FRONTEER

My name is Jon Tang and I am the Founder and Creative Director of FRONTEER. FRONTEER is a brand that is born out of unrelenting belief. My belief is that from digital to physical form, brands must be created to illustrate practical purpose. Purpose is the reason you journey. My own purpose is the reason FRONTEER was created.

It’s a brand that strives to incite discovery. FRONTEER is a willful attempt in helping the consumer discover a pursuit that absorbs them, frees them, and challenges them. It’s quite risky to start a footwear brand on your own without any investment or partners, however I firmly believe that FRONTEER gives me the ample opportunity as a designer and creative to really present a brand in its most genuine light.

I did not create this brand just for the money. Over the past 10 years, I’ve delved into design and research, specifically but not limited to sneakers. I’ve always had a passion for art and design, having graduated with a Bachelors of Fine Arts in Design at the University of Texas in Austin. And having grown up in the Michael Jordan era, my obsession for sneakers never left me. In an effort to combine these two passions, I began to work at PUMA as a graphic designer in Marketing. Soon after, I moved onto footwear design and continued design work for the next 8 years. I then moved to Los Angeles to help refresh K-Swiss as the Lead Footwear Designer. Over the years, I’ve pieced together small but absolutely essential bits of what I would ideally love to see in a brand. Through extensive research of what did and didn’t work for these brands, I learned that a successful brand should never cut corners – both in terms of inspiration and execution. In 2015, I was more than ready to start this brand.

Born and raised in Houston, my love for NASA and the great outdoors became an everyday affair. I knew that in some capacity, I would have to mix all the worlds I loved – the great outdoors, design, my incessant love for sneakers, and my affinity with NASA and space. FRONTEER is the product of these worlds combined. This is my greatest passion and building it has really become a dream come true.

This is the brand mantra. When we go through life experiences, we constantly find ourselves on a journey of exploration. We don’t know what things are until we finally experience them. We then give these special moments names, memories, and places inside of us which serve to remind us that we’ve lived. We also find things we like and don't like and that too, is part of the process. Through these accumulated discoveries, we begin to truly live our lives.

FRONTEER as a brand is described as a lifestyle lived outdoors. Our mission is to be a catalyst for discovery by motivating others to seek the journey and be fulfilled by it. Our purpose is to create product for those who seek to be inspired by the beauty of the everyday world. We strive towards a mindfulness that says 'in all that you encounter, inspiration can be found.' From the smallest crack in the ground to an Earth shattering volcanic eruption, there is beauty in the detail. For FRONTEER, no detail goes unnoticed.