Jon Koon teams up with Dubai Bling cast for altruistic apparel

The Chinese-American has launched his latest clothing line in the UAE, attractive to the fashionable and charitable alike

Dubai Bling actor Ebraheem Al Samadi at the launch of the Bling label in the emirate. Photo: Jon Koon

Jon Koon made his first million when he was 16. With an incessantly curious mind and an ability to function on three hours' sleep a night, Koon has spent the past 25 years starting businesses at an almost frantic rate.

Koon began his career importing Asian car-tuning parts through Extreme Performance Motorsports, but now owns a global fashion empire with brands such as 8732, Private Stock and Haculla. He is an accomplished fine artist and used to spend his time shuttling between his native New York and Paris, Hong Kong and China. It is little wonder that Forbes had him on track to becoming a billionaire.

Then along came Covid-19. Like many, Koon was deeply affected by the pandemic, which caused him to retreat from Manhattan to the surrounding countryside. The switch put him in touch with nature, something he says he had “never really noticed before”, while the stress and uncertainty of the times reawakened a sense of community.

As he had more hours than ever to reflect, he says he began to wonder: “I grew up with ads on television about donating to help feed people in other countries. We don’t have those ads any more. Did suddenly everyone get full and wealthy, or did we stop bothering? This really stuck with me.”

Koon began to pivot his factories from churning out apparel to producing personal protective equipment (PPE), but discovered that only medical staff in the US could access the medical-grade N95 face masks. Alarmed that the general public were left to make do with inferior masks, he set about making his own high-grade alternatives, which came in bright neon colours and were endorsed by Oprah Winfrey as her favourite brand.

So far, so successful. However, Koon’s new project was also a direct reflection of his altruistic mindset, of his conviction that “if you have the luxury of buying something you don’t necessarily need, you should be giving back to someone who has nothing at all”.

Jon Koon shows his artistic side with his Faberge egg artwork. Photo: Jon Koon

Accordingly, Koon decided to donate a percentage of his proceeds to helping those less fortunate. “Ten per cent of all sales was allocated to giving medical supplies to people in need. It’s science meets fashion. Let’s be healthy and let’s care about each other,” he says.

While still keeping philanthropy at the fore, his next venture sprung from a very different source, the Netflix reality series Bling Empire. “It was crazy rich Asians being obnoxious,” he laughs. “I ended up supplying them with clothes because I am more than happy to support Asians on television.”

One of the stars, Kane Lim, approached Koon to start a clothing line off the back of the series. While he turned that down, it got him thinking about other possibilities.

Intrigued by Lim’s observation that the series was “the first time Asians are being watched by the western world and it’s not kung fu”, Koon sensed there was a huge opportunity, he just didn't know what. “I am Chinese-American, born and raised in New York, and I am about representation, so I said, 'let me sleep on it'.”

From left, Danya Mohammed, DJ Bliss, Kane Lim, Ebraheem Al Samadi and Jon Koon in Dubai. Photo: Jon Koon

Surrounded by the unstoppable rise of streaming, reality TV and social media, Koon soon began connecting the dots. “What if we started a fashion brand using the influence of streaming? What if we took the idea of Pangaia – sustainable Uniqlo in different colours – and mixed it with the ice bucket challenge and athleisure and collaborations?”

“Look what Kim Kardashian did with Skims and Kylie Jenner did with Kylie Cosmetics. These are the most significant brand launches in recent years and they came from streaming TV and social communications.”

The idea, he explains, was to launch a socially minded clothing brand that would catch people's attention. It needed to have an element of luxury “for the bling”, and had be sustainable and organic, using cotton from Japan rather than China, “because everything comes from China”.

It also needed to collaborate with celebrities and influencers and called for a catchy name. “They will be wearing this tacky word 'bling' but that stands for ‘Because Life is not Guaranteed’ in this case, and every piece of this is blockchained to a specific charity,” says Koon.

“You purchase a hoodie and I take 10 per cent and feed a child for 45 days. You buy a pair of jogging pants and 10 per cent gives a kid access to clean water for three months. Tying each purchase to technology is key,” he explains. “Blockchain is transparency in charity.”

In terms of representation, Koon hit on the idea of linking to regional public figures, “because communication is so much more powerful when it’s localised”.

Bling is now a reality and, with Lim as co-founder, has spread across the US, China, Thailand, South Korea and the UAE, in each case teaming up with local influencers and pop stars for added visibility.

In Dubai, it was unveiled at Bauhaus last month and, rather fittingly, is tied in with the TV series Dubai Bling, with three cast members – Danya Mohammed, DJ Bliss and Ebraheem Al Samadi – offering support.

Koon believes linking each purchase to a charitable donation is a win-win situation. “Not everyone has the time of day to be charitable, so let’s make it easy,” he says. “We are also sustainable, eco-friendly and don’t use bad chemicals or cheap fabrics. It’s a socially responsible and fully transparent company.”

It’s also stylish. In tones of camel, dusty pink, sea-foam green, nude, black and white, the collections are sporty and range from second skin, crop tops with logos to oversized hoodies with colourful strings. The letter B in the Bling logo echoes the dollar sign, while DJ Bliss’s collection has the name in citrusy tones of tangerine and lime in both English and Arabic.

Every item sold raises money for three charities: Serve the City Dubai, Dubai Cares and Red Crescent.

Given Koon’s track record of plugging into the zeitgeist and launching products that fly off the shelves (while, undeniably, making him a very rich man), it is safe to assume that Bling will be equally well received. Importantly, however, Koon’s priority has shifted away from merely creating intriguing fashion.

“If it’s not about social responsibility, I am just not interested in it any more,” he says.