BULLSEYE

Bullseye

Chris Jury on the never ending urge to customise.

A car enthusiast from day one, Chris Jury attended Coventry University to pursue a career in automotive design. Still, a foray into footwear design eventually propelled him into a job at Adidas, and ultimately, to his current position, as a Senior Creative Director of Footwear at Nike.

However, Jury's enthusiasm for cars still burns strong, and his latest creative outlet is this 912: “When it came to building this car, I'd always been into this look," says Jury of the Porsche which could be called a 912/6 with a swapped motor from a '71 911. As for the look of the car, Jury wanted a "minimal, pure, no-frills, interpretation of what Porsche might've built in the ‘60s."

Partly inspired by the legendary 911R, Jury's 912 shares a similar essence: "Everything is there for a purpose, everything is beautifully detailed and pristine, but everything is functional and has its place." Jury's knack for creative design stretches beyond the scope of cars and sneakers. His newly renovated garage is filled with a wide array of tools and projects that reflect Jury's diverse interests: a welder, a sewing machine, and even a Coleman mini bike which he intends to turn into a cafe racer in the same vein as his distinctive 912.

"It's not a hot rod," explains Jury. "It's a mod rod." Growing up in the UK, Jury admired the 'mod' subculture - the rebellious British youth movement of the '60s characterised by military-style parka jackets and scooters. "I've got this thing about taking stuff from that silhouette or idea but then doing it out of modern materials." Jury's hobby of creating custom jackets represents the intersection of his interests and his unique interpretation of "gentlemen's streetwear," as he describes it.

“We all want to be a bit different, and it's the same with making jackets - I know there's only one of them in the world. It's not an ego thing; I just want to be a little bit different. You can go out and buy something, but it's more fun making it."

The target-like symbol seen on the button of his parka jacket is symbolic of mod culture and has been used on clothes, badges, and album art and is now a de facto symbol for anyone who is part of the movement. It also is used as a motif in the 'O' in the Porsche logo on both of his 912s. Ironically, it's the same symbol used by the United Kingdom's Royal Air Force, which Jury admits may have carried some unintended political connotations while driving around Germany during his time at Adidas.

“We all want to be a bit different, and it's the same with making jackets - I know there's only one of them in the world. It's not an ego thing; I just want to be a little bit different. You can go out and buy something, but it's more fun making it."