Jie (Jason) Liu is a footwear designer at Crocs since May 2021. His skills were honored in 2012 with a Taihu Award, and later with a Core 77 award in 2019.
He believes that what triggers customers to purchase a product for the first time is always the cool look, in design terms, silhouette, proportion, and CMF/G. One step further, functionality and innovation will create LOYAL customers. What makes people truly fall in love with the product and the brand is bridging aesthetics and innovation with holistic storytelling steeped in culture and rich with emotion.
Jason is bringing the new aesthetics to Crocs and attracting Hypebeast consumers to inline (not collaboration) immediately. Jason designed the footlocker SMU in 2021. The design has bold color blocks to change the visual perception of the classic clog base. There are more playful details that speak to Hypebeast culture, like a hidden bag, oversized pull tabs, rubber dip lace head, huge reflective logo, contrasted colorways, etc. The fearless aesthetic, the design executions, and the playful function made this product successful. This year, a 2nd gen pack with the same design but toned-down colorways dropped and reached a wider range of consumers.
@footlocker.com
Jason also was instrumental in the Echo Surge, the first ever Crocs cut&sew sneaker. It continued the heat of the Echo family and introduced a true sneaker to the street/sport consumers. Echo Surge has a faster and more progressive top tooling line that will attract sneakerheads and streetwear consumers, and the knitted upper brings in breathability and comfort. Iconic Literide drop-in footbed elevates the underfoot comfort that Echo consumers appreciated since the first Echo launched. Also, as a designer who will perfect every detail and try to deliver brand images, Jason added a “molded plus” branding detail at the tongue to remind people this is still a molded Crocs but looks much cooler.
@sickboiss on IG
As a sneakerhead for over 15 years, Jason knows the market and consumers so well. Every collaboration project that Jason worked on has sold out and held the resell value in the 2nd market, projects including Honor of Kings, Satisfy Running, Bodega, XLarge, Ottigi, Melting Sadness, Bape, Clot, Futura, Kellogg, Pringles, Fortnite, Zara, etc. Crocs Classic All-Terrain Clog x GRIP SWANY is the best example. GRIP SWANY is a premium Japanese outdoor brand that makes pro hardware gear and technical clothing. Jason brought the camping experience to the footwear and allowed consumers to play and interact with footwear, which will trigger their minds that they are building a tent. Besides the functionality, Jason created an illustration that combined the GRIP SWANY safety label with the technical drawing on Crocs Jibbitz packaging, so the aesthetics of both brands are well connected. This product was sold out immediately when it dropped. It became a collector piece and the 2nd market value kept going up until today.
@gripsswany on IG
Jason can not only make hot and sexy sneakers, but he also has the minimalism and Zen mindset that allows him to create the most minimal and clean clog ever. The Dylan Clog opened up a whole market and grabbed the lagger consumers who would never wear Crocs before this one. The Dylan Clog has the cleanest silhouette that has an over-last styling and zero holes on vamp. But the branding details, iconic footbed design, and modernized bottom tread design keep Dylan still a Crocs. There is another game-changing design that will drop later this year, which is a modern and premium version of the Classic Clog. This model will continue the design philosophy of Dylan but offer the tier 0 experience for clean-fit consumers. This model will only be sold at the tier 0 distributions, such as Dove
Jason is a versatile footwear/product designer who can not only make functional products that sell and bond consumers but also create hot heat for the brand from collaboration and inline perspectives. Jason’s designs drive sales and also the brand awareness and reputation of sneaker community and social media.
