BMX UNION

Time flies when you are having fun. The Kunstform BMX shop over in Germany celebrated their 20th anniversary a few years ago (technically 23 years now), and they’ve put together this awesome documentary style video looking back on everything from the early start to where they are today and every up and down along the way. It’s always great seeing a shop able to last this long since it’s not an easy business to keep rolling. This is in German, but they do have subtitles for a bunch of languages.

“In October 2003, Seppl Pospischil registers a business in Stuttgart: “kunstform — Distribution for BMX Culture”. The aim: to gather hands-on experience alongside his studies. Starting capital: 3,000 euros. Warehouse: two steel cabinets in a room of a shared flat above a kebab shop.

20 years later, kunstform is one of the biggest BMX shops in Europe. With stores in Stuttgart and Berlin, a team of its own, and a scene that has grown right along with it.

This documentary is about everything in between.

At the end of 2023, exactly 20 years to the month after day one, we brought together everyone who built kunstform, carried it, and in some cases left it again: founders, companions, staff, apprentices and team riders. We drove back to the old addresses, from the shared flat on Hackstraße to the shop at Feuersee.

Thank you to everyone who was part of it. Here is to the next 20 years!

Subtitles available: DE · EN · ES · FR · IT · JA · PT · RU · UK · ZH

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Chapters
00:00 Intro
01:52 Hackstraße: where it all began
03:05 The Stuttgart flatland scene
06:00 2003: “kunstform — Distribution for BMX Culture”
06:54 Flo takes over
07:43 Mallorca, a phone call, a decision
08:33 The first real shop: Heilbronner Straße 7
09:54 Living in the stockroom, showering at the gym
12:00 Full throttle: studies on hold, three partners form a GmbH
14:36 Stuttgart 21: evicted between Christmas and New Year
17:14 Wendel knocks on the window
19:53 Worlds & Masters in Cologne
21:03 Moving to Feuersee, the first apprentices
21:53 The X-ray campaign
22:48 Team riders
23:54 2014: BMX crisis and upheaval
26:26 Final Boost Session
28:13 Shadow & Subrosa in Stuttgart
29:04 freedombmx Awards
30:00 Stock Session: a contest in the basement
33:04 Simple Session
34:25 Vans BMX Pro Cup
35:42 FLAIR BMX Berlin and the merger
38:29 Covid: from zero to 600 orders
40:26 Farewells and a new generation
42:28 Subrosa Street Rail Battle on Königstraße
44:05 20 years of kunstform — the jam
49:23 Family, thanks, looking back
51:05 To the next 20” – Kunstform