Built From a Passion of Art and Moto | SKDA Moto Creative

There are a number of ways to personalize your motorcycle to make it stand out. An original graphics kit is probably the best way to let your dirt bike express who you are. Whether you like bold, wild graphics or a clean, neutral look, the options are almost limitless these day. Australian based SKDA Moto Creative has been making waves with original and high quality work for years. Sam Morton, owner and director, talked to me recently to discuss how he got his start and what his vision for the company is.

For the full interview, check out the Vital MX podcast right here. If you're interested in the condensed written version, scroll down just a bit further.

Jamie Guida – Vital MX: I've seen your stuff on bikes across the country and its amazing work. You're based out of Adelaide, Australia. How long have you been in the moto scene there? It's a pretty strong one I think, for the size of the of the country. How did you get into it?

Sam Morton: I just grew up racing the same way that any of us did from a young age. Got into it when I was ten or 11 or 12, something like that. Raced local events and travelled around the country and just had a good time. It was awesome.

Vital MX: Was this something that your family was already into? Or did you discover it through buddies?

Sam: No, the family wasn't into it. It's just something that I sort of had some interest in from a young age, just seeing motorbikes on the road and things like that. So, I just saw an opportunity and decided to get into it.

Vital MX: I read you've always had an interest in art. Did you consider having a career in art or in something in moto as a kid?

Sam: It was never completely intentional. I never really aimed to land on this as a particular subject. My first few jobs, I was a swimming teacher for a while and then I worked in fruit and veg. I sort of bounced around between a few things, trying to find that thing that I really could sink my teeth into and put some passion and thought behind. And I stumbled on this completely unintentionally, in fact.

Vital MX: Before you decided to start your company and you are buying graphics, did you feel there was a hole in the market or something you could improve on?
Sam: Not completely, man. Like it was never completely intentional. I saw a particular design for my bike that I wanted to buy and put on my bike and there were some specific design changes that I wanted to make to it. There were some things I saw about the design that I wanted to adjust, I wanted to change a few colors, etc. Instead of just buying the kit that was there, I went to a graphics company like mine and asked them to go ahead and recreate this kit with some pretty specific changes made. I went back and forth with them a few times, and no matter how many times I did, they just couldn't quite land on exactly the way that I wanted it. So, instead of just continuously banging my head against the wall, I went on Microsoft Publisher and drew it up myself and took it back to them and sort of showed them an image and said, “Look, this is what I want. This is what I want to put on my bike”. They copied that and printed it out for me, and I put it on my bike. That was really it. I wasn't intending to do anything further than that. Then I had a few mates of mine see it and say, “Look, man, your bike looks sweet. Could you jump on Publisher and design up something for me”? And yeah, it all just ran from there.

Vital MX: Why do you think they were struggling so much to get your idea onto vinyl?

Sam: I don't think it was them, man. I think it was probably me. I was quite a specific kid, and I would have been one of those annoying customers that I now hate dealing with. You know, they just have this perfect specific mind and it's so hard to recreate something that's in someone else's head. Obviously, I did have a little bit of design skill and a little bit of computer skill just from screwing around with my own stuff. So, it was probably a more beneficial and effective way for me to do it anyway, to just to draw it up and show it to them.

Vital MX: Did you have any experience using Microsoft Publisher? Was it all self-taught?

Sam: Yeah, self-taught, a hundred per cent. I've never done a course in design or anything like that. I mean, obviously that stuff's really useful. It helps you jump leap forward. But I just wasn't very good with courses and with learning. It just wasn't my strong suit. I tried to do an Illustrator course at one point and literally just couldn't keep up with the tutor. It just wasn't something I could handle. So, I ended up self-training myself in some of these things and getting to where I needed to get to regardless.

Vital MX: In 2010, you start Sikness Designs. Is this just you? Do you have some people helping you? What are the beginning stages of it?

