Da Kine Hawaiian Aloha

Year Of The Parrot

2011-12-29T11:05:00.000-08:00

Since Ireally don’t see that there is such a thing as Year Of The Parrot, I have decided that a fewof us at Wave Shoppe will simply create it. My best guess is that we will startout by re-introducing the parrot chimes in the downtown showroom. I have tostop here for a moment and tell you a little more about those parrot windchimes. You see once upon a time we had 4 or 5 of them hung throughout thestore, each one had a colorful 12” parrot on a perch that had 6 chimes hangingunderneath it. So what’s not to loveabout that you say? Let me tell you that when you are trapped in a small 1000square foot showroom and you spend all day hearing people bumping into thosechimes and dealing with peoples kids threatening to pull them down, itssometimes takes all you can muster to keep your sanity. And then there are thecountless times you bump into them yourself.

So a ways back I slapped a price tagon every one of them and told people that if they made one of them chime, theyhad to buy it. In a matter of weeks I sold every one of them. Now people comeinto the store and inquire about the demise of the parrots and are requestingthat I re-introduce them into the store, oh the humanity.

So that brings us to the nexttask at hand, how do we raise the bar per se and I am thinking that we willgroup them with all of the Hawaiian shirts with parrots that we have in thestore. I believe that right now we have 5 to choose from, there are our mostrecent additions, the orange Hawaiian shirt with parrots, the blue Hawaiian shirt with parrots and the crème Hawaiian shirt with parrots.

As I am writing this blog post I am thinking what a wonderfull addition these chimes would make at a target range.

Then we have the classic black Hawaiian shirt with parrots as well as the classic Hawaiian jungle bird shirt manufactured by WaveShoppe. I also anticipate dropping a few more new shirts with parrots beforesummer and possibly bringing back a design we retired a few years ago. So thereyou have it, 2012 will officially be the year of the parrot.

As our living parrot Coco would say... Squawk, Squawk

Snakes and Hawaii

2011-10-07T13:19:00.000-07:00

Snakes and Hawaii

I have heard it said that there are no snakes in Hawaii.Since I do not like snakes, Hawaii could very well be the paradise it is calledjust for that reason alone. I am not sure why some people bring their snakesinto my Hawaiian shirt store. They have them wrapped around their arms,shoulders and neck like a living, breathing scarf. I never knew so many peopleowned snakes before we moved into our downtown Escondido location that isaround the corner and a few doors down from a reptile house. I have seen some huge ugly lizards, manytypes of snakes, all sorts of bug eyed lizards, chameleons etc and one guy evenwalks some type of baby dragon on a leash. They all prance around with theirreptiles like they are so proud of them. You would think they would have the common sense not to bring them intomy store but OH NO they come right on in to show me their scaly pets.

One day I had an elderly lady looking over some of ourcolorful muumuus and I was helping her find her size. I remember the customercoming into the store and said “Hi let me know if you need any help” I glancedhis way and smiled but then turned back to speak to the lady I was helping. Ifound a couple of muumuus in her size and was halfway to the dressing room tohang them up when she started screaming her head off. She had one hand aroundher throat and was pointing in the direction of the guy who was the only othercustomer in the store.

At this point I am thinking he must have a gun he is goingto rob us but even worse than that was when I turned to look at him I saw thathe had a huge snake wrapped around his neck that snake was so long it hung downhis back to the backs of his knees and was wrapped around his neck and down hisarm and he was holding the head with his hand. I am thinking 8 feet for sureand of course those beady black eyes were looking right at us.

I guess you can tell my level of comfort with snakesconsidering I thought a snake was worse than having a gun wielding robber in mystore, so during this commotion the man was slowly backing away from us tryingto reassure us his snake was harmless. While my customer was doing some kind ofweird dance and hiding behind me while holding onto me I yelled “Get that snakeout of here now!” That man took off down the street and I have not seen him orhis pet since then.

Really owners of large reptiles need to have their headsexamined in my opinion. Don’t they watch all those shows that end up with thebig snake overpowering the owner and killing them or the shows where snakes getout of the enclosures and kill children in the house? Can’t blame the snake,that’s what they do, they wrap around you and try to eat you.

So I am now curious how they can claim there are no snakesin Hawaii, are you telling me that not one snake lover has ever slipped a snakein a suitcase on board a plane? So myquestion to the readers of this blog is…. Is it true there are no snakes on theislands? Let me know if you have ever seen or heard about encounters withsnakes in the lush vegetation they have over there. I did notice when I visited the island ofOahu there were a lot of mongooses over there perhaps that is why there are nosnakes?

