So You Think You Can Dance

I hadn’t even known they were wearing our shoes on the show…had anyone ever seen it?

You can see it on one of them here.

JUMP in YRB

YRB How You Rock It

We participated in an event with YRB magazine where they had celebrities and tastemakers come to the Red Bull Studios and pick out clothes and shoes to wear and be photographed in.  Apparently they all wanted to rock Jump.

Also check out Footwear Plus’ feature of Monderer for Jump’s silver oxford in their latest issue.

The X-6!!!!!

I’ve personally been waiting for these to hit because I want them for myself (black patent)!!!  Finally they are here in SoHo!!

Follow us on Twitter to get tweets on our new goods, parties and whatever else Jump is up to!

Be Daring.

It was in Milan, during a conversation with a French gentleman named Frederic that the concept for our Fall 08 ad campaign was born.  He was interviewing Harry, Cani, Larry and me to get at the core of the Jump brand and to help us identify what our message ought to be.  In the past, we had used the tag, “…for the people” which parlayed into the Chinese characters, 人類 (humankind), which can be found on many of our shoes.  We wanted to understand how best to explain why we used these words and what it would mean to people.

It had to do with how the brand was founded in Taiwan.  American sneakers from Nike and Adidas were pouring into the market but were for the most part, too expensive for the better part of the Taiwanese public.  So Jump emerged as the brand that could offer the American performance and fashion at a price “the people” could afford.  Over the years, the brand had evolved to design and produce product that promoted harmony across different peoples and cultures around the world.  For a brand that began as the partnership between brothers in a family, working things out peacefully and harmoniously became a cornerstone of Harry’s business style.  There is no zero sum game with Harry; all parties can win together.  I suppose this contributes to why everyone I meet who knows Harry has something good to say about him.

The conversation continued as I began asking, are our shoes really “…for the people”?  Our styling had become very directional, taking inspiration from all over the world but was it really for everyone?  It was then at this juncture that the interviewer became the interviewee as I noticed Frederic was wearing a pair of our shoes, a pair that was rather fashion forward at that.  We talked about how it made him feel, a middle-aged man wearing shoes designed obviously for someone in their twenties.  He took a moment to think about it then told me rather resolutely that it made him nostalgic of his younger days, of the days he was a young musician in Paris.  In essence, he was daring enough to try Jump’s fashion but in the end found that it had become his own!  What a beautiful message.

The truth is that while our premium styling is very forward luxury fashion, our pricepoints are more entry level between $100-250.  So we decided that we would ask our customers to “be daring”, to try something that they might not normally try and to make it their own.  At our pricepoints, you can actually afford to be a little daring.

So it was here that I could finally put all the pieces together.  I had Sung, a highly talented actor who, in his own right, was already being daring in taking on very aggressive, iconoclastic roles.  I had Blanq in Taiwan whose body of work was already in an uncharted territory, merging a western modernity with traditional Chinese aeshetics in a way I’d never seen done so thoughtfully before.  I had Arowana Films, indie filmmakers who could craft all this into something alive and vital.  I had our categories – Indie Exec, Tuxedo Man, etc.  And now I had the message that would make it all work.  We would employ Sung’s talents as an actor to show how by wearing our shoes, you could dare to be anything you want from a brash young executive to an urban biker cowboy or to an elite military officer.  And we would do this in a series of short films and in our print ad campaign.

For me, it was all a daring proposition.  It was in fact, what the figurative more transcendental meaning of JUMP was.  To be daring enough to go from one set of circumstances, environment and situation into a better one.  Now, we’d spent months anticipating the making of it and piece by piece, the parts began to be form into the whole and now, finally, the final products are starting to all come together.  It’s become so much more than shoes.  It’s become creating art that extends beyond advertising and marketing.  It’s become a cultural expression to be shared with a global community.  It’s become the embodiment of being daring and I can’t wait to unleash it to the world and to share it with all of you.  So for now, be patient =).

Taiwan Part 2: The Shoot

The expectations were high and I was, admittedly, a bit nervous on how it’d all turn out. We’d planned it for months and our concepts were solid but, of course, there were a few variables. One being that I’d never done anything like this before; the last shoot I was involved in was at a much smaller scale and a lot less complex. There would be a host of creative minds involved: me (Jump marketing director), Jeff (Blanq founder and director), Shu (photographer), Sung (actor/model), Boris and Jason (hair stylists), makeup, etc. Working in fashion, I’ve found where things are highly subjective, there’s a lot of room for disagreement and discord. Somehow though, this team was completely different; it’s not to say that we agreed on everything but somehow all our minds were synced in such a way that we were able to figure out solutions very easily and agree upon what struck us as the right treatment.

