Meet Rich and Jaron - Our First Customers from South Africa

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Happy weekend, Fellow Teamgee Riders or Teamgee-Riders-Soon-To-Be ;)! 

We would like to introduce two awesome customers from South Africa who happened to be our first customers from South Africa to you!

What makes the story epic is that the two did not give up and made acquaintance with each other after being told that we could not deliver to South Africa. We were amazed by how eager they wanted to receive the boards and eventually figured out a way to ship out two boards to South Africa by sea. 

No local delivery service could be arranged in South Africa at the time and Jaron went through the trouble to pick up the boards from the port and was kind enough to keep the board for Rich while he's travelling. 

We wanted to get to know them more and thought it would be interesting to make an interview and share their thoughts about e-skating with the community hence this blog post. Enjoy!

1. Please tell us about yourselves.

R: I'm an entrepreneur based out of Cape Town, South Africa, I'm 43 and married with two kids.

Rich's YouTube channel; he's also the author of the book "Legacide - why legacy thinking is the silent killer of innovation" 

J: Hi! I’m 20 years old and have been living in Cape Town for about a year. I’m a software developer, I drive an old ‘76 sun yellow beetle and I am bad at describing myself.

Jaron's old ‘76 sun yellow beetle as mentioned

2. When and how did you get into e-skating and what was the experience like?

R: I've been skating, snowboarding, longboarding and luging for around 10 years - adding the "e" was a more recent thing. Around 6 months ago I started with the Leif board, I also have the Lou penny board, a Onewheel, and of course the H6.

J: I’ve been following and watching eboarding videos on the internet for about a year now. I’ve always wanted to get one, but could never truly use it until I moved into the city center in Cape Town. When I was planning my move, I immediately started searching for a board. I eventually decided on Teamgee, as I thought their board had a unique design and stealth-like appearance.

The first five minutes of riding the board was pure ecstacy. I have been trying to find an excuse to take the board out anytime I could- even now I’m planning to go out riding around Sea Point after finishing this!

3. Why do you like riding an electric skateboard?

R: There's so much freedom, shredding the streets without having to find hills - amazing.

J: I have no gas bill, I don’t have to find and pay parking, I don’t have to sit in traffic AND I get to have a crazy amount of fun while whizzing through the city!

I use it every day to commute between my apartment and office.

4. How did you hear about Teamgee and what do you look for when choosing an electric skateboard?

R: I researched the boards online, and for me the Teamgee H6 was the best looking board out there. I fell for the looks first and then saw that it had performance to match.

J: I heard about Teamgee through Reddit from users submitting their reviews of the board - which were usually very positive!

What attracted me to the board was that it was a very unique design and the sales team was very responsive.

5. Would you introduce Teamgee's board to your friends?

R: I have already (spoiler: they love it).

J: I already have! Everyone on the street asks me about it and pretty much all of my friends know about it.

6. Do you think the invention of electric skateboards is game changing and where do you see the industry in 5 year?

R: I think that we will see these boards leaving the realm of novelty into utility. As such, they will appeal to a new audience with different needs. Range will be the primary factor. In my book Legacide I talk about goldilocks innovation (get "just right" on one thing, then innovate the next). I feel that for the average rider, we have reached a point where the current speeds are "good enough" I think the next good enough we need to chase is range, thus new battery tech will be the key. I also think that the industry is currently fragmented. I think there is a gap for a platform agnostic rider app/platform for all eskate.

J: I definitely think the electric skateboard is a very exciting invention and an immensely practical commuting tool.

That being said, I do think the industry is only getting started and there will be a substantial growth in adoption in the next five years. I am also very excited for electric bicycles, as I think they are more accessible to the majority of the population.

Subscribe to Rich's YouTube channel and follow Jaron's Instagram @ jaron.rademeyer

We just released a new model H5 (might be the thinnest eboard you've ever seen) and recently updated our website!

 

If you are a customer of us and would like to share your story with the community, please send us an email to cs@teamgee.com for a chance to be featured on our blog. 

To stay most updated please follow our social media below:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/teamgeeskateboard

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/teamgeeskateboard

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/teamgeeskateboard

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