Made in Australia: Dirty Possum

Words: Hayden Wright | Photos: Gerard Lagana

5 years ago, you would rarely see vertical bike racks on Australian roads. I remember the first time I saw one on a Whistler trip in 2018 – what a revelation. The fact that you could carry 5 full sized bikes in a relatively short length, on the back of a standard vehicle was a game changer to my naive eyes. Given their absolute explosion in the local market over the past few years, it seems I am not the only one who thinks they’re a fantastic idea.

Shaun Jackson, the owner of Dirty Possum, has ridden that wave to perfection and now has one of the most well-known Australian made bike racks available. I recently sat down with Shaun to talk about why he decided to get into the bike rack business, the challenges and benefits of being #madelocal, and where that quirky brand name came from.

AMB: First things first Shaun, can you please share with us the genesis of your brand name, Dirty Possum? There has to be a good story there! …

'The name was created while we were on a mountain bike trip to Derby. The rain was falling and the trails were closed, so we decided to go for a drive to the Little Rivers brewery in Scottsdale. After a few beers and some lunch with the owner, the question was asked “how did you come up with Little Rivers”. That then led to other brewery names or just different names in general. As the banter began and the beers flowed, someone mentioned The Horny Wombat Brewery. I then said I’ve always wanted to use Dirty Possum for something. Someone then said, “that’s it, that’s the name for your vertical racks”. Over the next few days as the trip continued the name stuck.

AMB: And what drove you to begin designing and manufacturing your own bike racks?

'The lack of customer support for the everyday family consumer. We wanted to build a quality Australian manufactured rack at a more family friendly price range whilst still ensuring our stockists are taken care of.'

AMB: You offer racks from 2 through to 6 bike capacity, along with some really ingenious custom solutions for caravans and the like. Is there a specific product in the range that has been most challenging to get right, or most difficult to keep in stock?

'Caravan Racks. Every caravan drawbar is different, so each is a custom made drawing from a few base designs. We’re constantly improving our R&D to ensure we get the rack “right” – that is trying to make the best possible rack at a reasonable price that embodies the quality that is synonymous with an Australian made product.

AMB: While your business Dirty Possum may be new, you do have a long background in manufacturing. What have you found to be the most rewarding part of starting a recreational based brand, founded upon something you love doing on the weekends?…

'I think the best part, hands down, has been the people we have met along the way and the patriotic buying they have extended to our brand. We deal with people that love the outdoors and share a common passion that helps our product grow. The buyers of our product are just average everyday people whose loyalty keeps our local manufacturing alive, and we love nothing more than sharing this passion with them.

AMB: Through COVID, the east coast floods and more challenges you’ve managed to not only maintain but grow your business, both in market share and product range. Would you say that having your design and manufacture entirely based in your facility in Australia contributed to that?

'Without a doubt, our philosophy has always been to manufacture everything we possibly can locally. That ensures we control in-house quality and gives us the ability to adapt or make changes quickly on the fly as determined by market demand. It also ensures that our staff can be re-deployed internally across our other business units as demand dictates to ensure we keep the skills required to manufacture a quality product. The best form of advertising is word of mouth; talk to our customers and they’ll tell you about the quality and features of our racks. Our customers are a huge part of the sales process for advertising our range and we stand behind our products and are extremely proud that in the current trend of moving manufacturing offshore we still manage to stand tall and show it can be done locally if you believe in your product and your people.'

AMB: What challenges do you face with local design and manufacture vs. sourcing from overseas?

'Costs and supplier capabilities, mainly due to the much smaller Australian manufacturing market. It’s something we’re extremely aware of and we are constantly looking to find efficiencies to ensure we remain competitive against lesser quality imported products from overseas.'

AMB: And what do you find as the biggest benefits to all of your products being made in Australia?

'Again adaptability; we can manufacture bespoke products to suit customer requirements, that’s our greatest competitive advantage. Having flexibility with our manufacturing and the ability to customise means we can offer what our competitors can’t. We can also update our product as we get feedback from our customer base to ensure we give them “what they want”, that ensures the on-going success of our product and continued development.

AMB: More recently we have seen you reignite an old Australian brand from the 00’s – Chunked, along with starting your own frame wrapping business StickerFit. Tell us a little about how they came about and how you’ve balanced the growth of these other brands during a downturn in the local cycling industry?

'Chunked was always a fantastic boutique pedal, we’ve worked with Simon for a number of years in our industrial capacity, so the time seemed right to add it to our range and back it to be mass produced. We will be adding Chunked to the range in the near future.'

'StickerFit is more than just bike wraps – Damo’s years of signwriting experience allows him to wrap bikes freehand to an exceptional standard. We also do a full range of signage and sticker solutions; all stickers on the Dirty Possum range are done in house. StickerFit also produces race plates and signage for events, park signage, vehicle wraps and virtually any sort of printed media your heart desires. Once again being locally manufactured means we can control quality, have faster lead times and smaller manufacturing volumes, so that local flexibility has helped during what’s been a downturn in the local cycling industry to a growth period for that division of our business. Our ethos is to be a one-stop shop where possible, so we look to provide a range of allied products be it a bike rack, frame protection, pedals, computer mounts and a host of other products; bringing it all in under one roof provides a one-stop shop solution for our customers.'