LSKD founder Jason Daniel speaks at Ray White’s ‘The One Conference’ at The Star Brisbane. Photo: Peter Wallis.
The homegrown founder of one of Australia’s most popular sporting goods brands had to lie about how much she earned to secure her first mortgage.
LSKD CEO Jason Daniel, who worked for five years as an apprentice carpenter and grew up on an acre in Logan, bought his first house in 2011.
“Fortunately, my wife had a full-time job with a secure job at Logan City Council at the time, so I had to fake my salary,” Mr Daniel said.
![DANIEL'S HOME](data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 1280 720"%3E%3C/svg%3E)
Jason Daniel, founder of LSKD sportswear, at his home in Daisy Hill. Photo: Lyndon Mechielsen.
“I had to put my salary at 50 grand to be able to get (the loan) at that time. I think I was making $240 a week – I haven’t actually told many people that.”
Mr Daniel and his wife, Ally, lived in this house for 10 years before buying their property in Daisy Hill, and they have an investment property.
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“For me, it’s always been about, ‘If you can get in, you can get in,'” she said. “Think long-term benefits, not short-term.”
The 38-year-old, who has an estimated net worth of $221m, started this business as a child from his mother’s bedroom in 2022, selling t-shirts to fund his motocross racing.
LSKD founder Jason Daniel at his Logan headquarters. Photo: Nigel Hallett.
What was originally called Loose Kid Industries remained a passion as he finished school and trained as a carpenter.
In 2007, he was working as a salesman out of his mother’s bedroom with several large containers full of produce in their place.
Three years later, Daniel took the plunge and made LSKD – the name comes from his BMX nickname, ‘The Loose Kid’ – his full focus, the same year he retired from racing dirt bikes.
Nowadays, sales of LSKD goods have exceeded $150 million.
One of the LSKD stores. Photo: LSKD.
The company has more than 500 employees, 29 stores around the world, and another 12 will be opened by the end of this year.
But it wasn’t always smooth sailing.
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“I always thought it would be big… but after five years, it stopped growing,” he said. “I wanted it to grow, and I wanted it to be something, but I didn’t know why we were trying to be everything to everyone and we didn’t really have a purpose.
“I think about those problems though it really taught me to slow down to speed up and see what I was doing wrong… which led to; ‘If we can build a name for why, work for a purpose, it can make money so I can get a job and do jobs for other team members.”
LSKD headquarters in Logan. Photo: Nigel Hallett.
Speaking to 1000 people at Ray White’s annual ‘The One Conference’ in Brisbane on Thursday, Mr Daniel encouraged the audience to “get one percent better every day”.
“It’s our job, it’s our goal,” he said. “I live and breathe it every day, what time do I wake up in the morning to train, listen to books, reach a goal that I will set for an event that I will achieve, how can I improve in my work, how can I study, how can I be a better father.
“You are as beautiful as what you did yesterday.”
US celebrity Emily Ratajkowski wearing LSKD clothing.
With that in mind, he has the ultimate goal of leading the brand to become a $1 billion company by 2032.
“If we do it well globally, I think we can be bigger than that,” he said.
And, he has no plans to move from Logan County, where the brand is also headquartered.
“My children go to school in the area, the office is in the area,” she said. We love where we live.
“I think I was inspired by the idea of creating a tech goods company from Logan. Can we create a global brand from Logan and really celebrate that?”
Avi Khan, principal of Ray White Daisy Hill – AKG. Photo provided.
Ray White AKG CEO and founder of The One Conference, Avi Khan, said this year’s conference is more important than ever when looking at the real estate industry.
“Public scrutiny is higher than ever,” Mr Khan said. “The standards are being questioned.” Practices such as low quoting and short time, the result of which in every way conduct destroys trust and damages the reputation of the industry, which, at best, plays an important role in people’s lives.
“We all bear a collective responsibility to raise standards – not through noise or anger, but through example.”
