The story of our Skoolies
In 2018, when planning the launch of the brand, we had the wacky idea that we should buy an old school bus, ship it over from America and turn it into our mobile show room. Obviously, at the time, with minimal cash in the bank, no idea how to convert a vehicle and without yet selling a single item, it would be a terrible idea to spend almost the entire marketing budget on an old American school bus, but that’s exactly what we did.
Step 1: Find a bus
This is Jim
Enter Jim Stewart and his team of vehicle-converting ninjas at Shred & Butta. It is very rare that exactly the right person appears at exactly the right time, but that is exactly what happened at this stage of the story.
We met Jim at his yard just outside London - Imagine Aladin’s cave, filled with converted vehicles in all shapes and sizes - and we told him our big idea. Jim twizzled his beard and said it just so happened that he had a contact who could source American vehicles (a Youtuber called Jax Austin) and another contact who could ship them.
We would become Jim’s first yellow school bus of many (he is now the biggest importer in the UK!) and Jim would become a good friend of the company and one of our Rad Dad ambassadors, testing all of our clothing on his little 2 year old explorer.
Meanwhile, fast forward a few weeks, and this bad boy turns up at the dock.
This is a young Dino Bus
A typical day on Jim’s yard in 2020. Now the biggest importer of American buses in the UK!
Step 2: Design the bus
We had got ourselves a 2000 International Bluebird, complete with tinted windows and a matte black bonnet and it was love at first sight. However, as a business aimed at kids, we knew it needed to look a little more family friendly so we got to work designing some options. We agreed that it would have a chalet inspired interior and a white bonnet and roof, to resemble the snow of our skiwear, but we were undecided on the body.
We photoshopped lots of different colour options before choosing a nice pastel orange, although once painted and dried, we realised we’d painted it the exact same colour it already was.
“Yellow school bus it is then.”
Step 3: Build the bus
To see the bus come together so quickly was pretty unbelievable. Within a day, the interior was totally stripped and within a week it had new flooring, lighting and the reclaimed wooden structure of the bunks and living area. We also had a ski/boot room at the back, a coffee bar and an astroturfed driving range on the roof, complete with rubber golf tees. Leisure batteries are charged off the engine and topped up via a solar panel. We can also plug the whole bus into a typical plug socket to run it off the mains. The only things we don’t have are toilets, showers or cooking facilities as we knew there would be those things wherever we went, and also, at least at this point, it needed to feel more like a showroom than a tour bus.