Sam: No, it was just me for a very long time. And for the first five years of the company, it was me alone. For the first four years of the company, it was a hobby. It was a side gig. I had a day job. I was working early mornings until midday, and then I'd come home and work on the design stuff from midday until late at night every day. I was outsourcing all the printing. It was just design only. I was designing stuff, corresponding with the customers, then having it outsourced, printed, and shipped off to them directly. Which worked well for a long time. I just, you know, grinded, did crazy hours and worked crazy and hard to make sure I could push it into a brand that could then justify buying machinery and hiring staff at some stage.

Vital MX: I would assume nowadays creative turnaround is 24 to 48 hours on a design. I don't know exactly what it is. When you're doing it yourself and you're still learning, what's the turnaround process when somebody gives you an idea to actually having it ready to send to the graphics company?

Sam: Back then it was a completely different game. Technology has changed so much over the last 13 years in terms of design and printing and everything. It was a completely different game. And Australia, which is where obviously I'm based, the industry here was also much slower than it ever has been in the US. Standard turnaround for a graphics company in Australia back then was like eight weeks from order to delivery. That was just normal. Everyone was just used to it. That's just how it was. So, I was at a similar sort of time frame. I had someone send me an idea and I'd get a design back to them within a couple of weeks, but then make some changes over the next week. Then I'd send it off to get printed and that would take a few weeks and then we'd ship it out to them. Bearing in mind that that was the market average back then, we sat at that market average. It was around two months turnaround time. Once we eventually got our own gear that obviously drastically shot down the turnaround time. But until that point, that was how it was. It's just how the industry was over here.

Vital MX: I know you're a fan of the One Industries history and what they did with graphics. I feel like maybe you model yourself after them, a little bit. Wanting to have great, original quality. What sets SKDA apart from other companies?

Sam: 100%, One Industries is my Mecca. I grew up being blown away by everything that they were doing. I think that it's really tricky. People ask me that all the time, you know, what's your competitive advantage? And it's a tricky thing to put my finger on. I could throw out some random things like we have good quality and we've got good service, we've got good design, which is all completely true. But so do a lot of our competitors. I think that at the end of the day, the actual driving force behind this company is that I am ridiculously passionate about this sport, and I love nothing more than creating awesome looking bikes and working with these incredible teams and athletes and whatever. Which means that my underlying drive and passion to deliver nothing less than perfect and continue creating incredible things is just completely unbeatable. So, whilst I am continually pushing with that underlying driving force, I think that everything that we do happens to come along with those same characteristics and continue to push in the same direction.

Vital MX: You talked about how much time it took to get things done in Australia at the time, and it's a relatively small population. How does SKDA get known through Australia? How long does it take? How fast does it grow?

Sam: Yeah, definitely. It was good timing. The first few years, social media wasn't really moving properly yet, and I was just learning. It was all local staff and word of mouth and really only started to grow in our own state initially. And then we did a little bit of ambassador work with some friends of mine and that started growing a little bit. Around that time, like 2013, was when social media started popping. We just jumped on at the right time. I started utilizing that as an organic tool, which was the perfect timing to do so. It really helped us showcase our work to a wider audience without paying crazy amounts of money to do so, which helped it really quickly grow. We then quickly covered Australia and then started getting interest from overseas.

Vital MX: It was 2018 when you incorporated over to the United States, but were you getting responses through social media before then from people seeing what you're doing and commenting and liking it?

Sam: Yeah, definitely. We started getting orders from overseas, which is what sparked that initial interest. There were a lot of issues we were having with international payments and people getting payments to us from overseas. That's what helped us decide to run over to the US and set up the incorporation there, which immediately caused a spike, which is fantastic. But the interest that came from over there initially was what sparked the concept.

Vital MX: Even before coming to the United States, I assume you must start growing. You must start hiring employees, buying equipment. Equipment evolves over the eight or nine years before you even come to the United States. You're buying new plotters; you're buying different material. It's financially costly. Discuss that process. You can probably easily grow too fast.

