Swag Rules (the Skate Park)
How an artist helped create Fintech FOMO.
Swag Rules
Swag is not a thing — it’s a strategy — download the details here.
The Swag Rules framework:
Foster creativity/Develop a gratitude mindset/Start small/Support the story
The Swag Rules framework in action:
A while back I posted about the Nymbus custom skateboards.
The maker behind all of our boards is Jeffrey St. Romain — an artist that represents all of the Swag Rules — from fostering creativity to mindset to starting small.
Here’s a little bit of his story….
Jeffrey is a pencil and pen artist from New Orleans, LA. He started Sk8 Romain Fine Art Gallery as a rideable skateboard company in 2006 under the name Structure Skateboards. Due to high end finishes and unique artwork on each board, he soon started making them for hanging as art rather than riding on. In 2013 he started elaborating even more by adding industrial style assemblage frames to surround the boards with.
I had the privilege of “sitting down” with Jeffrey a few days ago and wanted to share some highlights:
You are as much an entrepreneur as an artist, tell me about how those two mindsets work together.
You can be a great artist but without an entrepreneurial mindset it may be hard to market and sell your work. I started off at small art festivals in 2007 and built it up by getting accepted to bigger events each year since. It helps to build relationships and your reputation as a reliable and ethical person. Then you gain respect while building your art into a successful business in the process.
You do more than boards, what else do you offer or are working on?
It’s pretty much just skateboards, but I also do paper prints of my drawings as well. I build mixed media found object assemblage pieces as well. But they are built and centered around a single skateboard usually.
Companies and skateboards usually don’t go together in the same sentence, how has it been working with Nymbus?
It’s been great working with Nymbus. I was financially worried during the pandemic because all of my outdoor art festivals (which made up about 90% of my business) came to an abrupt end. Nymbus has always been easy and fun to work with and during those unpredictable times their business helped me out when I needed it the most. I couldn’t be more thankful for them.
Our catalog is constantly changing and growing, but here are a couple of our favorite boards.
What’s Next?
We’re going to be out there with AlumniFi and Thread swag along with a couple new ideas. I’ll do another post on Swag Rules with more examples of the framework in action, so please subscribe to get them emailed to you.
