from leading artists from Samoa, Tonga and Fiji in which we will also worked closely with the artists to ensure that a portion of each deck sale goes back to a charity of their choice which gives back to their respective cultures. Something like this had never been done in the skate industry before and we were all really excited to release it! We at Postal Skateboards have a strong belief in the importance of education, growth and understanding of culture. We believe skateboarding has a modern relatable language in which we are able to speak, connect and educate. Culture is so important to the identity of an individual and we believe that all cultures should be given a platform to ensure that no more stories are forgotten.
Q4: where do you want to head with Postal skateboards? The top.
Q5: I use to skate back in the day, and i use to love Jamie Thomas, Chad Muska, Andrew Haeata. Who did you look upto skating?
Chad Muska was extremely inspirational through my time skating. His style and persona was something that had never been seen in the skate industry and I believe he was an extremely influential figure in the evolution of skateboarding fashion. From a NZ skater stand point I really looked up to Pedro Day! He was from the Tron and skated for element. He was someone I really looked up to. He funnily enough actually helped out with our very fist promo shoot for our generic decks we dropped. So bit of a star struck moment for me haha
Q6 what advice would you give a person who wants to start a brand but may not know where to start?. Plan for everything.
Q7 you donation towards I am hope is what captured my attention. How do you feel about mental health especially with tāne?
Mental health is something that needs way more attention and acceptance within our society. Especially with the introduction of Covid. We need to empower and educate our tāne to understand the importance of caring for your mental health and what benefits it has on not only your own life but the people in it as a whole. It's a no brainer that we need free and timely counselling for our youth. I am hope is leading the charge with this stand. It is something that will benefit not only our tāne now but something that will ensure their future. We need to make sure we are doing everything that we can to ensure help is always available.
Check out their new range and how they contribute $20 of every purchase to the I am Hope charity which focuses on preventing Suicide.
Click the website here Postal Skateboards