Peggy

Thomas Jefferson died on July 4th

2011-06-23T12:54:00.000-07:00

I don’t know about you, but I find it hard to believe that the 4th of July is a little over a week away. I mean what happened to April, May and most of June? There’s even a month long gap in my Blog posts, maybe I have lost track of time or maybe it’s just that I have not had much to say, probably the latter. I was thinking that I might research and write about Hawaiian Independence Day, but I think I will save that for a later post.

For most people the 4th of July means a long weekend, fireworks and lots of BBQ and increased alcohol consumption, for some that is. Myself I relish the patriotic displays but I also have a penchant for history and all the little mysteries that come with it, but don’t lump me in with the confused conspiracy theory people, ok.

So speaking of history… below are a few forgotten or little known facts about the 4th of July that you may not know, courtesy of wikipedia

‘Historians have long disputed whether Congress actually signed the Declaration of Independence on July 4, even though Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and Benjamin Franklin all later wrote that they had signed it on that day. Most historians have concluded that the Declaration was signed nearly a month after its adoption, on August 2, 1776, and not on July 4 as is commonly believed.

In a remarkable coincidence, both John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, the only signers of the Declaration of Independence later to serve as Presidents of the United States, died on the same day: July 4, 1826, which was the 50th anniversary of the Declaration. Although not a signer of the Declaration of Independence, James Monroe, the Fifth President of the United States, died on July 4, 1831. Calvin Coolidge, the Thirtieth President, was born on July 4, 1872, and thus was the only President to be born on Independence Day’

I would also like to point out that if you’re a superstitious politician, the 4th may not be your luckiest day. Myself I think I am going to keep it simple, though I do have a nifty and quite loud fireworks shirt (shown below) that I am going to wear for the holiday weekend. I also have an additional patriotic shirt that I will be wearing that’s pretty cool but I don’t have a picture of it yet. Maybe I will add it later on, my wife picked out the design and I must say that she has excellent taste.

Before I forget, while Wave Shoppe offers a lot of unique Hawaiian shirts in the stores and on the Website, many of the shirts I wear are “one of a kind shirts’ which are not available for purchase.

Hot New Summer Dresses Under $40

2011-04-21T14:24:00.000-07:00

Summer is not all that far off and we wanted to introduce you to 2 really hot Hawaiian print dresses in two popular color combinations. These dresses are one size fits all, also known as smocked dresses, and they are the latest rage at the beach and casual Hawaiian themed events such as luaus. These Hawaiian dresses are very comfortable to wear and the elastic top means you don’t have to worry about obtaining a good fit.

First in line is this beautiful black Hawaiian tube top dress with red hibiscus flowers, which is going to be a big seller this year.

Priced at just $38.95 you can afford to get more than one.

Next up is another black Hawaiian dress with turquoise hibiscus flowers. We introduced this color combo last summer and it sold out in less than 2 months, nuff said. Psst this is also priced at $38.95

While you are at it, take a moment to check out the many new designs we have added to our line of Hawaiian shirts for men (men like gifts too) as well as new additions to our lineup of authentic muumuu dresses (think Mothers Day), styled after the most popular designs worn in Hawaii.

Mahalo from all of us at Wave Shoppe Hawaiian Shirts and Apparel

Wave Shoppe in Teen Vogue

2011-03-07T10:22:00.000-08:00

Last month me and my wife were at the Womens Wear In Nevada (WWIN) Show and the MAGIC Show. MAGIC is the preeminent, most comprehensive trade event in the international fashion industry.

These types of trade shows involve a lot of walking and taking lots of breaks, so while on a short break at Teen Vogues booth we grabbed a copy to see if a design we submitted many months ago had made it into the March issue.

While we knew we were being considered there was never an official “yes we choose you for the shoot”, so it was quite cool to be flipping pages and actually seeing one of our Hawaiian shirts on a model in the magazine.

If you can’t guess it’s the purple Hawaiian shirt with yellow flowers.

Ironically when we returned to San Diego there was a package and personalized letter from Vogue congratulating us on our accomplishment. Its now framed and hanging in the Wave Shoppe Escondido store.

So while at a glance you see that we sell Hawaiian shirts and dresses, we are also heavy into designing textiles and traveling deeper into the fashion jungle with each passing day.

I was just getting ready to click the “publish post” button and I was thinking that I failed to mention that for me, making it into Conde Nast’s Vogue would be like dying and going to heaven. Recently I learned that I have the dying part all dialed in so now all I need to do is come up with a design before then.

