Customers of the week: Hedgehog

Here’s Zo wearing the Cosmics.

And Atom wearing the Vanquish.  She is both adorable and insane on the drums!

SING FOR CHINA

JUMP is very proud and excited to sponsor three of China’s biggest indie rock bands for the SING FOR CHINA event at Bennett Media Studios this Thursday.  Should be a lot of fun as is the norm with Culture Catch events.

Here’s some background on the bands.

About the Bands

Hedgehog:

photo credit, Matthew Niederhauser

Hedgehog, powered by pint-size female drummer/vocalist Atom, represent the best of China’s rock scene. The band was a featured headliner at the Modern Sky Festival in 2008 and Strawberry Festival (Beijing) in May of 2009. Hedgehog’s 2006 debut Noise Hit World was a critic favorite in China, and their 2008 release Blue Day Dreaming helped catapult them to the top of the Chinese indie-rock world.

On SPIN Magazine’s website:

http://spinearth.tv/report/hedgehog-rocks-chinas-future

Strawberry Festival, Beijing:

http://www.vimeo.com/4443832

More:

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=1300348224

http://cn.profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=1300348224

http://newindiemusicinhongkong.blogspot.com/2009/04/hedgehog-tour-09-atomic-rock.html

Queen Sea Big Shark:

Expect a barrage of rock n’ roll-electro power punches from arguably the most ferocious rockers on the Beijing scene. QSBS rarely disappoints in delivering tight, raunchy instrumentation fronted by the frenetic, full-body assault of singer Fu Han, a woman seemingly possessed on stage. The band supported the Yeah Yeah Yeahs at the Modern Sky Festival (Beijing) in 2007 and recently headlined the Converse sponsored “Love Noise” tour in China (featured here on the Dazed and Confused website: http://dazeddigital.com/projects/Converse-LoveNoise/Music.aspx.

For more about QSBS, visit:

http://www.myspace.cn/queenseabigshark

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6shj4_queen-sea-big-shark-in-hohaiyan-roc_music

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAd2lvLwq50

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkaSw-0IO1E&feature=related

Casino Demon:

Veering from raw, noisy guitar bursts to tight, rapid-paced assaults, Casino Demon during 2006 moved from the outskirts of the Beijing live music scene to the forefront. At heart, they’re a good-time rock n’ roll band that really like to crank it up. Casino Demon recently celebrated the release of their new album, Teenage, in March of 2009.

Videos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDSBjO6ndpc

http://dazeddigital.com/projects/Converse-LoveNoise/Music.aspx#CasinoDemon

Getting ready for China.

Each season, my partners, designers and I convene in China to develop and produce samples for the next season’s collection.  Each time, it’s an amazing experience as we get to collaborate between our European, Asian and American counterparts and the results always blow us away.

This time, I’d like to get YOU involved!  Leave a comment and let us know what sort of looks you’d like to see in the Spring 10 JUMP SNEAKER DELUXE line!!

Ballers

I’ve recently been getting quite a few requests from Jay, my buyer at Kitson’s for some special orders.  As it turns out Amar’e Stoudemire really liked the Volume in Copper and Graphite and needed 14s but we only made up to size 13.  I got a hold of my team in China to see how quickly we could turn it around and within a matter of days I had it.  In fact, my homies in China are such big fans of his they made a pair of the Vanquish Green Purple Reflex customized just for him.  Check it out.

A few days later, Shawn Marion wanted a pair too and we decided we’ll start making sizes 14-18.  It is pretty dope to be getting all this love.

Episode 3: Officer Couture

Sorry for the delayed post on this one but I’ve been in China for the past two weeks working on our Fall 09 collection for Jump Sneaker Deluxe.  It’s going to really take things to the next level.   Now that we’ve established ourselves as THE patent sneaker resources, our Fall 09 collection will be the next evolution of it using even more avant garde materials and superior constructions.  For now, enjoy this.

Operation Style Liberation.  Yes, that’s one of my creations.  So cheesy it’s good.

Here’s the accompanying ad.

Get both these military looks here:

STURDY

STUNT

I’m not ashamed to say…

I shed a tear during the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics.

It effectively did, exactly what we set out to achieve in the marketing campaign, that is the merging of a traditional beauty of China with the vigor of a very modern subject matter.  This was what made the opening ceremonies, so much more moving for me.  Moreso than anything else, the main message between the opening ceremony and my campaign is the same, that we want to open up a culture that has redefined itself for the world to explore.  I can only hope that we hit the mark as well China did last night.

To Scroll or Not to Scroll?

Indeed, that was the question.  We’d just put all the finishing touches on the ad campaign and I was overwhelmed.  For me, it was everything I had ever wanted it to be.  As I’d said before, it was like wanting a toy for weeks and then finally getting that new Lazer Tag gun and realizing it wasn’t all that special – only this was the exact opposite.  It exceeded all my expectations and I was ecstatic.  Amongst the finishing touches were scrolls each bearing the name of our brand in Chinese and a description of the shot.  This element would prove to be quite a point of controversy.

While the objective of the ads were to create images that would provide Jump with the proper positioning as a premium brand, there was in fact an underlying agenda.  Long bearing a stigma of cheapness and defectiveness, Chinese products had suffered plenty of negative publicity, some deserved, some not.  Although we produce quality goods and use only the best factories in China, it was always a point of contention whether we ought to associate ourselves with China or not.

