I know Philipp through Philipp Schmidt (also a former team rider). Philipp Schäfer has often helped Philipp (Schmidt) as a temp at trade fairs and in the warehouse. We got talking at the Bright trade fair in Berlin, where he approached me directly to see if there might be a vacancy in the team. As there was no space available at the time and I couldn’t really classify Philipp as a skater as I’d never seen him skate before, I suggested a separate deal. I knew that if he had been working for Philipp Schmidt as a temp for a while, he had something up his sleeve and that you could rely on him 100 percent. So I suggested that he gets his decks at the production price and all textiles for free. In return, I had no expectations. However, he could help me with the administrative stuff with morphine, and if that went well, – all the stuff would be free for him. We then agreed on this and Philipp was listed as another team rider.

Because he had worked behind the counter at Philipp Schmidt’s Mosaic Shop, he was also able to promote morphine sales in Giessen. He was also a kind of opinion leader for some of the kids there, whom he was able to influence to a certain extent. In my opinion, this worked out quite well. When I was in Giessen myself for a few days and visited Philipp Schmidt, we went skating with some skaters in the new IGS skate park. Philipp Schäfer was there and so I was able to see him skate live for the first time, which impressed me.

Later on, Philipp wasn’t working in the store as often, which I could see from the morphine sales. But that wasn’t really a problem, as Philipp took on more and more administrative tasks, such as regularly adding content to the Instagram and Facebook channels. Last year we also decided to release a team video for the X-Mas Jam at the end of the year. I was able to persuade Philipp to take on the production and editing. I was glad that he took it on and knew that the result would be impressive. But when I was able to see the video shortly before the premiere, I was completely taken aback. The result of the “Morphine Propaganda” clip was phenomenal in my eyes. I knew that Philipp was studying communication design and that he is a creative mind, but I hadn’t even begun to expect such a creative output. Accordingly, the clip was very well received on social media and was able to generate a lot of reach.

Thanks to Philipp’s involvement and all the help, Morphium has been able to make a huge leap in quality over the last two years. This would not have been possible without Philipp. This also applies to generating reach via social channels. He does the job really well and very conscientiously. There will of course be more projects in the future, which Philipp will lead and I am very excited about the results.