Sam: Exactly. Yeah. It's tricky. This company has grown ridiculously fast. Year on year, every year since we started, which is awesome. I'm extremely thankful for that position that I've been put in. However, that also comes with its own challenges. Every year we need to have the equipment, the staff, the capacity, the building space, etc. to better deal with the huge amount of growth that's coming in the next year. However, we may not yet be in a position to better financially fund that expansion because we're not yet in the position to be having those sales. So, it's like a constant gamble. Every year we must sack up and spend a whole lot of money to prepare for what should and might come. If it doesn't come, we'd be in a whole lot of trouble really fast. It's just this constant balance of not over capitalizing, but also making sure you're prepared for whatever's coming.

Vital MX: You were the main guy behind SKDA for years. Once you incorporate to the United States, you must find people that you trust to do the work, to oversee everything. And not only the design, but financially. Make sure that you're not getting taken advantage of, etc. That probably was a very stressful process. I assume you spent a lot of time over here finding people to fit those needs.

Sam: Yeah, it's difficult. But even today, the majority of the design, the customer service, all the planning or the strategic, everything like that still happens here in Australia. We have all of our main people here, everything main happens here. We have production set up in the US so that we can deliver faster to customers over there and obviously keep cost of shipping down and things like that. But the company is still run from HQ which is based here. So, all those big decisions, all the big risks, all the calculations, everything like that all happens from over here anyway. It's a lot easier for me to keep my hands across it. If a customer places an order now, it'll get designed, corresponded, and customer service, everything from here in Australia. And it's just the manufacturing that gets done local wherever they are in the world.

Vital MX: Was there any pushback from the other major graphics companies in the industry when you started operations in the US?

Sam: A little bit, not heaps. I think that the growth that we've seen into the marketplace, especially in the US, is not super comforting. Obviously, for some of our competitors. They don't like the fact that there's this company that's come from somewhere else and is taking a chunk of the game. I've never had any specific run ins with anyone that caused issues. I've heard of people finding it a little bit uncomfortable that we're doing what we're doing. But at the end of the day, it's all just business. I have the utmost respect and admiration for all these other companies and what they've done in this space. At the end of the day, I just want to push the needle. I just want to help this industry get more creative and do cool shit. If my growth is helping spur people along to be pushing harder, then that's actually a benefit of the whole situation anyway. I think it's awesome, man. I've become good friends with a few of the people from these other companies now, just because of the fact that once they get an opportunity to actually sit down and talk to me, they realize my intentions and I'm just here to have a good time and have some fun in this industry too. I think that it's a good place to be once people sort of get to know me and work out what I'm doing, they realize that there's nothing to fear. It's all just a bit of fun and we're having a good time together.    

Vital MX: You’re currently involved with Muc-Off/FXR/ClubMX Yamaha, Firepower Honda, AEO Powersports KTM, Progressive/Twisted Tea/HEP Suzuki and a few other teams. How do you start the process of getting involved with significant teams?

Sam: It's a really difficult thing. These teams require huge amounts of support, not necessarily just in product, not just necessarily financially, but just general support. They need constant upkeep. They need massive amounts of customer service. It takes a lot to look after a team and satisfy them to the level that they need to be looked after. At the end of the day, graphics kits, although it's a big contributor to the look of the team, at the end of the day, it's not a huge amount of what they worry about. They've got performance and riders and there's so many other things for them to be worried about. They can't really be spending their days chasing up the graphics company to sort out bullshit last minute, which means we take that responsibility on ourselves. We approach teams, we find ways to get in contact with them, whether it be through riders that we know or agents that we have or whatever, and then present a case to them. We say, “We can make you guys look cool, we'll service you really, really well. We can give you some financial support”, and we just keep the conversation going until they're in a position where they want to see change, or they like to give us a crack. And then once we get the opportunity, we just constantly overdeliver. We make sure that we never leave any stone unturned and we're in their ear constantly keeping them overstocked, delivering everything we can possibly do so that the relationship is sound as physically possible.

Vital MX: What was the first team you got involved with and what year was that?

