This is NOT goodbye 😭
This is a hard one to write,
so bear with me.
(The following is the email set to the mailiing lost on 15th Aug 2026):
Hey, Tori here 👋🏾
(I’m going to be typing out my voice recording so I say everything I want to and need to.)
SK8 M8S is going on a pause.
This has been looming for a long time. (Close to two years). I've tried everything I know to keep this moving forward the way it deserves to, and it isn't a decision I've come to lightly. (If anything, I've resisted it for way too long.)
The reality is the way this brand is run, the way it survives and thrives is more than a one person job. (It always was). When we started this (there were two of us), one of my conditions was that I didn't want to do it alone because I know that doing anything alone is near impossible. In June 2023, 11 months in, (lo and behold), I was alone, and I felt the weight of that shift straight away. I'm not new to running a brand/business, but I am new to this kind, and I'm aware of my own shortcomings in it. So I knew it would be a challenge doing it solo & I decided to go ahead…
Yes, some beautiful humans have offered to help along the way, and I'm grateful for every single one of those offers, genuinely. I need to thank Jason, Tyrone, and Dee who have taken the time on numerous occasions, periodically to sit down with me (for hours at a time), to help me think things through, and have been imperative to this brand keeping going as long as it has and that meant a lot. I also need to thank T from VT Skates. SK8 M8S took a humongous hit a while back, it came out of nowhere and it knocked me and the brand back so far it took about 18 months just to stand up again. T will never let me say publicly what he did, but he was a HUGE reason why SK8 M8S is still here hands down. (I might share the story one day, it’s still wild to think about it).
As much as they helped, ideation and momentary problem solving only goes so far when these people aren't actually in the brand. What SK8 M8S needs is people properly in it, in roles, working it day to day all together. And I'm not going to bring someone into this or anything I do and not pay them properly for their work and expertise. That's not how I think this should run. The thing is, there isn't the capital/profit/income to bring people in the way it would need to be done properly, (I don't even get paid), and we come back to the fact that I also can't keep building the plane while flying it by myself.
Some context: I do everything, ALL the physical labour from my living room (if you can call it that ), cutting, pressing, packaging, shipping. All the digital assets, designing, editing, mock-up, etc. Using a 9-year-old laptop that doesn’t work without being plugged in and a phone that is barely holding on. Let’s not even talk about everything else there is to do. I say that just so there is some understanding, I’ve never shared because I’m not complaining, I’m making it work with what I have but it is challenging.
There is this unrealistic notion that SK8 M8S makes all this money. It doesn't & it never has. (Running a business has so many costs just to keep it running). I’ve kept it affordable, so it could actually be accessible to as many skaters as possible. That's been a deliberate choice from day one, and it's part of why this has never had the kind of income behind it that would let me bring people in properly. (Catch-22, I guess).
So here's where we're at.
I need to step back, restructure, and figure out what this looks like going forward, and I can't do that properly while also running it day to day, it's so exhausting. That's the honest reason for the pause. Also, I never realised that it has slowly affected my personal relationship to skating.
What will never be gone is the impact. Everyone SK8 M8S has reached, everyone it's helped feel like they belong somewhere, everyone who's found a bit of themselves or their people through this. No matter what happens next, I'm proud to have been a vessel to help assist and aid that. Whatever this becomes, or if for some reason it never comes back at all, none of that changes.
I've been so utterly honoured to be creative in this way, to meet who I've met, to talk to who I've talked to, to give people a visual space to show love for skating, self-expression, and to celebrate each other. It's been incredible, and I don't take it for granted, not one bit, and don’t regret anything that happened or how it happened.
The mailing list isn't going anywhere. If there's ever news, a return, anything, this is where you'll hear it first, as always.
I'll be honest, I thought stepping back meant I'd failed you (and myself) somehow. I've felt that for a very, very long time , but I don't think that anymore… I have realised that, more often than not, you have to stop and take stock to actually move forward, and I'd rather pause honestly than keep pushing something that isn't sustainable.
Official dates and details to follow.
For now, just a massive thank you to every single one of you, I honestly cannot say it enough, and of course, feel free to share this with your fellow SK8 M8S who may not be on the mailing list.
Tori - SK8 M8S founder/creator.
PS, if there is anything you’d like us to try to do before the pause, even if you mentioned it before, please say it again. What I can remember off the top of my head:
-Backpacks (similar to the Black Vault drop).
- Skater Tings tote bag and keyrings
- Face cloth with SK8 No on it.
Let me know, what else is missing, I’d love to get those to you.