Welcome to the UnStruktured podcast.
In the second half of this episode J.J. and go into the stories that shaped his performance apparel design career: from pro-snowboarding to designing the first apparel line for Salomon, to having to make the difficult choice to leave behind a great thing to take on his dream job designing for Ralph Lauren’s RLX…
…from Annecy, France, to New York City where he moved his wife and two young children just post 9/11, back to the mountains of Colorado to take a design leadership role at top skiwear brand Spyder, then westward to become CDO of the high-performance made-in-America brand Triple Aught Design.
With his father’s military background and his mother’s unique flair for fashion, a childhood in the mountains and a fascination with the Porsche 911, J.J.’s inspirations drive him to high-quality active luxury and great design steeped in meaning and storytelling.
J.J Collier/ Founder, Collier Brands
J.J.'s design career began as a top rider on the Pro Snowboard Tour, where he first discovered a love of functional apparel and equipment. During his last two years on tour, he bought a sewing machine and started making garments. That, combined with a lifetime of natural drawing ability and a grand imagination, led to him pursuing design and fashion as a career.
After two years of building one-off styles by hand for custom clients, J.J. was contacted by Salomon to help them to launch their first skiwear line. He was offered the role of their first apparel designer and his career was launched. In the 20+ years since, he has worked at Salomon HQ in France, led outerwear design for Ralph Lauren’s RLX and Black Label collections, led the Design and Product teams for Spyder, been CDO of Triple Aught Design in San Francisco, and reinvented other top brands along the way.
Today, J.J. leads brands in apparel design, development, and storytelling through his company collier brands, llc with a focus on make, sustainability, and the future of design and development. J.J. lives to dream up new ideas and carefully craft stories that will engage and inspire consumers. His career has been rooted in seeking the correct ratio of forward design and commercial consideration. He loves to mentor creative people and entrepreneurs in navigating the apparel business and chasing their dreams within it.
J.J. lives in Boulder, Colorado with his family where snowboarding is his favorite sport. He fixes up old Porsches and loves exploring mountain back roads in/on any vehicle, and time with family is always number one.
UnStruktured is produced by Struktur Society. Original music and sound editing by Greg Brace Music. © 2023 StrukturSphere llc
USTRUKTURED 01 Part 2: J.J. Collier + Designing An Authentic Life.