Sam: The first real team was the factory Honda team here in Australia, which is run by Yarrive Konsky, who also runs the current Firepower Honda team. I first got in touch with him in 2014/15, I think. I reached out to him just to say, “Hey, man, I'd love to work with you one day”. And at that time my company wasn't of any stature. So, through no fault of his own, I didn't hear much back, which was totally fine. However, after a couple of years, he was in a position where he needed to find a new connection in this industry. And at that point our company had become much more reputable. He gave me an opportunity to work with him, which we grabbed with two hands. I just worked endlessly to keep him satisfied, which has been a massive stepping-stone. The learning situation, working with him over a long period of time has been hugely valuable and his team is very, very demanding. He's a very demanding guy to work with, which is awesome because it helps us learn what it can be like and making sure that we have the ability in capacity and with everything else to keep up with the team like that. That way we were very confident, and we had a good case study to prove that we were able to handle these teams when we go to approach new ones.

Vital MX: What about American teams? What was the first team that you got involved with and how did that deal come about?

Sam: Our first American team was ClubMX, actually. To be completely frank, I can't remember exactly how that connection came about. I think that we just reached out. I know that the Yarrive connection would have carried some weight at that point. By that stage, that wasn't until 2018 or 2019, our brand was already decently heavy, especially here in Australia. But it started to carry a bit of weight in the US too. They knew who we were and what we were about, and they were willing to give us a chance. They didn't have a super strong partner connection in the graphics world at that stage, so they gave me an opportunity and once again I just worked tirelessly to make sure that I constantly overdelivered. Now you could speak to them and I'm sure they'll tell you the same thing, we do everything we can to keep these teams absolutely satisfied all the time. Therefore, they haven't the opportunity to even consider someone else.

Vital MX: You've mentioned that a couple of times, making sure that you keep the team satisfied, making sure you're meeting their needs. Has there been an example of a time when you fell short of that, and it was a very big learning lesson?

Sam: Yeah, I'm extremely critical of everything that we do here. As I said, I seriously strive for perfection constantly and it affects me quite seriously and emotionally. When things don't go perfectly, I get really, really upset about it. Because I just I don't want to do that. I'm committed to these teams and these riders, and I have to get things done, man. If they don't get there on the weekend with their kits, it literally destroys me. There's probably been situations where things weren't actually as bad as I felt that they were, but it still just completely destroyed me. Let's say someone rocked up to the weekend and they were missing the Supercross banner on their front plate or something like that. Which is again, really not a big deal. There are easy ways around that. We say, “Sorry”, they use something temporary, and it just all gets fixed up. But I can't handle that sort of stuff happening. It just destroys me. I think that due to my level of passion and dedication in that area, I'm now at the stage where, as I say, I'm working tirelessly to make sure they have their stuff before they even considering needing it, and they have twice as much stuff as they could physically want, etc., so that these situations just never occur. And the side effect of that are that these teams will think I'm magic. So, I'm quite happy to continue that obsession that I have because it's working out just fine.

Vital MX: You’re a married guy. How does that affect your home life?

Sam: That's the whole conversation. No, that's good. I mean, my wife gets it. I'm never going to change. She also is very aware of my probably somewhat unhealthy relationship with work and the obsession I have with what I'm doing. But I've been like that since I met her. That's something that just sticks around. I'm sure that it's an attribution to the success we've seen. I do have to put a lot of effort in making sure that I switch off when I need to switch off and spend time at home with my family when I can. At the end of the day, I don't work insane hours. I've got it pretty well managed. Now it's more just that my mind seems to run off into these things as it does with all business owners. I’ve definitely had the argument with her a couple of times where something's happened wrong for a team or something, and over the weekend I'm stressed out of my mind and she'll say to me, “Sam, they're just stickers”, which is an argument that just spurs me off into another generation because I see them as much more than that. But that is a recurring situation that's happened a few times.

Vital MX: That's funny because speaking of it being just stickers, last year in ‘22, you rebranded as SKDA Moto Creative because you didn't want to be known as just a sticker company.

