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

THE ZETO

First there was VANQUISH.  Now there is ZETO.  As it were an evolutionary next step into the journey of deluxification, dawns the coming of the newest offering from JUMP.  Hand crafted from a myriad assemblage of materials from the four corners of the globe, it features leathers aged in metallic copper, patents etched from the skins of dragon kings and full interior linings from the hides of cows that rival Kobe.  It is a sneaker snatched from the lockers of the gods and now available, finally, to mankind.

Behold, the Zeto in Copper Metallic Leather.  This colorway is available exclusively at select Bloomingdale’s locations.

The Zeto in Purple Boa Patent and Suede trim.

The Zeto in Black Patent and Nappa trim.

The Zeto in Grey Patent and Elephant trim.

The Zeto in White Patent and Pearlized Snake trim.

The Zeto in Burgundy Boa Patent and Matte Nappa trim.

The Zeto in Black Boa Patent and Suede trim.

The Zeto in Black Patent and Pearlized Snake trim.

For extra credit, comment and share what you would put in the zip pocket.

Customer of the week

Jude Destin.  He’s a standup comic.  The Vanquish goes well with the jacket and tie.

Vanquish for women! And two new men’s colors.

I know I promised a few weeks back that we’d have the Vanquish for women and today we are making good on it in a very limited test run of women’s 7s at the SoHo store.  We’ll have more sizes soon!  I actually want some of these for men!  I had our girls try them on and they say they are just as comfortable as the men’s ones.

Here are the colorful and incredibly soft nappas that made the Vanquish a hit in the 80s under the Travel Fox label.

I want the red and purple!

And of course the Black/Silver Kid Crystal and Green/Purple Reflex Patent.

These just came in for the men’s.  Super soft Tan and White.

Respect

When you get into the sneaker game and you truly become a connoisseur, you begin to refine your taste level and I have to say from one maker of kicks to another, Kanye did one hell of a job on these Louis Vuittons. I want them.

That being said, after going to a show like Compass where you’re in the company of all your peers, it just makes you feel awesome to be part of what has truly become a phenomenon. The breadth and variety of design and creativity coming from the market is really inspiring and one can only hope to see more. Everyone sort of succeeds together.

Jump in LA.

Check us out at Kitson’s new store on Melrose.  I had the chance to stop in a few weeks ago and it’s an amazing space.  Great merchandise.

I never thought our high tops could be worn with shorts but the mannequins at Bloomingdale’s have proved me wrong.

Saks

We’re happy to say that we’ll be stocking Saks for fall!  The fall collection is really taking off.  Here’s a preview.

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 =).

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!