Continual Refinement - Joshua Heares, Founder of Porter James Sports
An Open Source Archive interview with Porter James Sports.
Joshua Heares has created one of the fastest growing brands to come out of Auckland, New Zealand—Porter James Sports. In this interview with Josh, we dive into the importance of authentic expression, how Josh continues to tap into his own authenticity and the importance of creating intentional spaces. What stood out in this interview was hearing of Josh’s dedication to his craft and the focus he’s found for the direction of his brand. He continues to show his growing craft with each new collection and it’s clear to see he has visions for bigger and better. Porter James Sports is one of the few brands that have me waiting for new releases—not all for the purpose of purchasing, but for interest in the craft and vision of the brand, to hear more of the ever growing story of PJS. Hope you enjoy the read.
Josh’s background
I'm not trained in fashion. I'm more of a guy who’s always liked nice things and spent too much money on clothes over the years simply as a means of expressing myself. And I can trace that back to my days at primary school. My appearance has always been really important to me. Then in my teenage years, I developed an obsession with golf. Although it was never realised, during those years my goal was to play golf professionally so I dedicated a lot of time to honing my craft—you could say I was a bit of a golf nerd for lack of a better term. The sport tied in nicely with my passion for nice things. Being on the course allowed me to express that side of myself. This is where I fell in love with Ralph Lauren. We couldn’t afford for me to have nice golf and personal clothes but I wanted to look good on and off the course so I had to make my wardrobe versatile. Ralph Lauren balanced that perfectly and that’s perhaps where I started to build an identity that was clean-cut and semi-preppy. Once I’d realised I wasn’t quite good enough to turn professional (not even close, lol), I got a degree in Marketing and Advertising at AUT which I finished about 14 years ago now. After I graduated I worked in the advertising industry for a decade, often working with creatives, although my job title differed. I was a ‘Suit’, so I focused more on Account Management and Strategy which eventually led me to running my own agency at a young age. The advertising industry exposed me to high-quality brand communication, along with great designers and creatives and when I grew tired of it, I had this itch that I wanted to scratch with fashion and knew that a lot of my skills were transferable. I really backed myself to make it happen and that’s ultimately where Porter James Sports was born.
How the brand has evolved
The brand has always been a vehicle of expression for me. An extension of my identity. At times I’ve found it difficult to keep the brand evolution entirely consistent as I’ve evolved as a person, but I think at the very least my efforts have been honest. The key word that comes to mind is refinement and that’s something we value you a lot at PJS. However, I do think the goalposts will always move. As you grow and evolve, your eye, your tastes and your work amongst other things will inevitably change and I think that’s only natural.
Meaning of brand ethos “A life well designed”
‘A life well-designed’ means two things to me—one’s more tangible and the other’s more philosophical. The tangible definition is based on well-designed things. It’s about asking myself what the mainstays are in my life and letting go of the things that no longer serve me. Perhaps a reductionist/minimalist mindset that I've always carried—quality over quantity if you will. Plus, good style is timeless, so in a tangible sense, there's a transcendence of generations with well-designed things that I've always been drawn to. The philosophical answer is more around living a life of intention. It all started by asking myself “what do I want my life to look like?”. And perhaps this was the catalyst for me switching careers and going into fashion. At the moment it means keeping my sphere of influence small, building a really good team with great processes and surrounding myself with people I can trust. Another thing I’ve also been extremely focused on recently is creating space for my intuition. When I'm burnt out or when I'm jumping between meetings, and perhaps when I’m socialising too often I find it difficult to access my creativity. Inspiration is all around me. I could look at street style in Paris and connect that to something my Dad wore when I was growing up. But I have to be in a good space mentally to connect the dots. Otherwise, it's just noise and I think that's where people can get lost and their work can lack authenticity. That’s what ‘A life well-designed’ means to me right now.
How Porter James Sports has influenced personal growth
Growing with the brand has definitely allowed me to continually find what I like and don’t like, and I think you have to go through it to find the answer. To quote Steve Jobs, “you can only connect the dots looking backwards”. It’s really important for a brand to find clarity and in my opinion clarity only comes through doing the work—by putting the reps in and continually refining and purifying through failures and successes. To give an example, PJS 3.5 years from now will look much more like it does today than comparing PJS 3.5 years ago (when we started) to today. We’ve achieved clarity through trial and error and the same goes for me as a designer/creative.