To Whom It May Concern

2011-02-08T10:50:00.000-08:00

"To Whom It May Concern:

I don’t think a company gets much feedback or credit when they do something right and I wanted you to know that I couldn’t be more pleased with the merchandise that I received and how quickly I received it. I placed my order on a Friday and received it the following Monday! What great service! I will be in Maui next week wearing my shirt I purchased which, by the way, fit perfectly.

Thank you again for the great product and the outstanding service your company provided. I will definitely recommend you to anyone.

Ken L

South Sioux City, NE"

Customers who purchase Hawaiian shirts from Wave Shoppe tell it best, adding that our company and products receive praise on a daily basis. Ken recently purchased our big mens Maui Hawaiian shirt which is one of our latest designs.

Hawaiian Apparel Wedding Planners

2011-02-04T17:15:00.000-08:00

In conventional Hawaiian weddings, both the bride and groom wore all white, and the groom wore a painted sash around his waist and a maile lei around his neck. Many grooms dressed for a San Diego beach wedding wear Hawaiian shirts and light colored pants. Mainland wedding couples also prefer to dress themselves in formal bridal gowns and tuxedos, which creates beauty and a romantic contrast on a sandy beach.

After a lot of years of planning weddings here in San Diego we can tell you that we've had requests for just about every style of Hawaiian wedding attire at our Hawaiian apparel store. If you need help selecting attire fit for a wedding, just stop by the Kalmia St showroom and our expert wedding planner Peggy will help you choose the wedding attire that is appropriate for the two of you.

Pictured above is another happy couple that had recently utilized our expert wedding services wearing Wave Shoppe Hawaiian apparel for their special day.

One Turtle Two Turtle Green Turtle Blue Turtle

2011-01-24T16:06:00.000-08:00

As much as we would like to tempt you with a freewheeling plot about a boy and a girl, and the many amazing creatures they have for friends, we cant.

But what we can do is show you a picture of our new blue Hawaiian shirt with turtles in which we have in 2 wonderful colors. Of course we are just going to show you the blue one and ask you go look at the green Hawaiian shirt with turtles, for which we also provided a convenient link.

These hawaiian shirts are made from cotton poplin (which has a high thread count) and are priced at just $45.95 and like all Wave Shoppe apparel, made in the USA. By the way, that $45.95 price point is well under the price of most imported shirts, which are clearly of lesser quality.

Honu Honu or is that Nanu Nanu?

Quintinn Piikane Holi and the Hawaiian Trio

2011-01-17T12:22:00.000-08:00

Its not often that post many people pictures, but we wanted to say Mahalo to an awesome friend of Wave Shoppe’s named Quintinn Piikane Holi. Quintinn is not only a remarkable singer/musician and story teller, he is also a real Hawaiian (and eats like one) with lots of Aloha in his heart. He is someone you actually want to know.

Quintinn plays at a lot of gigs, but in my opinion some of the most down to earth stuff is performed right in front of our store, accompanied the local San Diego hula troupe, Tipanie O Patitifa. If you’re in San Diego during the summer months please stop by and have a listen. Holy smokes! I almost forgot to tell you about the picture. Just prior to one of Quintinn’s high sea adventures, Wave Shoppe released the Indigo Hawaiian shirts (pictured above) and it wasn’t long before Quintinn came by to scope them out. Well as fate would have it, a few of them (almost magically) ended up in brudah Quintinn’s pickup truck, headed for exciting destinations unknown.

Alas we saw a post on Quintinns facebook or something, it mentioned the shirts were spotted in a picture on a cruise ship. Weeks later Q wandered to the store to play, with picture in hand, and honestly its one of the nicest things I have received all year.

Mahalo Quintinn!

Wave Shoppe Hawaiian Shirts and Apparel

Ten things you should do while wearing a Hawaiian Shirt

2011-01-16T10:26:00.000-08:00

Ten things you should do while wearing a Hawaiian Shirt:

1. Go to a Luau

2. Go to Da Beach to catch Da Local Babes Attention

3. Play your Ukulele... (keep it clean brah)

4. Crash a Wedding

5. Eat Fish & Poi

6. Wear your Hawaiian Shirt on Aloha Friday

7. Take a Trip to Hawaii

8. Hang Loose \m/

9. Go Check Out Hula Girls!

10. Cruizing with the Top Down

Ok so you live in a cave and have no idea where to buy a Hawaiian shirt. Here is a hint, check out Wave Shoppe Hawaiian Shirts and Apparel

Post a comment and tell us what you do in a Hawaiian shirt or post your comment on http://www.facebook.com/HawaiianShirts and we will list your FB page right here!

facebook.com/fuzzyape I hold open houses in my Hawaiian shirts

facebook.com/steve.gerencser I meet with clients in my Hawaiian shirts. No suit or tie here!

facebook.com/sherwood Hamilton II take a stroll on the beach at sunset and watch the fireworks after dark on 4th of july with your toes in the cool sand.