Sam: Exactly. I mean, I don't actually see us as that. I really don't. My passion, my interest and our brand, we are here to design beautiful motorcycles and I think that's what we're doing. We're not just a company that outsource design or buys them off the net or whatever. We are here creating the most beautiful, amazing looking bikes we possibly can. At the moment the vehicle for that to get it onto the public is obviously selling them a sticker kit, which they can rewrap their own bikes with. So, we are selling stickers. However, I really don't want to be labelled like that because I don't see that as what we're all about, you know?

Vital MX: Yeah, because you guys do seats, jersey IDs, and stuff like that as well, right?

Sam: Yeah, for sure. Again, with the seats, it's the same thing. We're really proud of the product we have. We think it's a really high-quality product that a lot of the pro riders enjoy using. As far as the seat covers go, once again, for us it really is just about finishing the look, creating the full look. The revamp of a motorcycle and the seat cover is obviously a massive compliment to that. Everything we're doing is trying to create these beautiful looks.

Vital MX: I like the way you're looking at these motorcycles as a piece of art, similar to a painting. Each one is individual, with little differences. Again, that's another big step. You took a chance. There's are a lot of seat companies out there. There's a lot of jersey ID companies out there. So, you have to take a gamble that this is going to work.

Sam: I think that some of these gambles that you continuously speak about, I'm the 100% shareholder of this company. Therefore, at the end of the day I'm the decision maker and my goal and intent for this company is and always has been, it's not to make money. That's literally not what I'm here to do. I don't care about that side of it. Obviously, if your company becomes successful, then financial reimbursement is a happy accident. It's a nice side effect. However, I'm here to make a footprint in this industry. To create awesome stuff, to work with awesome teams, riders, and companies. So, if I need to make a decision that maybe doesn't look incredibly fantastic on paper from a financial point, but it allows me to make a new connection or create something incredible or work with some amazing people, I'll take that every single time. I don't have someone sitting here telling me that I can't do that because that's not a wise move, which I think actually allows us to further grow and further become known and get some more credibility, etc. We're doing things that aren't always necessarily the best financial decision but are the best decision for the path of continuing this mission we have.

Vital MX: When it comes to the specific designs of an individual or even a team, where is the line of being too plain or too busy? Sometimes the factory bikes have a plain look. Then you have individuals that want something crazy and or something just that blows your mind away.

Sam: Nowadays I actually put a lot of emphasis on the fact that my own design perspective is correct. Through a long time spent with this company, a lot of experiences, I am now very confident that what I think looks cool, the vast majority of our customer base also thinks looks cool. I usually pull things back towards where I want them to be. A team will give me their logo list, they'll give me their own design requirements from a color perspective, etc. Then pretty much I'll pull that as far towards what I would run around a bike as physically possible. The same with like a freestyle guy. They obviously want really crazy and really colorful and a thousand logos, but I'll still do the same thing. I'll start with that in mind and pull it back as far as I can towards the really clean, crisp styling that I prefer with my own looks and that means it's been received really well. Everyone that looks at our stuff says we've got a unique look that's clean and professional when they really like it, which is one of the main contributors to our growth. I continually do that. We have a few other really, really good designers here that are really good in my own opinion and have obviously been hired through my own eye. They have got similar attributes in their design skills. Very clean, very neat, very professional. We make sure we always pull things towards that.

Vital MX: How did the last couple of years with COVID and the way the world changed affect business? The motorsports industry was up and now it's leveled back off.

Sam: Obviously, the same way that everyone did in COVID. We saw a jump, which is awesome. However, as I've mentioned, this company has seen fantastic growth year on year every year for a long time. I think it exaggerated that growth for a couple of years. Now that things are normalizing, it's decreasing that growth a little bit. But we're still seeing this continuous growth, which is coming out of market share, I'm sure, and entering new markets and things like that. I think that like everyone else, we saw it being a beneficial thing, but it didn't steer us away from our focus.

