J.FOLD

Founded in NYC in the early 2000’s, J.FOLD is a dynamic men’s accessories brand featured in top magazines including GQ, MAXIM and Esquire. The brand is still active today. I sold my equity in 2008, after growing the brand to sell in over 4000 doors globally.

I had the idea for J.FOLD while reading a business case study about the iconic brand Swatch. Swatch had brilliantly reinvented the watch industry. With tight branding, affordable prices, playful colors, modern packaging and new materials, Swatch single-handedly breathed life into a tired sector. No one had ever done anything like it before.

J.FOLD took a similar design philosophy and applied it to men’s accessories — reinventing staid black and brown wallets with bright leather colorways, creative packaging, youthful branding, seasonality and a healthy dose of sportswear influence.

After founding and selling the Silicon Alley creative agency Blue Hypermedia to Microforum and exited my role as founder and creative director, my former partner and I were itching to leave the digital world and try our hand at designing, manufacturing and selling physical products.

I designed the brand and the products from the ground-up, with a heavy emphasis on our digital presence, our packaging and our media outreach strategy.

The concept resonated strongly with men’s fashion and youth culture magazines who loved the story. Top men’s magazines including GQ, Men’s Health, MAXIM and Esquire featured J.FOLD extensively, with prominent placements next to some of the biggest brands in the world.

We took the brand to the world’s biggest accessories shows in Las Vegas and Berlin, and quickly grew a global distribution network of top stores including Takashimaya, Nordstrom and more.

The MoMA Design store in New York, featured J.FOLD prominently, and legendary retailers from New York’s Bloomingdale’s to the iconic Los Angeles boutique Fred Segal also picked up the brand.

J.FOLD was a wonderful experience. I sold my equity in 2008 and never went back to brick-and-mortar retail. I loved designing the brand and the products, and seeing the company grow. Still, I was drawn back to the faster pace and broader possibilities of digital and came to realize that physical products can be saddled with a host of real-world operational problems which digital simply doesn’t have