I moved to Helsinki in Spring 2004, I had just gotten out of army in January and I started to plan my moving in to capital of Finland right after.

During my time in the army in Kajaani, I reached out to few skate companies in Helsinki if they’d need a motivated young skateboarder in their roster who could start in Spring 2004.

One of the companies who responded back was Funster OY, well known in the Finnish skate & snowboard business from distributing brands like Burton Snowboards, Sole Tech (éS, Etnies & Emerica etc.) & Globe shoes. They needed help at their warehouse in Hakkila, Vantaa. which was a 45 min bus ride away from Helsinki railway station.

Only few days before I was supposed to start at Funster, I got offered a spot to work in retail at a skate shop called Mic Mac in the Forum shopping mall right in the heart of Helsinki. As I had already agreed on going to Funster and as I had already gotten some experience of working behind the shop desk in my hometown at Station Clothing Box, I kindly said no to Mic Mac and went to work at Funster to get new experiences.

Coming from Petri Pennala’s super motivational team spirited work surroundings at Station in Kalajoki, it was quite of a shock to land to a warehouse where the atmosphere was certainly off.

During my 5 month period at Funster, it was a great way to see the ups and the downs of the industry.

What I didn’t know at the time, this experience at Funster became worth of gold for me years later when I started my own businesses and especially when my businesses became too big to handle just by myself. I just leave it a that, it was great to have this learning experience as my first job after moving to Helsinki.

One thing I need to mention from this 5 month period… Tommi Virkki, Funster sales rep at the time, sat across me one day when we were having a lunch break. He looked like he has something on his heart that he’s kept inside for a while already.

Tommi’s words were somewhat like this: “See Oki, you’re a young guy full of passion and you have a long future in this industry. What are you doing here in this warehouse in the outskirts of Helsinki packing snowboard boots? You shouldn’t settle for this.”

I was speechless. I was the youngest, the least experienced guy in the company, and I thought I was happy to have a job in the industry. And now all of a sudden their top sales guy tells me to think bigger. This was the best advice / wake up call I’ve been ever given, and I will be always thankful for Tommi to say it to me.

A week or two after this I got a phone call from Anssi Paukkunen, a Beamhill-alumni, who had been given a task to search for potential people to become a new sales assistant at Beamhill, the most legendary streetwear store in Helsinki that had a small skate section there as well.

Anssi told me I should write a CV and go drop it at Beamhill as they have an open search, he said I could be the right guy for the job and he promised to recommend me to the owner if I’d be interested.

Tommi’s words from that lunch break a week or two prior were still ringing in my head, I didn’t hesitate a bit and walked to Beamhill to drop my CV there the next day.

Few weeks and a couple rounds of interviews after at Beamhill with the owner Juha Malkavuori and store manager Sebu, I was picked, and my distribution days were done. At least that’s what I thought at the time.

Thanks for tuning in,

-Oki