By producing graphics and racing, my daily life was now dominated by one single topic: Supermoto. A thing most people haven’t even heard of. Motocross—maybe, but Supermoto? “Do you guys do backflips?”
The name “Independent Racing”, my decal business, became a brand within the German and European scenes spread solely through word of mouth. The racing itself became secondary. I spent the whole day wandering the paddock to collect orders or money, only to get into gear for my start at the very last second. But it didn’t matter, because I didn’t have to be fast anymore… I was the “decal guy”—known and needed. It felt good to head home from the races on Sunday afternoons, counting a bundle of cash in the motorhome passenger seat.
The constant commuting and small basement made the desire for something larger, directly in Mainz, grow. With a portion of megalomania in the backpack, my 22-year-old self went on a search for a combination of living and working. That saves on rent and also time, since I would then work right where I woke up. A former, already livable backyard dance studio of 109 square meters would become the new headquarters. In my circle of university friends, word got around that I now had all the printing machines etc. in Mainz, and because there was a lot of space, the loft also served well for photoshoots when the university studio was occupied. It was a constant coming and going of all the classmates who needed something printed or took photos. The guys from Sucuk & Bratwurst printed their first T-shirts in this exact loft; a shirt press was naturally available, because besides the graphics, “custom T-shirts” were also being printed.
Now orders from the Motocross scene also started coming in—which I previously had little to nothing to do with, but which is a significantly larger market. A new machine, a flatbed cutting table, was needed. The production would then take 10 instead of the previous 25 minutes. Now I had some serious business spending, at least for a “side business”. I printed graphics until late into the morning; my father helped me. At the university, I did the bare minimum, propping my eyes open with toothpicks. On the way to the races and between the heats, I tried to sleep, if someone didn’t just happen to want to order something.
It was becoming unsustainable. A former classmate, Gregor, heard about my situation and was interested in the tasks. From then on, he would take over most of the graphic work for customers. I could now devote myself more intensely to my increased workload of creative direction and administrative tasks as well as completing all the university stuff without permanent night shifts. My job from then on was building and maintaining a sustainable and efficient production workflow, planning and coordinating all products and campaigns, calculating margins, bookkeeping, and maintaining steady contact with all B2B partners. My father got more tasks in production—nice work for a retiree.
The business was supposed to grow so that it could become a “real company” after graduation. To that date, the Independent Racing website was a portfolio page created in 2008. In mid-2010, a web shop was needed. I got the contact of a 3D artist who had no jobs and was therefore building websites. “I’ve never done it before, but I can give it a try” was the conclusion of our first conversation. For €2,000 he built the shop.
But I still wanted to make clothes and in 2011—about 1.5 years left until the end of my studies—we threw streetwear, Motocross gear and Supermoto leather suits onto the market. For that, I had to learn how to communicate all details like fabrics, colors, seams etc. in dedicated files for the manufacturers to understand. I registered on alibaba.com and searched for producers with moderate success. The required minimum order quantities were too large. At a trade fair appointment with a Chinese manufacturer, the contact person started laughing out loud and said, “You look like student”—well, I was. Ultimately, a Pakistani producer took us seriously, and we produced. A big name in the scene once privately advised me not to manufacture Motocross clothing; the market was complicated and not profitable. But what did he know? He turned out to be right.
Thinking the clothes were a new direction and more and more disgusted by the business practices of the racing customers, I was ready to give up the graphics thing entirely. Charging a €45 design fee had to be justified, a graphic kit was rarely sold at full price, and new manufacturers would pop up from everywhere, always making it a bit cheaper than the other. The IR website was now a shop system, but 70% of orders still came in manually. The time spent on communication was immense; the error rate due to insufficient info was enormous. I oversaw all email correspondence, delegating tasks to Gregor and now to additional freelancers as well. The marketing for IR clothing was supposed to happen within the framework of a university course and thus kill two birds with one stone. Magazine ads and website banners were the way to go. For a few years after that, a Supercross team was equipped with gear and a booth was set up at the biggest events of the season. The effort was completely out of proportion. Dealers would only buy the established brands, and our margin didn’t allow for big leaps in price. So back to focusing on what brings in money—graphic kits.
In 2012, I finished my Bachelor’s in Communication Design. My thesis was a stop-motion animation that shows the process of graphics production in an exaggerated way, from the idea to the execution of and riding the design on the track. This work was graded 1.3, and served simultaneously as the first IR promotional video.
In the shop, we carried graphics for competition models of all brands. All graphics were offered with the logos of the respective brand. Trademark infringement? No way! And actually, this is tolerated by all brands to this day. Except… a small Austrian manufacturer. Shortly before Christmas 2012, a cease-and-desist order from KTM arrived. I immediately called the phone number on the letter and was indignant about what that was all about, saying that every graphics manufacturer did it that way. Three weeks later, Independent Racing was a KTM licensee and thus one of the 3 licensed companies in Germany with the permission to place KTM & Husqvarna logos on various printed materials. All the others didn’t do it anymore.
At peak times, we were five people at Independent Racing, often rotating acquaintances or freelancers. The business was still labor-intensive, but over the years I had learned everything about growing the business healthily and without larger loans at all. It was necessary to run the business as cost-effectively as possible, to be able to sell at the expected price points and still be profitable. The KTM license turned out to be rather useless at first, in terms of generating more business.
