The Raw Truth of Building a Brand
Esteban Julian
Updated: Oct 5, 2024
An interview with JUNGLES JUNGLES

Esteban: Hey Jack, thanks for taking the time to speak with us today. Could you give us a brief introduction—who you are and what JUNGLES JUNGLES is all about?
Jack: Sure! I’m Jack, the founder of JUNGLES JUNGLES. The brand started about 10 years ago, though it’s a bit of a blur exactly when it all kicked off. I had just returned from living overseas, and I didn’t really know what I wanted to do career-wise. I studied product design and innovation, but I was also doing illustration as a hobby. That eventually led me to screen printing for friends' brands and band merch, mostly to make some cash. I was living in Adelaide at the time—a city in Australia, though it feels a bit rural compared to Sydney or Melbourne, where I am now.
From there, JUNGLES JUNGLES started to evolve naturally. It all came from my illustrations, and people started asking for the designs on t-shirts. I was printing everything myself in my backyard because, to be honest, I didn’t have any money to hire someone else to do it. It was a small operation for a while, just me doing everything. Over time, the persistence paid off, and the brand began to grow.

Esteban: But there was a pivotal moment when things really took off, right? I’ve heard there was a big break when Dover Street Market got involved. How did that happen?
Jack: Yeah, that was a huge turning point for the brand. It was maybe a year in when I got an email from Dover Street Market in London. At the time, I didn’t even know what Dover Street was! They had just opened a t-shirt shop in their basement and wanted to see my line sheets. I had no clue what a line sheet was, so I just made something up and sent it over. A month later, they emailed me with an order. I couldn’t believe it—it was like, "Okay, this is real!" Dover Street Market in Tokyo and New York soon followed. It was crazy because at that time, no one knew about JUNGLES JUNGLES. I had maybe 500 followers on Instagram, and I was only selling at a friend’s store around the corner from my house. Suddenly, the brand was on a global stage.

Esteban: That must have been surreal. How did things change for you after Dover Street Market came on board?
Jack: It definitely put the brand on the map, but it wasn’t an overwhelming surge at first. The orders were from high-end stores, but they were relatively small—maybe 20 to 50 t-shirts per store. At that point, I was still screen printing everything myself to pay the bills, so I could keep up with demand. But after a couple of years, I realized I didn’t want to be a screen printer forever. Screen printing is hard work, and it wasn’t the lifestyle I wanted. That’s when I started outsourcing the production. Then, we began getting more orders, especially from the U.S., and I had to figure out the supply chain.
That’s where things got tricky—I made a lot of mistakes trying to produce overseas, especially around timing and logistics. There was one major screw-up that almost set the brand back entirely.

Esteban: What happened with that screw-up?
Jack: So, I had a sales agent in Los Angeles who was great at getting orders from big retailers. We were trying to produce overseas to meet the demand, but the production was delayed, and we were about to miss the delivery dates. My sales agent was panicking, and I was stressed out. In the middle of all this, I signed a deal with a U.S. company that was supposed to handle production and distribution for us. It sounded perfect—they owned a screen-printing facility and offered to take over the logistics. But I soon realized that the deal was a mistake...
Even though I technically owned 60% of the U.S. company we created together, they had control of the bank accounts. Money was being burned on unnecessary expenses, and I had little control. I eventually had to buy back the trademarks and cut ties with them, leaving around $150,000 on the table.

Esteban: What happened after you severed ties with them?
Jack: After that, I pretty much had to restart from scratch. I canceled the sales agent and partnered with a new distributor. They’ve been fantastic. Ever since partnering with them, things have been much smoother. They helped me rebuild the brand, and each season we’ve grown little by little.
Eventually, we ironed out all the kinks in the supply chain, got the distribution in place, and started working with some great stores. That was the moment when everything finally lined up, and the brand really took off again. It was around the same time that COVID hit, which oddly enough worked in our favor for a while.
Esteban: How did COVID affect the brand?
Jack: It was strange. We had a huge shipment stuck on a boat during the port delays in LA, and I was worried the stores would cancel their orders because they were all going through rough times. But by the time the product arrived, the stores reopened, and demand skyrocketed. We ended up increasing the number of retailers 5 times over the next two seasons, and that’s when we finally had the cash flow to hire employees and run the brand like a proper business.

Esteban: Now that the brand has stabilized, what’s the biggest challenge you’re facing?
Jack: Right now, the biggest challenge is navigating the post-COVID retail environment. A lot of our stores are struggling, and spending is down. The market has definitely cooled off, so we’re trying to be more strategic about what we produce. It’s not like before when we could make whatever we wanted and it would sell. Now we’re focused on making sure we have enough core products like t-shirts and hoodies because that’s what the stores need.
Esteban: If you had to start all over again, what advice would you give yourself?
Jack: Honestly, knowing what I know now, I’m not sure I’d do it all over again haha. But seriously, the best advice would be to always ask for help from people who’ve been there before. Don’t try to do everything yourself. Whether it’s finding the right suppliers or working with good sales agents, word of mouth is key. And take your time to refine your designs—when you think something’s done, step away for a couple of weeks, come back, and make it even better.
Esteban: That’s really solid advice. Jack, thanks again for sharing your journey with us today. It’s been such an insightful conversation.
Jack: Thanks, man. It’s been great chatting with you!

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