[Voiceover]: Welcome to the checkout. We catch up with previous add to cart guests and ask them five quick questions to get to know them better and leave you with a little extra inspiration to get you through your Friday.
Nathan Bush: Today's checkout features Jason Daniel, founder and CEO of sportswear brand lskd. Based out of Logan, Queensland, LSKD is now a globally recognised label and has been seen on some of the most famous athletes, adventurers and enthusiasts all over the world. Jason, welcome to the checkout. We're going to learn a little bit more about you beyond the episode. All right, questions. I've got five of them for you. Number one, what is the weirdest thing that you've ever bought online?
Jason Daniel: I've read this.
Nathan Bush: What do you mean? I don't give you the questions before we record. It's all off the cuff.
Jason Daniel: Yeah, it is, it is, but I still don't know. I'm gonna be completely honest. I actually don't shop online that much, to be honest. So that's probably the weirdest thing is I'm not, you know, you know, guys are actually lazy shoppers and I'm. I'm the first and first person to say that. My wife helps me shop because I get very busy, but I don't think I've actually bought anything. Crazy weird. But it has been. I mean, I'm always, look, I'm buying my wife learning to buy my flowers online and get him delivered on special days and delivered to a house. I'm getting good at that.
Nathan Bush: You're a very smart man. Well done. Number two, who is your favorite retailer?
Jason Daniel: Oh, great question, great question. I mean, I don't really have a favorite, to be honest. Like, I don't, you know, I mean, I look up to a lot of brands. Like, I love what, you know, Lululemon's doing and I love, you know, what Nike's done. I mean, I run in Nikes every day. So, you know, from a retailer perspective, I love those side of things, but other than that, I mean, there's a lot of really cool streetwear and sportswear stores out there. But yeah, I kind of don't really watch too much what's happening out there in the market. I mean, we just kind of focus on what we do and not try to look out there too much what everyone else is doing, so. As in from a business perspective. But yeah, I mean, I'm definitely getting into my running shoes at the moment, enjoying that. And Nike definitely make a great running shoe.
Nathan Bush: Is there anything else about Nike that really impresses you? Apart from the obvious.
Jason Daniel: I mean, you know, they're amazing and innovating and, you know, staying in their lane of what they stand for and, you know, their innovation to shoes is phenomenal. You know, it's a big, big, you know, props and what they've achieved there. I mean, they're obviously the biggest sportswear brand in the world and everyone talks about them and looks up to them. I mean, I've just got into running the last two years and tries and doing different events and starting to learn of how all that technology works and actually really realizing the work that goes into the appreciation for shoes. I mean, we're definitely not going to go into that space anytime soon, but I will stay in our lane. But yeah, no, it is. I definitely appreciate the innovation they put into the their brand and they have amazing street side to their brand, but their performance side is phenomenal too. So.
Nathan Bush: Absolutely. All right, number three, which retail fad do you wish was history?
Jason Daniel: I'm shocking.
Nathan Bush: That's all right. We've got a great editor and like he can just edit our silences.
Jason Daniel: That was history. Oh, man. I mean, the fads come and go. Remember the Spinners? They'd come and they're gone in five minutes. So, you know, there's tons of those that come and go and. But what I reckon is happening now out there in the world, just fads, as in fads or trends aren't really coming as quick as they used to because the global market is so big and E commerce, those trends and fads almost are always here now, in my opinion, they never actually come and go because there's always a business or brand having that fad because there is a sub community that's still into that. So I think my opinion is on those fads. Is there still fads? You can find them wherever you go now. They never die. We're back. Before E commerce and social media, it was just the retailers that would stock certain fads and make a quick dollar and get out. You know, they would just chase that where now I just think it's never. Those fads are always out. You know, you can, you can buy from any kind of different. You know, obviously it's always seasonal years of what's happened, whether it's the 70s, 60s, 80s, 90s, you know, 90s are back. It's like that there was still a community that you could go and buy from, a brand from the 90s anyway, but now it's bit back further than ever. So. Yeah, I mean, that's kind of my opinion on it don't really have anything. I'm not very biased in that side of things. Whatever. You know, everyone has their own way of what they do. So, you know, and what I love
Nathan Bush: about the positioning of LSKD is that you can tell that your. You and your team, they don't buy into fads. Like, you're sustainable, you're there for the long term. Even reading a little bit about what you're doing with Project Earth shows that you're thinking forward, not, you know, trying to serve a customer for the next three months.
Jason Daniel: Yeah, yeah, it's long term and we don't really even. Yeah, thanks.
Nathan Bush: I appreciate it.
Jason Daniel: We wouldn't even promote Project Earth that heavily because we know it's a long term play for us. It's. It's not a. About trying to. A marketing campaign to sell more product. It's actually something we do slowly and every day to learn and make our steps and understand it more too. So, yeah, that's something that we're working on heavily, but we don't promote it. It is on our website, but we're not doing marketing campaigns around it because it's like, well, it should be done anyway. Just do it.
Nathan Bush: All right, number four, can you recommend a book or a podcast that our listeners should immediately get into? And we recommended a couple in the main episode as well.
Jason Daniel: Oh, I've got plenty.
Nathan Bush: You're a big reader, we know that.
Jason Daniel: Well, I listen to audiobooks. I don't read as much. I listen to a lot of audiobooks, but I mean, I recommended a few times and I said it. But you know, I'm a big fan of Little Black Stretchy Pants by Chip Wilson, founder of Lululemon. I really love that story I Only Command. Cause I resonated a lot with him and what he achieved. But another book I really liked is Legacy. It's about the New Zealand All Blacks. I think I highly recommend that book about teams and culture. And there's tons. I. But there's some. And you know, I mean, yeah, there's heaps of books. I mean, yeah, there's heaps, but that's a couple.
Nathan Bush: That's great. That's fantastic. And then we also had the, the Guy Raz podcast that we talked about,
Jason Daniel: how I built this. He had some really cool. He has some really cool podcasts. A lot of founders, which is good. Which I highly recommend too.
Nathan Bush: Beautiful.
Jason Daniel: All right, last question.
Nathan Bush: I've got for you. Finish this sentence. The future of retail is exciting.
Jason Daniel: Very exciting. Especially in the e commerce world. And what's going to happen with pop up shops and where that's going to go. I think it's really exciting. I think it's going to change for the better and be different for shopping centers, but I think it's going to be exciting of what's possible and brands are going to be doing to really engage with their community. Yeah, it's exciting actually. So yeah, super exciting.
Nathan Bush: Brilliant Jason, thank you for sharing.
Jason Daniel: That's right. Thanks Nate. Appreciate it.
Nathan Bush: To hear more from Jason, jump back into episode 76 where Jason shares how his mum helped him get the initial version of LSKD off the ground while he was still in high school. He also shares how a meeting with Penny Skateboards founder changed his business and what LSKD found out from their initial drone delivery experiments right here in Queensland, Australia. Thanks for listening. And until next time, keep adding to cart.