Here’s Sung getting dolled up.

Julie too.

Here’s a look at Tuxedo Man meets Modern English.

Here’s some of the crew taking a break. That’s Boris, Shu and Jason. Long hair was big.

After two days, ten hours each, the shoot was done. There was definitely a real synergy, no egos getting in the way and we were really able to just create! Jeff had already figured out how to translate our concepts into print and styled it. Fresh from shooting Ninja Assassin, Sung was able to bring an active element that worked beautifully with what we were doing. In addition, his work ethic was amazing. Shot after shot, he simply delivered whatever we asked him to do, “Turn your head this way and make sure your foot is angled that way so you can see the shoe.” Et voile, he’d get it in the next shot and do 8 different ones that all kept those elements but had different nuances to them. And then there was Shu who was able to capture each and every aspect of it with his camera. He is the number one photographer in Taiwan and even he remarked that he’d never worked with anyone like Sung before. There was no way he could’ve achieved those results from just a model.

And we gave it a Jump!

Needless to say, the shoot went beautifully and the campaign will launch soon. I’m just starting to get some of the finished ads sent from Taiwan and they look phenomenal! Watch out for the first ad in Marie Claire’s September issue.

We celebrated with a very unique dinner at a Mongolian restaurant.

The 89 Spring Street SoHo Boutique

In October of 2007, we opened our first US flagship store. The opportunity had come to take over a space in SoHo on Spring St. between Broadway and Mercer. If you’re at all familiar with New York, you’ll know that this address is a prime locale. So we knew we had to do it. The question then was how to make it happen? How do you properly design this conduit to the inner sanctum of the Jump brand? We knew we wanted to position ourselves as an entry level luxury brand and that we’d want it to be like a living showroom. We wanted it to be an experimental store where we’d test the brand’s most directional product.The wheels were set in motion and we decided on our colors: gold and black.

The rest was quite organic, actually. The space has one of those ornate tin ceilings that was white and kind of dusty and lackluster but when painted gold, it revealed a latent charm that gave me the inspiration to decorate the rest of the store. I trounced around Brooklyn and Manhattan perusing each and every antique and vintage shop to find the right items to dress the space. I wanted it to feel regal and grand but with a sophisticated vintage twist. Bit by bit the pieces began to fit together until finally we had a store.

We found that the store was a great spot to hold events. We always had great turnouts.

Taiwanese TV network, ETTV, covered our opening party.

Our CEO, Harry, always knows how to make a big splash. Check out this pimped out vintage limo.

Even LXTV took notice of us and aired us on their show First Look NY. It ran on NBC and in taxi cabs all over New York.

Then one day two artists named David and Jessica Foox stopped into the store. They fell in love with the brand and wanted to get involved. It began with some hand painted shoes and evolved into a full out mural painting.

Here’s the finished work.

It incorporates the likeness of our Hollywood Brand Ambassador, Sung Kang, famous for his role as Han in Fast and Furious Tokyo Drift. We flew him in to film a series of video shorts playing on various characters that identify our brand. The films came out phenomenally as both he and the indie filmmaker, Arowana Films, are both quite talented. Watch out for the short films to be released beginning in July. More on our collaboration in the next post.

At the mural’s completion, we threw a huge bash, our biggest ever which drew a crowd of over 250 people, filling the entire store and a party bus. P.I.N.K. Vodka supplied the booze.

When the festivities concluded at the store, we were shuttled to the exclusive SoHo House for the after party.

It’s not all just fun and games though. As a participant in the SoHo Stroll on June 7th, we decided we would donate $8 from each pair of shoes sold that day to China’s Earthquake Relief Fund. When Harry learned of the event, he decided we should extend the drive to last for 8 days and that he would personally match all the funds raised. The drive is still on! Please stop by the store and make a difference! Our staff is extremely kind and will help you to some coffee or ice water for this hot weather!

Jump has a new voice.

Hello the internet,

I am Jump, a brand of shoes “for the people”. We urge people to be daring, to try something they might not normally try in our shoes. Our fashion is world-class (global design team), but our pricepoints are affordable ($100-$250). Take a look at our latest collection for men and women. As you will see, we have something for everyone. These styles will hit stores in about a month. The full collection will be on display and sold at our living showroom, the SoHo boutique at 89 Spring St. (between Broadway and Mercer) in NYC.

This blog will be a channel to relate all the various aspects of our brand and for people to interact with us. It’s an exciting young brand that exists beyond the realm of shoes. We travel, we laugh, we sing and now, we will write about it all. I hope you will join us on this adventure as we build our brand.