Reframing the dragon as a skater's spirit chasing the Converse star for the 2024 Year of the Dragon collection
Chase the Star
Converse asked us to set the concept for its 2024 Year of the Dragon collection before product design started, concept first, shoe second, to bring the brand back to the roots of skate culture.
We talked to skaters across China's biggest scenes and found the dragon had a real problem: it was losing relevance to the audience it was supposed to represent. Skaters called dragon graphics "cringe." One pointed out that Chinese people trace their lineage to the Yellow Emperor, not the dragon. The symbol had become wallpaper, a cool backdrop with nothing left to say.
What we also found: skaters describe themselves as playful, fearless, and perseverant, treating scars and failure as part of the ride, bonded by shared risk rather than any single look. That was the same shape as the dragon myth itself, wild, untamed, constantly moving.
So instead of putting a traditional dragon on a shoe, we said the dragon isn't a costume, it's a spirit already living in anyone who's ever chased something nobody else could catch.
We rebuilt Converse's own star as the prize in that chase, borrowing the old idiom of two dragons pursuing one pearl, so the star stopped being just a logo and became the thing being chased: Chase the Star.
We developed the concept and visual system with Italian illustrator Aloha Project.
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