Local Church Says Mahalo for Hawaiian Fabric

2011-01-08T13:53:00.000-08:00

We wanted to take a moment to share with you a letter received from a local church, they receive a good portion of the fabric scraps created by Wave Shoppe Hawaiian Shirts and Apparel and as many know, we generate a lot of fabric scraps.

When you cut Hawaiian apparel not all of the full fabric width is utilized and in a short amount of time a busy shop can generate a sizable amount of odd shaped stacks of fabric. Some are as small as 6 x 6 quilting squares and some are ½ yard or more. So many years ago we concluded that giving the fabric away to good causes was a better alternative than adding more volume to a landfill.

But to whom do we give it to? Well and I kid you not, just a few weeks after making that decision we were approached by a local church that made quilts for some great causes, and the rest is history. Now who says God doesn’t work in mysterious ways?

WSJ News on Rayon Hawaiian Shirting

2011-01-07T11:46:00.000-08:00

Yesterday the Wall Street Journal posted a piece about rayon Hawaiian shirts, vests, and designer dresses making a comeback and I thought it was kind of interesting that they oughtright attribute that to an increase in cotton prices. But my in-depth knowledge of the industry got the best of me, even though they tossed out some data, I couldn’t help but wonder if the article on rayon was still wrote from the perspective of being on the outside looking in.

“Cotton prices surged 91% in 2010, leaving designers and clothes makers scrambling to find lower-cost alternatives. One of their favorite replacements is rayon, an 80-year-old fabric whose last golden age was in the 1980s, when it was used in everything from Hawaiian shirts to sequined vests”

While I don’t disagree that cotton prices surged in 2010, lets be fair and state that textile costs have surged consistently every year, and for all fabrics. Japan is clearly the largest importer of raw cotton from the USA and when the price goes up here its naturally passed along when we purchase the finished textile. But what’s not factored into the WSJ article is the cost of petroleum, something of which Hawaiian printed fabrics are very dependent on, as many processes are petroleum based in one way or another. I just have to wonder why a key textile ingredient was left out of the article, dont you? I did some quick price checking with some of our importers on 1/7/2011 and it appears that rayon ROT is currently priced 18 cents above cotton. So either the importers did not get the memo or the WSJ data is a bit skewed or slanted to impress shareholders of wood pulp companies.

I also found it intriguing that they failed to focus on Indonesia, which is where most of the rayon fabric is produced. Wave Shoppe’s rayon mens Hawaiian shirts are made from very high quality imported rayon, but frankly we have never seen any rayon fabric offered where the country of origin was Japan.

“Rising cotton prices are pushing a forgotten retro staple back onto the fashion runway” Retro? My lord women looking to wear a higher end dress have never opted for cotton, its been rayon or nothing for so many years that I can’t count them all. Wave Shoppe is introducing an entirely new line of rayon and cotton Hawaiian dresses this year and I assure you that the rayon will outsell the cotton, even though a finished rayon garment is higher priced.

So my final thought on all this is that this WSJ article is just another power play to push a material (rayon) that has higher profit margins, than it is to outline that cotton shirting prices are going up.

Full WSJ article

What’s Behind Your Clothing Label?

2011-01-02T12:25:00.000-08:00

What’s Behind Your Clothing Label?

Over the years the apparel industry in the United States has taken a pretty severe beating, much of that can be attributed to the cheap foreign labor and government trade agreements that reward businesses for taking their apparel manufacturing out of the country. Personally I think it’s just plain sad that companies like Wal-Mart and Kohl’s have set up camp in places like Vietnam (actually whole cities), where the average monthly wage is about $45 USD a month and then have the balls to further leverage that by bringing the cheaply made garments back to the USA for sale and distribution.

We are sure that you noticed during the holidays that those stores were selling shirts and outfits for as low as $5, but have you really thought about the real story behind those clothing labels with crafty designer names that for the most part do not even exist? Probably not, but envision yourself as a seamstress that works in often appalling conditions with a sign above the room that counts down the daily quota that needs to be met before your shift can go home, you have to endure that 6 long days a week and for just a couple of bucks a day. I call that corporate exploitation of human species.

