JASON DANIEL: REFLECT & GROW

From a high school nickname to a global sportswear brand, Jason’s 20-year journey has been nothing short of inspiring. Always finding comfort in being uncomfortable, Jason has imprinted his love for pushing his own limits onto LSKD's mission and purpose as a global brand.

BEHIND THE NICKNAME

Growing up with a passion for BMX and Motocross, Jason spent most of his younger years riding at the local park attempting high-level tricks and learning from other riders much older and more skilled than himself. Being the young kid on the block who was performing tricks that were challenging for his age, the phrases “that’s loose hey kid” or “you’re riding loose today kid” were often used, which quickly turned ‘Loose Kid’ into a high school nickname for Jason, and soon to be the name behind his future global sportswear brand.

“If I look back to 2007, I thought to myself, I'm going to give this thing a crack, but I didn't think we could be something, and never thought we would be where we are today if I'm honest.”

THE EARLY DAYS

Jason's journey with LSKD began in 2002 at just 16 years old. Operating as ‘Loose Kid Industries’ out of his mum’s bedroom and shipping containers in the backyard, Jason was selling t-shirts and other garments locally. However, it was in 2007 that he made the pivotal decision to transform his dream into a career. The brand initially transitioned to LKI and, by 2010, Jason had made it his full-time job, leaving behind his career as a carpenter. This transition marked the beginning of a remarkable adventure and the formation of the brand we know today as LSKD.

THE POWER OF CONTINUOUS LEARNING

“Failing forward is a real thing and growth isn't linear. There's always something going wrong. When you're moving fast and breaking shit, you know you're always failing forwards, which means we're always growing and learning, which I think is where growth comes from. When you make mistakes, that's how you get better as a team, and as long as you own those mistakes, you can constantly work on them and improve them. My journey has gone for a lot longer than probably most have realised. It was 10 plus years before the brand actually did anything and making mistakes was the best thing I went through because it helped me keep tweaking and learning and understanding why we're here. All those tough times and weeks that I couldn't pay myself to make sure the team was paid created huge challenges along the journey, which really made us who we are and the appreciation we have today that this hasn't happened overnight, and it does take time.”

DAY ONE MENTALITY

“I think the day one mentality is really important as a team because when you're on top of your game, you have to change it, and that doesn't mean going and changing a product overnight, but it's the constant thinking for our community of how do we constantly level up and create product for them, and if we don't think it's day one every day, I think we could become quite complacent.”

CREATING SOMETHING BIGGER THAN OURSELVES

"The last 5 years is something that I didn't think was possible. Seeing our team every single day embracing our values and making decisions based off our values is really special. That inspires me every single day to get up and really want to achieve what we're trying to achieve as a team and a brand, and ultimately create something bigger than ourselves. I actually still think we're back in our old office and back when we were only a small brand. I think it's that constant hustle to be 1% better because we've never made it and we've constantly got to be better every single day.”

Want to watch more? We have recently launched our new platform LSKD.TV which hosts an assortment of some of our favourite short videos.