Street Society

Man, where do I start on this 4-year chapter of my (Zia Abdullah) life? With this business, the venture was a giant learning curve about cars, money, business, people, drama and etc. It all started in 2017 with Steven Rogers and I just earning our P Plates. During this time we both had very cheap second-hand cars and always had a passion for cars, influenced by NFS Games and F&F movies. We tinkered with our cars to make them perform better that’s where our passion escalated to becoming a lifestyle. From where it started Steven had a black base-model Subaru blob eye Impreza and I had a White Honda Prelude VTiR 5th Gen. Our first meet where we actually felt confident our cars are worth taking to a car meet was a car meet located in Maitland Bakers Cottage. It was a small meet which didn't last long but we ended up staying up all night just hanging out in the car park chatting with the people we met that night.

During that time we had an ongoing joke about Steven’s Impreza. Every time I had a chance to ride in his Impreza I would always say, “impreza’n the b*tches”. Steven loved the joke and eventually bought his own vinyl cutter and created his own sticker business on eBay with the eBay name StreetSociety. Which is technically is where it all started. This went on for months and we upgraded our cars. Steven bought a GC8 Wrx and I bought myself an R32 Skyline GTS4. Steven had a gift for me one night. I visited his house and he had our very first Street Society banner that he made for my R32. Just in time for the annual car event in Newcastle Knights Stadium, All Jap Day. We both thought we were both going to be king sh*t rocking up to this event with our new banners. I decided to create a video of the car meet and this was the beginning of the next expensive hobby of filming. Looking back now the video was very meh, but I thought it was the coolest shit I've ever done back then. After leaving All Jap Day it felt like every normal meet but honestly personally, that meet opened up a lot of opportunities for us.

Days after All Jap Day and hours of editing of the All Jap Day video it was finally released to Facebook. The people loved it! The video was shared by many local friends, and Newcastle locals and even featured on All Jap Days website. With this amount of attention, it attracted a couple of people who later had a big involvement with Street Society. One of those people was a fellow named Nate Cummings. From what I remember Nate sent a message to Steven about stickers and Street Society. We then were invited into his house in Rutherford. We expressed our business plan to Street Society which he wanted to be a part of. We traveled around to different car meets as a group representing Street Society. Which gathered a lot of attention from the younger youth and Japanese car owners. We hosted our first Offical Street Society meet at the back of Maitland on a grass field which was a big hit. We had a lot of help from the crew and the event went along very smoothly. We celebrated with some Hungry Jacks at Rutherford. Which then became a weekly meet.

Time went on with the weekly meets and we were amazed as each and every meet was a big hit. We have gained a lot of attention. Good and bad from the police, the newspaper, local community and social media. Of course, it wasn’t all smooth sailing. We had ups and downs that we challenged every week. Like every group with a vast amount of people, drama arises from the crew. People going rouge, personalities clashinging, opinions of people’s cars and other social behaviors started the downfall of Street Society (in my opinion).

Street Society grew really big in the community we eventually hosted our very first big car show at the Tomago Showground. It was a big event that wasn’t just a regular car show. The car show included different activities on the grass area which included figure eights, drifts, car limbo, sound off, exhaust off and etc. It was a big hit and attracted hundreds of people. So big we created a 5km traffic jam outside of the venue of people wanting to go in but forced to park on the side of the road and walk into the event.

Weeks passed after that event I moved to Wallsend to be closer to everyone as I still lived on the Central Coast which was a 2 hour round trip every time I needed to go to any event. I moved into a small home with the 2 blokes which I met through Street Society. Went through different cars and girls which was not going to lie, fun. Although that didn’t last long 7 months went by I had to move back home for family reasons. During this time I was very sensitive, I was fighting with depression and forced myself to disconnect from everyone. Still working and editing Street Society work at home. Weeks past I felt a little better and went back to one of Street Society’s weekly meets. I rocked up excited to see people I haven’t seen in weeks only to arrive at death stares and to be ignored. Of course, I took this as a sign and left the gathering and left the business venture that Steven and I created. Like that my involvement ends there. Well not really.

A year passed I was still filming with some of the people that I meet through Street Society. Doing individual car videos and od jobs like filming ads and little clips.I received a random message from Steven, he was visiting his parents one day and wanted to hang out. So we did, we meet up at our regular car park. The Old Lake Haven Bunnings Underground car park. We caught up and he told me all the stories that happened during my absence. Nate left Street Society, more drama happened and it was only Steven and his partner running the show. Ended the night with photos of his car, an S14 Silvia. We became friends again and I ended up doing some filming jobs for his S14, StreetFest, and his wedding. In return, he would help me wrap the R32 Widebody.

The 3 videos were done for him and the R32 wrap was done. We still keep in contact and I would come to visit his home for dinner from time to time. The brand ZEEYA came along that is run by myself but Steven would be there to help and guide me through design work and some business tips he experienced through Street Society. With his help, we have achieved a livery, logo, and branding for the ZEEYA RACING DIVISION.

In conclusion, it was a big learning curve venturing into Street Society but I do not regret the experience. The number of connections for business purposes and people I’ve met that I call now my close friends.