Jake's Personal Website

 

History

Jake Ehrlich IIIDesigner and C.E.O.

Jake Ehrlich III has two great passions in in life which he has turned into businesses: Clothing Design and Computer Design.

Jake is the founder, C.E.O. and designer for JAKEeJEANS and BulletTrain Computing.  JAKEeJEANS is revolutionizing the way consumers wear and perceive jeans in the twenty-first century, by creating a new category of jeans known as "Luxury Jeans." BulletTrain Computing is revolutionizing the way consumers interact with computers by creating a new computing paradigm known as "Friction Free Computing."

Jake's family has a long and colorful history in the fashion world.  

Jake was born and grew up in San Francisco, California on October 7, 1966.  Jake spent the first five and half years living with his namesake grandfather Jake Ehrlich Sr.

From a very young age Jake had a very vivid imagination.  Jake grew up in an environment that constantly challenged and inspired him.  The picture of him on the left was taken at Forest Farms Summer Camp when Jake was 7 in 1973. (Notice his dark blue jeans!) Jake's  family owned a cutting edge photography gallery located in San Francisco named the Whiteside Gallery.

 

 In the Whiteside Gallery, Jake was exposed to many fascinating artists and their work.  His Aunt is pictured with him below in 1982 when Jake was 16. (Notice his dark blue jeans!) Artists who had shows at the gallery included, Ansel Adams, Ruffin Cooper, Imogen Cunningham, Diane Beaston, Roberto Cavana, and rock photographer, Jim Marshall.

Jake began his clothing design career eighteen years ago while in high school, when he and a friend were discussing how cool they thought the leather bomber jacket was that Harrison Ford wore in the major motion picture, Raiders of the Lost Ark.  Jake and his friend decided they both wanted a similar jacket and began searchingonly to come up empty handed .

After many weeks of searching, Jake decided to design his own and have it custom made.  The final result was so impressive, that when Jake wore it people would ask how they could get one.  Jake ended up selling many of his leather bomber jackets.  This was the first time Jake realized that people appreciated his taste as a designer.

 

Jake began his career as a Couture Designer in San Francisco in the mid 1980s under the name,  DOTT by Jake Ehrlich III (Designs of Tomorrow Today).  As a couturier, Jake made high-end custom clothing for men and women.  In 1989 Jake came out with his first ready to wear line of elegant woven neckwear.   DOTT Neckties were sold in upscale specialty and department stores, which included Wilkes Bashford, Nordstrom, The Hound, and D. Fine.  

Jake's ties were particularly popular among politicians.  Politicians who wore them  President Ronald Reagan, to former Governor of California, Pete Wilson, to San Francisco Mayors, Frank Jordan and Willie Brown.

Wilkes Bashford, pictured below with Jake Ehrlich at the official launch of DOTT Neckwear.  Wilkes remarked that "Jake's neckties are extremely elegant and chic.  His silk is ultra-luxurious and his use of color  is superb.  I launched the first Ralph Lauren store in San Francisco, and I am certain Jake is on his way to following in Ralph's footsteps."

 

 

 

 

 

In 1989 fellow designer Ralph Lauren, referred to Jake as an “innovative and talented young designer.”  In 1995 Mr. Lauren remarked, “(Jake’s) neckties display his attention to style and detail, and I am sure (he) will be successful with (his) neckwear as well as any other lines he develops in the future.”  

ask ralph

In 1995, Ross Perot said “I have never received a compliment on a necktie in my life, until I started wearing DOTT neckties.  Now all I get is compliments.  They’re great.”  

Picture of Perot

In the same year, San Francisco Mayor and fashion plate, Willie Brown, said “(Mr. Ehrlich’s) ties are wonderful and I am incorporating them into my wardrobe.”  

Photo of Mayor Willie Brown with link to welcome letter

In a 1994 article appearing in the San Francisco Examiner Magazine, Fashion Editor, Mandy Bebahani referred to Jake as “Young, talented and here.”  

In 1999 fellow designer Tommy Hilfiger commented on Jake's ties by saying that they are "very elegant and handsome."

Reinventing Denim for the 21st Century

 

In 1997, as a result of a fruitless search for comfortable jeans that Jake could work in, he decided to make a pair of truly comfortable jeans. 

After conducting extensive research, he realized that in order to develop perfectly comfortable jeans he would need to reinvent denim to make it much more comfortable. 

After making his first successful pair of prototypes using the best material and technology, he new he was onto something.

Mr. Ehrlich developed the strategic marketing plan for JakeEJeans with world-renowned author and marketing strategist, Al Ries.

Mr. Ries began his career in advertising nearly a half-century ago, and is regarded as being one of the best marketing strategists on earth. 

He has consulted companies such as IBM, AT&T, Procter & Gamble, Dupont, and Intel.  He is also the author of many best-selling marketing books, which include Positioning, Focus, and most recently, The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding.

