What was your immediate reaction to the election results?

I had actually just got to Los Angeles at the time and was at a party, my girlfriend text me the result. Throughout the day it was all looking so positive, the pound was getting stronger, and it seemed to be going how we wanted it to go. I felt like crying, I was so bummed. I was a little bit jet-lagged and tired and just thought ‘oh my goodness!’

“The only positive I can see in the British skate industry, is stores can now sell into Europe a little more as they’re more competitive.”

It was good, however, that a lot of us from the U.K were there in America, because it was big news in L.A on that Friday. They hadn’t really heard anything about it until the results came in, and it was massive news there. This was useful when speaking with companies, because obviously we had to try and get extra discount as we knew the pound would fall, some companies were receptive and some were not. The brands work on slim profit margins, we work on slim profits margins, so there’s not a lot of room in some cases. It was just a disaster, I just kept on apologising for being British. Never trust your Instagram or Facebook feed!

What are the earliest impacts you’re seeing on your company?

Straight away the pound dropped, I think it was 15% overnight, so it was instant. Unfortunately we had to put our prices up straight away. We were working it out on the base rate that £1 gets you $1.30, that now looks like we were working it out wrong. Because the pound has dropped so much since then, it looks more like £1 gets you $1.20.

I never thought that I’d be following the markets and the exchange rates so much when I got into the skateboard industry! I speak with a current exchange company everyday and the picture they’re painting at the moment is really not very good. Unfortunately it means that pricing may have to go up further.

The only positive I can see in the British skate industry, and this won’t be for distributors, but it might for stores, is that they can now sell into Europe a little bit more as they’re a bit more competitive.