Boardshort Project for Xracing

Xracing is one of the longest design projects I have been involved in since 2004. It’s an ongoing project with a new design released every year. It all started way back on the Christmas eve of 2004, when a friend of mine decided to sell some men’s boardshorts. He came up with a simple design brief: to create a series of shorts never seen before in the market.

The project was intimidating at first because I had ZERO knowledge of fashion graphic design. But I love challenging projects with a steep learning curve. I drew a comprehensive plan for the project including the market analysis, studying the designs of big players, new design approach, elements of Chinese heritage to include and so on.

To begin with, I visited the retail outlets of leading boardshorts manufacturers such as Quicksilver, Billabong, Rip Curl, Roxy, Oneill, Hurley and Animal, to understand the market segment and designs better. As much as I was overwhelmed by the choices available, I was surprised to find that no brand stood out from another in terms of design. The styles and designs were repetitive across brands and ranged from solids in latest fashionable colors of black and violets and checkers to poker dots, stripes and block flowers. This market analysis gave me the confidence to design something distinctive than the run-of-the-mill shorts available off the shelf.

I zeroed in on the idea to include various elements of Chinese heritage in my design. After all, China has a rich 5,000-year old history full of mythical and folklore elements like the dragon, phoenix, lion, Forbidden City, sea horse, three-legged crow, white tiger, unicorns and many more.

I had to make a choice,  a tough one at that, to choose only one legendary element from history for the design. The rationale behind this decision was if the design had too many ancient influences, it would come across as an old-fashioned piece of clothing. The trick was to fuse one mythical element with modern styles, colors and patterns that would instantly appeal to the youth.

I settled on the Dancing Lion. Why Dancing Lion, you may ask? It’s because the Dancing Lion is an integral part of Hong Kong’s culture to this day. The Lion Dance, a tradition dance in Chinese culture, is performed by two people symbolizing luck and fortune. The dance is known for its aesthetic, skillful and high-spirited elements. Above all, it’s funny, energetic, and lifts the mood of spectators.

It took over three weeks, and multiple trips to the library and martial arts clubs, for me to get a good understanding of the Lion Dance style. To translate the dancing form onto paper, I tried various angles and styles such as paint brush and photolistic.

The product took its final shape after months of idea exchanges and about 1,000 trials of color and pattern combinations.

Over the years, I have styled numerous boardshorts and have also given a try at a range of women’s surf clothing. In my most recent designs, I have decided to use more vibrant colors. The patterns have also evolved from the traditional Dancing Lion to modern interpretations of bikini-clad women. Arguably the best selling item under Xracing on eBay, these boardshorts designed by me sell like hot cakes among surfers across 13 different countries including Sweden, Australian, United Kingdom, and France.