Staying disciplined amongst trends and shiny objects
Similar to my previous answers, when I’m in a good mental space and I’m feeling connected to my intuition I’m able to see clearly. I’ll know when I’m acting authentically and where my decision making might be swayed for the wrong reasons. The most important thing for me at the moment to stay on track has been creating environments and conditions that set me up for success. What do I need as a creative to ensure I’m doing my best work? If I take care of this first, the work tends to take care of itself. There are a lot of brands having success at the moment by copying a formulaic approach, especially with marketing, so I can see why it would be tempting to follow suit. But ultimately brands that behave in such a way tend to lack depth in their identity and I’d trade short-term commercial success for long-term authenticity any day. However there are trends and marketing strategies that can’t be ignored from a business perspective and unfortunately I’ve missed some opportunities by ignoring them. For example we don't have a strong short-form video strategy at the moment and that's a gap in the business which I should’ve acted on some time ago. What’s important here is to put my own authentic layer on it. If I’m being my harshest critic, I haven't been able to perfectly define what our short-form video strategy is yet because I haven't put in enough reps. My vision has never been to be the biggest or best brand. Simply put, it’s to be the most distinctive over time. To produce work that is undeniably PJS, consistently for the long haul.
Staying connected with yourself
Right now is the most clarity I’ve had with the brand since I started and I think that will really show in our work throughout the remainder of the year. I've been tapping into my lived experiences more than ever and I'm going to share those in a lot of different ways. I truly believe that the best answers come from within. There's a quote that says “creatives need time to sit around and do nothing” which I’ve learned the hard way. I feel this freedom the most when traveling to the places I love in Northland, New Zealand. Being disconnected from technology, running long trails in nature for 20-30 kms without anything but some snacks and water in my CamelBak. Analog activities like journaling are also key parts of my routine. As a business owner, it’s hard to find this time when you’re being pulled in many directions at all hours of the day but nevertheless something that’s really important to evolving the brand and myself.
Being different from other brands
We're never going to reinvent menswear. Everything already exists. There are only so many ways to design a t-shirt or trousers. Quality aside, all we can really sell you is our perspective on the world–for the most part that is our only point of difference. And there’s a competitive advantage behind that because there is nobody else who sees the world exactly like you. If you are unapologetically yourself, you'll never lose in my eyes–that's the best way to live. There's so much consideration in the brand now, more so than ever and I think I need to do a better job at expressing that. It can be hard to do it in a tasteful way, however. For the time being ‘A Founders Journal’ is a good start.
A retrospective of the journey
The word that comes to mind is refinement. How I would describe myself as a person and leader of this business is that I'm an average guy who works really hard and continues to get just a little bit better everyday. I never claim to be the best but I aspire to be the best at getting better. Something I'm working on is to give myself a bit more praise and not be so hard on myself. And so I guess I'm quite proud of how I've stuck at it, how I've been resilient, how I've been open to criticism and ultimately how I’ve ended up in a place that feels authentic to me. Of course I look back and cringe at some things. A good friend once said to me that if you don't look back and cringe, you weren’t trying hard enough, you were playing it too safe. I definitely cringe at some stuff, but I’d like to think that those are the moments that got me to where I am now. Who knows, I’ll probably be cringing at the things I’m doing now in another three years' time.
Question from Jasper Mutimer (Founder of Mutimer). What makes you pursue your brand at a time where it feels like there are hundreds of other brands doing similar things? Why is yours different from the rest?
I’m using PJS as a vehicle of expression and I’m in love with the simple idea of getting better at that. There’s always room to improve because there’s no limit to continuing to find more of who we are and refining that. Being able to story tell using PJS as the vessel is what keeps me going and having thousands of others resonate with it too only motivates me further.
Question for next brand:
How do you create space for yourself to be a good creative?
What really stood out to me in this interview was Josh’s relentless commitment to perfecting his craft—his unwavering dedication to being genuine and creating work that truly reflects who he is. And having followed the brand for a while now, I’ve seen this authenticity play out. I’ve been a big fan of Josh’s work for PJS for a few years, and what’s fascinating is how, through all the releases and campaigns, I felt like I got a glimpse of who Josh is as a person. Of course, I didn’t actually know him, but maybe that’s the magic of how connected he is to his work. To me, that says a lot about his authenticity.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m definitely a fan of the clothes, but it’s the values and energy of the brand that truly resonate with me. Maybe that’s why I’ve stayed such a loyal fan. This conversation with Josh was inspiring, and to wrap things up, I want to share my favourite quote from him: “If you are unapologetically yourself, you'll never lose in my eyes—that's the best way to live.” I hope this interview connected with you in some way, and as always, thanks for reading :)
Where you can find Porter James Sports: Website | Instagram