So we decided to “BE DARING.”  We set out to incite a sort of cultural movement (not to be confused with a cultural revolution!) that would offer the world a different perspective of the Far East – that it had not only become a forum for the international but that it was beginning to carve its own cultural niche in the global arena.  It was a campaign that would, in essence, tell the epic story of a brand who sprang from selling $20 jogging shoes in Taiwan, then to develop a fashion persona and cross over to China, Japan and Korea.  From Asia it would reach the shores of South America and Europe where its fashion would take an interesting new direction with the help of an innovative Spanish design team.  Now, having arrived in the US the brand has been elevated into the arena of luxury fashion but at a reasonable pricepoint.  It is through our unique business model and relationships overseas that we are able to offer such quality and directionality at an entry level luxury pricepoint.

Through Jump’s logos, is the story of the evolution.

And now we introduce the latest iteration.

So when I presented the completed campaign to the rest of the global team the reactions were mixed.  No one denied the art direction was compelling and the execution was spot on.  The mixed feelings were over the usage of the scrolls.  There were concerns that it would limit us and pigeonhole us as a brand for only Asians.  Others cited that it might hurt us to be connected to China whose reputation as a manufacturing giant could be in some respects a dubious one.

What I offered was that this campaign wasn’t meant to do that at all.  It was meant to appeal to those progressive enough to see it for what it is and not some kind of Chinese propaganda.  It’s purpose is meant to bring the consumer into this other world and include them in it.  After a flurry of discussion on the matter, Harry made the decision that the scrolls would remain.  It was decided that we would be genuine to our roots as a Chinese brand and “BE DARING” enough to pronounce this to the world.  We decided that in all of the 5000 years of Chinese history, being the first high fashion brand to become truly global, was an honor we ought to be proud of and share with everyone.  Moreover, we wanted to dispel the stigma of China and show just the kind of creativity that can come from a brand such as ours.

So without any more teasers and an overly verbose foreword, here is Sung Kang in Sneaker Deluxe.

Share with us your take on the scroll!?

Taiwan Part 3: When Harry Met Sung.

Let me start by telling you a little bit about our beloved CEO, Harry Chen.  In the shoe business, he’s a living legend, a demigod of shoes.  Any trade show I walk into with him, at least 5 people of any age or background will know who he is then make sure to tell me I’m working for the right guy.  He’s got a real acute talent for finding other talent and maximizing it.  When you meet him, within the first few moments, you realize you’re not really talking to any typical guy but more of a ’spirit’ as Sung described him.  It was he who told his brothers that for their family business to really blossom, they should evolve from an already very successful trading company to a brand.

And he made it happen.  In 5000 years of Chinese history, no brand has ever managed to become a global fashion footwear brand.  That’s right, we did it.  Do we get an award?  He’s a natural born PR/Marketing genius so in a very short time I’ve managed to learn quite a bit from him.

Anyway, while Sung and I were in Taiwan, Harry was in China.  While the ads were being shot, I sent over a few pictures I snapped of the goings ons.

Sung getting styled up.

Here’s some from the fittings:

Sneaker Deluxe

Indie Exec

Officer Couture

Footballer Chic

Tuxedo Man

Easy Rider

Shooting Footballer Chic

Julie was lovely enough to document it all.  The documentary will be coming out soon!

That evening, after I had sent these out, I got a call from Harry.  He told me he’d be in Taiwan the next day.  He could sense the energy and knew that if he were there, he’d could bring something to the table.  Sure enough the next day, Harry was there.  When Harry’s around, everything goes tenfold.  It was also the first time he’d meet Sung so he decided he’d take us out for some insane teppanyaki.

As it turned out, Harry and Sung got along really well.  It wasn’t any surprise to me really because Sung perfectly embodies the philosophy and spirit of Jump that Harry has worked so hard for the past 30 years to instill into the brand.

The next day was equally as crazy as the last.  We started the day by scouting out some spots for opening a Jump store in Taipei.  That’s right, you heard it here first, we’ll be bringing it back to where it all started!  We then had lunch with some of Harry’s old buddies who happen to be the heads of all the major media networks in Taiwan.  He introduced them to Sung and caught up with them to talk about what we’d accomplished in the rest of the world and our plans for Asia.  They all agreed that when the store opened, we would have to do a big press conference.  Our next stop was to the ICRT radio station’s studio where DJ Louisa Lee would interview Sung.  ICRT is Taiwan’s international radio station.

It turned out to be a really good interview.  Check it out here.

After that we had dinner plans where Sung would meet the Taiwanese press.  Things were tight as Sung’s flight left that night but we managed to meet everyone.

It so happens that some of the journalists happened to be his big fans, some of which had even traveled to Korea the last time he was there.  I tried acting as interpreter but as it turned out, the journalists spoke korean and thus they were able to communicate better that way!  In attendance were members of the press from The Liberty Times, The Apple Daily, Trend Media, The Taiwan Times and The United Daily News.  The next day, at the China Airlines Lounge, I found these.

By the way, Jeff has begun to send me the completed ads.  Remember those times when you were a kid and you parents got you that new toy and you were all excited but then went home and it sucked?  This is the exact opposite of that.  They are everything I could’ve ever wanted them to be and more.  Don’t worry.  I’ll post them soon enough.