07 / 05 / 2015

An afternoon at Swifty Scooters

Author

Mark Holland

Category

Blogs

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“We believe in great ideas”. It’s the Absolute ethos and we all stand by it. That’s why I was so taken by the story of Swifty Scooters when I heard it a last month’s Blab18 talk in Manchester. The world’s first premium folding kick scooter. It’s a great idea, and in 2010, Swifty Scooters was launched to turn it into a reality. Jason and Camilla Iftakhar are the husband and wife team behind the brand, and they invited me over for a behind the scenes tour of their studio in Salford. Naturally, I took my camera.

Based in a small warehouse unit in a gritty, urban corner of the city, Swifty’s HQ has Manchester written all over it (or more accurately, spray painted all over it). It’s a location that any creative, design agency would be envious of. Once inside, it’s like an Aladdin’s cave of tools and metal and workbenches they built with their own bare hands. The floor to ceiling shelves and filled with rows and rows of boxed up scooters.

I’m met by Keelum, the 16 yr old apprentice-come-stunt-scooter-rider, and Tom, product designer and model (for the afternoon). They both clearly love their jobs, and who can blame them? If you’ve got a passion for product design and a passion for man-powered machines with wheels, there’s probably no better place to work.

Jason and Camilla launched the Swifty brand back in 2010 at the same time as starting a family and renovating their house. That alone seems to sum up their work ethic. There’s never going to be ‘the perfect time’ to make the leap so just go for it. When the big challenges present themselves, you rise to the occasion and tackle them. It’s Jason’s belief that, "design thinking, creative business innovation, super hard work and rock solid determination”, are the qualities that you need to get any creative business off the ground.

Like any small business, Swifty has had its ups and downs but the main thing I took away from my afternoon with the Swifty guys was their profound sense of optimism. There have been times when they could have packed in or sold out, but through hard work and determination they have held onto their original idea and are still going strong with even bigger plans and goals for the future – of course they’ve got their eyes on a land speed record on a jet powered scooter. I started this blog by stating Absolute’s brand ethos, “We believe in great ideas”, and I think that’s something that can be said about Swifty too. They believe in their great idea and so that’s what drives the brand forward.

Jason himself tells the full story of Swifty better than I ever could, so here's the video of his Blab18 below. I’d highly recommend taking the time to watch it.