So you think that couldn’t possibly be the case with companies that make Hawaiian shirts and apparel? Wrong, while you may see the name of some person that rings a bell like Tori Richard etc. or a label that says Aloha Island or something, you probably don’t think about where it was actually made and by whom. Looks can be deceiving and that applies to clothing labels. While Reyn Spooner may state to operate out of Hawaii, the fact of the matter is that the colorful silk garments are 100% made overseas, as are all other shirts made from silk. No aloha there folks.

Then we have the shell game called re-labeling which is rampant throughout the apparel industry and not just limited to Hawaiian apparel manufacturers and distributers. Put it this way, there are over 100 Hawaiian and tropical themed clothing labels and just a handful of actual manufactures in the USA; you can see how it’s hard to keep track of who makes what.

Your best bet is taking a moment to turn over the label and look. If you can’t find a country of origin then we strongly suggest you take a pass on buying the garment. Secondly give thought to whether or not you will be able to sleep at night knowing that a human being was exploited to offer you a Hawaiian shirt for $14.95

Ok it says made in the USA or Hawaii or San Diego, it must be ok to buy. Not necessarily because while a company may say that it makes something in the USA isn’t always as straight forward as it appears. Case in point, a company named American apparel that on numerous occasions has used workers that are here illegally to manufacture their products, is that what you would call American made? Source

So what do we do now? Be assured that any Hawaiian shirts that carry the Wave Shoppe label are actually made by Wave Shoppe. We do not have any distributers, do not practice re-labeling, nor do we employ any workers or seamstresses that do not have legal residency in San Diego, California or Hawaii. The Wave Shoppe label is also proudly sewn on our muumuu and Hawaiian dresses.

But let it be told that cotton Hawaiian fabrics of any quality are almost exclusively printed overseas with cotton imported from the USA. While we are aware of a couple U.S. based textile printers the quality of the fabric and dyes used is beyond atrocious and at nearly $25 a yard you can hardly justify using it to cover a chair not alone produce apparel. So when you factor in that our branded clothing utilizes cotton from the U.S. and all of the cutting and sewing and distribution are done on American soil with American workers its about as close as you are going to get for being American made Hawaiian clothing.

Clothing label images courtesy of Clothing Labels 4 U

Don’t be Hawaiian shirt ‘less

2010-12-26T16:18:00.000-08:00

Don’t be Hawaiian shirt ‘less, many people wear them, more than a few people collect them, and a few people (in Hawaii and the mainland) consider them cultural artwork. I consider them my shirts of choice. There are multiple forms of Hawaiian shirts, some that came about from rebellion, from hardship, and of course born from meeting a personal need to wear vivid color. Some are even worn as island symbolism while shooting at bad guys in other countries. Run Forest run!

When the Hawaiian shirt was first being born in the late 1920’s/early 1930’s, the beachwear of the day was white. White pants, white hat, white shirt, white shoes. Before that evolution occurred and probably the beginning of the origins of the Hawaiian shirt, the shirts were mostly worn by vast numbers of Hawaiian field laborers from China and Japan. The early plantation workers shirts were often made from checkered designs (a woven checkered pattern of dark blue and off white like their summer kata’s were made of back home) at times called palaka shirts. But many very early field shirts were just bits and pieces made from parts of other garments. What mattered most was that they kept the hot sun off the workers backs.

You could keep them clean by washing them in a lake or a bucket of water by hand, and then letting them simply air dry on the branch of a tree, regardless of how you washed them they would keep you cool in the hot fields. Whatever the benefits, the dull checkered patterns were too much like a uniform for many, but with the introduction of colorful Asian fabrics, Hawaiian shirts of bright patterns and colors were most widely adopted for sales to eager to shop tourists.

Celebrities of the day such as Bing Crosby, Elvis etc. wore them (celebrities were probably the few that could afford to travel to the Hawaiian Islands at that time), and their popularity became more mainstream once their fans saw their favorite celebrities wearing one.

During times of hardship such as World War II and the depression, petroleum based fabrics became scarce. To make ends meet and keep business coming in, some merchants ingeniously used upholstery and curtain fabrics in their shirts and it wasn’t uncommon to see other shirts cut up and recycled into a Hawaiian style cut shirt.

In the late 1960s (after the royal Hawaiian females no longer dominated surfing) when the world was in the grip of the first surfing craze, the beach boys and other gnarly surfer dudes wore their shirts in the salt and sun so much the shirts would be sun faded and have a natural washed out look. This was a badge of honor among some male surfers (go figure), and as you can guess some of the entrepreneurial island shirt makers emulated it by making shirts with the patterns inside out! God even wears one!

Christmas is right around the corner so...