Vital MX: For you being a fan of the sport, having so much passion, I would think that working with some of these major teams and the companies, there's a lot of benefits to that. You probably get to work with really cool people, you get to hang out and visit with these riders that you're a fan of. How does that feel to be able to do that?

Sam: Dude, it's a dream come true, man. Seriously, it constantly blows my mind because you're exactly right. You've hit the nail on the head. I am just a fan the same way that everyone else is in this game. Working with these guys is mind blowing to me. Working with these companies is incredible. My most recent trip to the US, which was a few weeks ago, I got the opportunity to be toured through some of these huge companies that I've looked up to since I was a little kid, and they have people in there, everyone knew who I was. They all wanted to have a chat and for me it was just like a dream come true. It blew my mind. Same thing at the races, we’re working with Roczen now through the HEP team and that's just ridiculous. I could have never believed that could have happened. It's unbelievable. I guess being based here in Adelaide means that the US industry still has this crazy shyness factor to it. For us over here, it's the rock star world looking over there. So, to go over there, to feel it, obviously the majority of our sales are US based now. It's just absolutely fantastic to go over there and enjoy it with having this brand that's carrying so much weight.

Vital MX: I relate to that. I felt similar having dinner with Roczen in Paris recently.

Sam: The Paris thing was cool too. I personally designed that Red Bull bike that he ran in Paris, which was so cool. That's one of my favorite looks that I've created. We obviously work quite closely with Red Bull to create that look. Then a couple of weeks after the race had been and there was heaps of talk about how awesome that look was. For me it was just an incredible experience. We had delivered here to the office like five slabs of Red Bull from Red Bull US. For me, it's just like a thank you for doing it and to me, we're on the opposite side of the world. They didn't need to do that. This is Red Bull, who's arguably one of the greatest companies in our industry. It was such a nice gesture that literally blew me away. I took out a bunch of the cans and displayed them on my desk. There is a memory of doing that and having that opportunity to work with them. It was truly incredible. Never thought I'd have such an opportunity. It's awesome stuff. I'm enjoying myself so much.

Vital MX: What's the most outlandish demand or last-minute order that you've had to deal with where it's just a time crunch, but you have to get it done?

Sam: Yeah, teams, man. It's never their fault, you know, you don't blame them. It's just the situation that they're in. Again, they can unconsciously rely on the fact that I have this ridiculous obsession, meaning that they can throw these stupid requests to me, and I'll work it out. I had a recall specifically, there was a situation where I got a call on a Thursday night needing graphics to be picked up from our office 6 a.m. the next morning. It was like 9 p.m. at night and they needed to pick up something like 50 kits at 6 a.m. the next morning, which was just obviously ridiculous. But I committed to this team. That's my problem now. I have to work it out. I obviously got out of bed and went down to the office and got all the printers going and made it happen and had it ready to go. In reality, they actually then didn't end up picking them up till 11, which meant that I could have slept in. But hey, at the end of the day we got it done and that's all that matters, right?

Vital MX: What's the future of SKDA? What's the future of graphics? Sometime in the last few years shimmer graphics have come out. The industry evolves and makes cooler and cooler things. What's next?

Sam: Yeah, sure. I think that we rewrote our company mission recently, which spurred a lot of these thoughts. Even some of our own internal strategic planning and decisions have meant that we need to constantly be thinking about what's next for us. For me, I'm only interested in this industry. I'm not interested in diversifying too wide. I just love dirt bikes and love making them look cool. That's all I've ever been interested in. I don't think I would hit anything else with the same level of passion. Our mission here is to create beautiful motorcycles and make them as attractive and amazing looking as they possibly can be. The cool thing about that is that the definition of beauty is constantly changing. What's cool now won't be cool in two years and won't be cool six months after that. So, if I have the single mission of continuously trying to create the most amazing looking bike possible, then it's an infinite mission. It'll never end. Because yeah, the definition of beauty constantly changes. I think that whilst we're seeing the success we are and whilst we're still seeing this growth, I can quite happily sit here and constantly look for opportunities and push further into different directions and just focus on creating awesome stuff and the company will continue to succeed.