 

Jake is pictured above with strategic marketing guru, Al Ries in Atlanta, Georgia in 1998

Jake is pictured above with Tommy Hilfiger in New York in the Summer of 2001

Building the Blendtec Brand

K-tec Industries came to Jake when they wanted to re-invent their blender business. Jake completed a stategic design and marketing overhaul and imagineered the Blendtec brand. Blendtec makes the best commerial & home blenders in the world. Blendtec commerial blenders can be seen in every Starbucks and in Jamba Juice.

As part of the strategic marketing overhaul Jake created the name and identity for Blendtec as well as the Blentec name and logo. Jake also designed the original Blendtec website. If you have not seen the Willitblend.com series of videos you will love them.

Jake's Other Passion: Computer Design

In 2000, Jake designed a revolutionary User Interface for the Microsoft Pocket PC named BulletTrain.

  In July of 2003 Jake was the first civilian to receive a detailed preview of the Handspring Treo 600 PDA.  As a result he wrote a detailed article which can be viewed at:

http://www.treocentral.com/content/Stories/240-1.htm

 

 

As a result of meeting with Jeff Hawkins, the inventor of the original Palm Pilot, Jake was inspired to write a series of articles on the future of handheld computing. This 5 part series titled "Thoughts On The Future Of Handheld Computing" was published on the web.

Re-Imagineering a Giant

An assistant to the C.E.O. of SAP, the $50 Billion German enterprise software company, read Jake's article Thoughs On The Future Of Handheld Computing and contacted Jake with a fascinating proposition. The assistant said, "SAP is the largest enterprise software company on earth, but our greatest challenge is that the people who use our software say they use it because they have to, but they don't like the User Interface. "We are interested in hiring you to re-imagineer our software user interface and busines process methodology for event driven interfaces."

Jake worked on the project for SAP as the lead imagineer for close to a year. At the end of the project, Jake presented his work to the Chairman and founder of SAP, Hasso Plattner, and the C.E.O. of SAP Labs, Shai Agasi, with critical acclaim. SAP was so impressed with Jake's ability to imagineer the future of their computing platforn they treid to bring him on-board full time, but Jake had much grander ambtions—to completly re-imagineer modern computing.

A New Train of Thought for Computing

Jake said: "I started using computers 28 years ago when I was 11 years old and everything was always designed backwards. Modern computer operating systems today are built like the Winchester Mystery House. They have stairs that go up to the ceiling and doors and windows that open to brick walls."

"No matter how good I got at using a computer it was still always a struggle at best. As someone who really understands design, I decided I had enough and I was going to create a holistic new computing paradigm that make computers think like people instead of making people think like computers."

Jake went on to say, "The counterintuitive, innefficient design of today's computers wastes a tremendous amount of precious time, and causes confusion, frustration and fatigue for users. People struggle with using computers for many differnt reasons. BulletTrain will provide solutions for all these challenges by unleashing the power of the processor for everyone through real innovation and useful new tools that will completely optimize the computing experience."

"With the BulletTrain platform, learning how to use a computer will become much, much easier. Once users become familiar with this new paradigm, they will become much more effective, oganized and far more productive. BulletTrain is positioned to be the next major operating system along with Apple, Microsoft and Linux. Instead of creating a new proprietary operating system, BulletTrain will run on any device or computer including an Apple Mac, a PC or a Palm, and will create a new universal computing interface."

"Think of BulletTrain as the ultimate universal remote control for a computer, for your home, for enterprise computing—in short, for you life. BulletTrain is creating a powerful development platform with rich media and information applications, as well as a business management system that integrates closely with Microsoft Office appliactions and Enterprise Services Architecture.

In 2005 Jake met with Mike Markkula to give him an overview of BulletTrain. Mike Markkula was one of the three co-founders of Apple Computers along with Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak. Mike Markkula personally financed Apple Computers from its inception and was Apples First C.E.O. and Chairman.

When Mike Markkula first saw BulletTrain he said he thought "BulletTrain was very interesting" and that he "Was looking forward to benefiiting from using this new system." Mike Markulla then offered to get Jake in front of Steve Jobs (the current C.E.O of Apple) so that he could discuss the potential for creating a strategic partnership between BulletTrain Computing and Apple Computers.

BulletTrain is currently preparing to launch a new line of hardware and software. BulletTrain has many computer industry veterans on its Advisory Board including Danny Lui, the founder of Lenovo Computers which is the third largest computer company on earth. Lenovo recently purchased IBMs personal computing division and is the largest computer manufaturer in China. Lenovo is also the third largest computer manufacurer on earth. J.C. Bradford III, from the founding family of the J.C. Bradfor Investment Bank is also on the BulletTrain Board of advisors.

Jake's Other Passions

Jake is an avid reader, writer,  technophile, design fanatic, artist, photographer, philosopher, and cosmologist.  He also enjoys playing golf, basketball, snowboarding, skiing, karate, rollerblading, tennis, squash and playing chess.  Jake attended law school where his primary focus was contractual law.  Jake also collects quotes and maintains a Quote of the Day Archive.

© 2000-2006 Jake Ehrlich. All rights reserved.