A BIT ABOUT ME -
Hey!!! My name's Vanessa, Ness or just "V". I'm a mum to 2 awesome little dudes (Linken 9, and Kaleb 7) and I'm blessed to be married to my High School Sweetheart Ian - who've been together since we were 16 and 17. We grew up together riding our BMX's and motorbikes - oooh and a side note - I was recently given the AWESOME opportunity to race in 2 rounds of Women's All-Powers Motocross at our local Motocross Club!! That was the freaking COOLEST thing I've done so far!! And yes....we've always had skateboards too...but yeah riding 2 wheels was so much easier ahaha!
MY DREAM -
Okay, so ever since I was 12 years old I've wanted to print designs onto t-shirts - I've always loved the creativity and production process of it all.
I've actually had the "Chicks On Wheels" name registered since 2010!! Like, seriously where did that time go? As my mate Tanya reminded me back in 2019 when I was feeling lost - "10 years is WAY too long to sit on a dream girlfriend..."
YES ABSOLUTELY - life is wayyy too short to waste all those years spent on minimum wage, learning all the valuable skills that I have today. But I guess life got in the way - from starting a family and up-grading/re-building our home, on top of working full time and running a business from home. It seemed like our 20's and 30's flew by!
Add the self doubt that I didn't think I was creative enough, or that we couldn't afford to make my dream a reality...well procrastination set it BIG TIME.
MY BACKGROUND -
In my almost 42 years I've developed loads of different skills. Straight out of high school I studied Visual Arts and Applied Design. After that I started working in the screen printing industry where I learnt every aspect of the process - from the bottom up. Along side my day job, I also studied how to design and sew basic clothing. I then changed industries and built more valuable skills while working as a canvas cutter/sewer for a local Camper Trailer company.
From there I moved into working part time in the wine industry with my hubby Ian. I'm blessed to work for a company that accomodates my INSANELY busy work/life balance. This allowed me to start our little digital printing business from home while on maternity leave. It was through my printing business that I also developed the basic graphic design skills needed to create vector logos...which you can find on some of our products today!
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I'm so STOKED to be able to finally bring all my skills together and start building my Chicks On Wheels Brand. Because it's been a rediculously long process for sure! It wasn't until 2019 that I finally discovered what my actual 'niche' would be for my clothing brand. Many family nights spent watching Andy Schrock, John Hill and Braille's skateboarding videos on YouTube...was what gave me my drive back!
MY LIGHTBULB MOMENT -
The one thing I wish I'd done more of growing up - is skateboarding!! And although our sons haven't shown interest in learning to skate yet....that doesn't mean I should miss out...right?!
And I couldn't have picked a better time - with skateboarding exploding to a new level of popularity and exposure once it was added as an Olympic sport in 2020. It seemed like all of a sudden, all these girls starting coming out of nowhere...all keen to skate. And not just in Adelaide, but in all the states across Australia as well. And nothing is more RAD than a bunch of girls skateboarding together and just having a blast hanging out!
In 2020 we starting off at Flagstaff Hill with our CHOW Tuesday skate nights for girls, and it didn't take long for the word to spread. With our FREE community skate nights still going strong almost 2 years later - I was recently given the AWESOME opportunity to grow once more!
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With thanks to Jeff from Onkaparinga Youth - I was offered a joint partnership deal with The City Of Onkaparinga and the Australian Skateboarding Federation to develop a Chicks On Wheels girls skateboarding workshop - known as our "Monday CHOW SESSIONS"... which ran successfully for the last 6 months of 2022.
And looking fowards into 2023, we're EXCITED to continue growing our girls skateboarding community even more...as we are in the process of forming our own CHOWFAM Skate Club for girls!
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With special thanks -
And of course our workshops wouldn't be able to run without the help from our amazing female skate coaches here in Adelaide. Coach V, Coach Jazz, Coach Kat and Coach Meegz are all part of our Chicks On Wheels family - which we call our CHOWFAM.
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Well dudes....that was a LOT...and if you've read THIS far...I truly appreciate you!!
It's been a rediculously long journey to get to where I am today. Finally launching this little website and making my childhood dream come true. The silver lining I suppose...is that over the last couple of years our boys have seen the all the work that it takes to create this Brand. It's the COOLEST to see our boys getting all inspired to create their own little business - "SONS OF CHOW". And I can't wait to see what ideas they come up with!
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So please come follow our journey on our Instagram and Facebook pages - for updates on events or when we are running sales/discounts. We also sell more products than what's currently featured on this website - such as our once a year run of CHOW Tie Dye Tee's and Hoodies.
Thanks for sharing the ride with us!!
Cheers,
Ness :)