2010-12-07T11:28:00.000-08:00

Christmas is right around the corner so let’s not forget to buy an aloha gift for each of your family members and closest friends. Equally important is that you make a conscious effort to show support for your local merchants, as well as taking a moment to see where the product is made. America is a great county and purchasing products made in the USA will insure that it stays that way for generations to come.

Those words of wisdom also apply to Hawaiian shirts and women’s apparel as well, Wave Shoppe’s clothing lines are made right here in San Diego and Hawaii from the finest materials and with the upmost of craftsmanship. We have maintained a loyal customer base since 2004 which serves testament to the quality of Wave Shoppe apparel.

If your gifting a man for we would obviously suggest Hawaiian shirts for men but if the Christmas gift is for a women you have a lot more choices to make. Women’s Hawaiian shirts are popular, even in the winter, but we would have to say that hands down a new muumuu would bring tears of joy to any female recipient that longs for Hawaii.

Mele Kalikimaka me ka Hau'oli Makahiki Hou - Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from all of us at Wave Shoppe!

Wave Shoppe - 15% Off Sale - Coupon Code: NOEL

2010-11-24T16:05:00.000-08:00

Wave Shoppe is the place to shop if you’re looking to save money on Hawaiian shirts and apparel this holiday season. We offer a great selection of popular designs in sizing that will actually fit you.

Take advantage of free Priority Mail Shipping with any $75 purchase and for a limited time if you use coupon code NOEL during checkout you will also receive 15% off your entire order!

Shopping for aloha in southern California? Swing by and visit our showroom, here are the directions to the store, we would love to meet you in person! Childrens clothes available in-store

From all of us at Wave Shoppe, mahalo and have a wonderfull Christmas.

Hawaiian Celebration of Life (Behind the scenes)

2010-11-22T11:06:00.000-08:00

For months now I have been contemplating writing about a side of our business that some may consider being dark, nonetheless it’s a story that I think needs to be told. When you hear the word “celebration of life” I guess it can have multiple meanings such as a birth, but more often it has something to do with paying respect to a deceased one.

While I don’t work in our retail showroom very often, I am told that quite often people will come into the store looking for what they call celebration of life Hawaiian apparel. And I have to say that some of the stories are often heart wrenching. I hear of many ladies coming into the store, selecting apparel and then making a somber trek to the dressing room whereas they commence to having a full blown melt down grieving over the loss of their loved one.

While we pride ourselves in customer service, I don’t think in these situations that you can do much more than acknowledge their loss and maybe try to console them a bit. Even when they exit the changing room, the clerk eventually ask if they are ok, or if they need help, or a glass of water, but they always respond with a “thanks I am ok”.

But that changes when they make it to the checkout whereas they will tell us about the life of their loved one and their passion for Hawaiian culture and apparel. Many times the purchase was made because the husband always wished his wife would wear something Hawaiian (something to think about now?), clearly a gesture of sharing his passion for Hawaii. I would venture a guess that most of the ladies will buy a muumuu or choose from one of the many long tank dresses. I also wanted to note that while there are some men involved, it appears that women are more prominent in this particular situation.

Beginning in 2004 our business was online only and for many years it stayed that way, but a little over a year ago we took it to the streets and opened our 1st Hawaiian apparel store in Southern California. I think without the store we really wouldn’t be able to tell you this story. But as I write this I wonder if my loved ones and I will ever be subjected to some sort of personal celebration of life ritual and what on earth would that be? Will everyone dress like Mr Freeze to celebrate my lack of emotion? Serve food with bitter seasoning? Or will they celebrate by giving my money to charity (money that I seemingly cant afford to give away now), or will it be something I have never seen in myself?

So now I have myself wondering if I am living my "celebration of life in the present", I love the Hawaiian culture, especially my brightly colored aloha shirts. But when you consider that no matter where I am standing, I am always wishing I was somewhere else, so can that really be possible?

I guess time will tell, but quite honestly I doubt I would have much input at that point anyhow. As I wrap up this post I would like to share a video with you that features local Hawaiian artist Israel "IZ" Kaanoi Kamakawiwoole. I feel this video (linked below) is the epitome for a celebration of life, there is something about the end of the video that cannot be put to words. We miss you IZ!

Video: Somewhere over the Rainbow

Mahalo

Reflection of Aloha

2010-10-06T10:12:00.000-07:00

Last weekend me and my wife had an opportunity to spend the day with our extended ohana and I have to say that I had a marvelous time. Normally I find that most parties I attend are for the most part pretty boring, but this weekend made me feel sort of blessed to be in the company of such wonderful people. Its amazing how Aloha unfolds and when you least expect it to.

We had a guest (shown above) that attended named Ipo Kahaialii and she so gracefully volunteered to entertain with Hawaiian story and song, she was captivating to say the least. Mahalo Ipo

Of course you can not have the ohana gathered together without having food, the party was a pot-luck so we got to eat grinds of all authenticity, with huli huli chicken being one of the main courses, prepared by chef Don of course!

And you have to love the aloha spirit of the girls who normally dance for Tipanie O Patitifa, they have a passion for Hawaiian culture and dance that is unsurpassed, fire up the ukuleles and its on folks.

Of course not only people get in on the action, our pets are also ohana. Pictured above is "little bit" and Coco the cockatoo whom is a real playa in disguise.

Of course we have to post one of those food shots that everyone loathes. George came late to the party citing work, though I think he got stuck in a tanning booth, so the backyard paparazzi snapped a picture of Don serenading George during dinner. We love you George, really bruddah.

Me Ka Pumehana A Me Ka Oiloli Kealoha

Quintinn Holi also attended and shared some wonderful Hawaiian stories as well, but I think I will save some of that for another post. Not to risk repeating myself but it was a simply wonderful day and a rare occasion to actually relax and not discuss work at all. Speaking of work, the holiday season is already upon us and I need to focus on getting our Hawaiian Aloha shirts inventory up to speed, so my Blog posts are going to be sporadic at best.

Sign up for our email notifications with the form, which is to your left, and be amongst the first to see some of the new designs and products that we will be striving to release in time for Christmas.

God bless and Mahalo!

Tipanie O Patitifa's New Aloha Shirts

2010-08-24T16:59:00.000-07:00

Above is a picture of the Tipanie O Patitifa musicians in their brand spanking new Maui Hawaiian shirts from Wave Shoppe. And once Quintinn wanders by to get his Aloha shirt, the entire group will then have matching shirts! I must tell you that the guys looked really sharp during the last hula performance.

We have been super busy so I am going to keep this post short and end things here. Oh I almost forgot, we posted some pictures of Tipanie O Patitifa performing at the storefront. Mahalo and enjoy the pictures.

Look at what's new at Wave Shoppe Hawaiian Shirts

2010-08-06T15:45:00.000-07:00

Aloha to all our customers and ohana, we hope you are having a marvelous summer and eating loads of good grinds. This is the time of year that we are doing all we can do to keep up with orders for our lines of Hawaiian apparel, especially our line of Hawaiian shirts for men, which are made in the USA with the finest materials and craftsmanship available.

And then we have our Hawaiian store in San Diego, which carries the largest selection of Hawaiian apparel this side of the Hawaiian Islands. When you see all that’s behind this operation you cant help but wonder how we manage to keep it all together, we ask ourselves the same thing at times.

But the show must go on, including producing new and exciting designs. Without further ado we would like to offer you a preview of things to come.

First in the lineup is a design we call Maui Hawaiian shirts. This uniquely colored shirt has a black background with goldenrod colored plumeria and mango hibiscus flowers that really make the shirt pop.

While these mens shirts are not yet ready for distribution, but you may pre-order this shirt today from the Website.

We expect sewing to be completed by 8/18/2010 or sooner.

Next up is a beautiful Polynesian block print that we call Hilo Bay Hawaiian shirts which is a blend of Hawaiian nostalgia and Polynesian culture. Hmmm could that be a Tiki statue integrated into the design?

As with the Maui shirts, these mens shirts are not yet ready for distribution, but you may pre-order this shirt today from the Website.

We expect sewing to be completed by 8/18/2010 or sooner.

Well that’s it for now, keep an eye out for more exciting designs that will be released in the upcoming months. We are also near the end of our journey with an all new apparel design that will put this line far ahead of the pack. Pre-production garments will be distributed to our focus groups in the upcoming weeks, stay tuned!

Mahalo from the fine folks at Wave Shoppe Hawaiian Shirts

You don’t want to miss this FREE entertainment event

2010-08-05T11:05:00.000-07:00

You don’t want to miss this FREE event. On August 14th 2010 San Diego gets a dose of ukuleles followed by a spectacular Hawaiian / Polynesian show that free to the public. There is plenty of free parking off Kalmia Street, but seating is limited so we recommend that you bring your portable chairs so you are ensured seating. This is a family friendly show, cameras and video welcome!

Click for Directions to Kalmia St

Mahalo, see you at the show!

Top 5 Things I Spill On My Hawaiian Shirts

2010-05-26T15:43:00.000-07:00

We have all been there, your eating something and not paying attention and bam, its all over the front of your shirt. The beauty in spilling things on your Hawaiian shirts is that they tend to act as a sort of “camouflage” for the alien substance now intertwined and seemingly married to the front of your shirt.

I wont go as far as saying that I have a 5 second rule if the spill looks like it is salvageable, but I will list the top 5 things I frequently spill down the front of my Hawaiian shirts.

1. 711 Slurpee’s Why just the other day I was walking out to the patio and I was stricken with a with a major slurpee throat freeze, at the same time my flip-flop caught the lip of one of the paving stones. I somehow managed to squeeze the cup just hard enough to cause the lid to pop off at the exact time I was trying to regain my footing. Nothing like dumping 64 ounces of colored slush down the front of your shirt! (My dogs were happy)

2. McDonalds egg mcmuffin’s. McDonalds is my first pick when I am starving to death and in my car, there is one conveniently placed between my house and the Wave Shoppe Store. Normally their egg mcmuffins are pretty easy to eat, but every once in a while they throw in a few that are juicier than others, and you can guess what happens next.

3. Chocolate fudge ice cream. I am mot sure what it is about me and ice cream, but when I am eating it I become oblivious to everything around me. And that includes when its dripping off the spoon onto my shirt

4. Taco Hell. By far one of the most gut wrenching menus on the planet. Nothing like a hibiscus flower Hawaiian shirt with dollop of sour cream and a river of taco grease running through it.

5. Anything with BBQ sauce on it. My main downfall is smoked baby back ribs dripping with sauce, enough said.

Food stained shirts may be the international symbol for a satisfied man, but I am sure glad that I have a nearly endless supply of Hawaiian shirts for men. You never know when you are going to have a long string of those bad shirt days.

Its Aloha Summer, Party Luau Style

2010-05-26T09:30:00.000-07:00

What is there not to like about an Aloha summer? It’s certainly our favorite season because there is a myriad of outdoor activities to do with our family and friends (we party Luau style), not to mention weather that’s tailor made for the wearing of your favorite Aloha wear. Hawaiian shirts come in so many Hawaiian designs and products that it’s almost impossible to list all of them (I tried). There is a company we would like to recomend for all your party needs, the store is named Luau Shirts and you can find Ky's Hawaiian shirts as well as some unique Luau decorations and Luau party supplies that will trim out just about any Luau.

Hawaiian Aloha Shirt CLEARANCE SALE PHOTOS - MATCHING Cotton FAMILY Hawaiian Aloha OUTFITS MEN'S Paradise Found Tropical HAWAIIAN ALOHA SHIRT MEN'S R. J. CLANCEY - Kalaheo Label Tropical HAWAIIAN ALOHA Shirt - MEN'S R. J. CLANCEY Tropical HAWAIIAN ALOHA SHIRT - WOMEN'S T-SHIRTS WOMEN'S Paradise Found HAWAIIAN ALOHA Blouses and Tank Tops WOMEN'S HAWAIIAN ALOHA Camp SHIRTS HAWAIIAN ALOHA Cropped - CAPRI PANTS / PAJAMA BOTTOMS HAWAIIAN ALOHA fitted, princess seam tailored fit, A-line, cocktail sundresses, spaghetti straps, mini, slip dresses HAWAIIAN Aloha SHORT TANK DRESSES QUEEN Large Sizes, Plus Sizes - 1X, 2X, 3X and 4X Petal Sleeve MU'U MU'U dresses, Short Long Tank, Halter, Sarong and Sun Dresses Paradise Found Hawaiian Aloha Long Tank Dresses Boys - Infants, Toddlers, Small Young Boys Hawaiian Aloha Cabana Sets and Shirts Boys - Infants, Toddlers, Small & Young Boys Surf Shorts Girls - Infants, Toddlers, Small Young Girl's Hawaiian Aloha Cabana Sets and Dresses Paradise Found HAWAIIAN ALOHA SARONG DRESSES Paradise Found HAWAIIAN ALOHA SARONGS SARONGS, Pareo, Men's Women's Lava-Lava BEACH WRAPS, INDONESIAN TAHITIAN STYLES Men's Imported Silk Shirts, Men's Cuban - Mexican Shirts, Embroidered, Bowling - Tiki, Paddles, Canoe, 1950'S Retro Shirts, Cotton Panel Shirts and Kamehameha Vintage HAWAIIAN ALOHA Shirts MEN'S HAWAIIAN SANDALS Slippahs Old Maui Rugged Shark Boat, Deck Work Shoes WOMEN'S Old Maui Brand SANDALS, Flip-Flops, Slippas BEACH TOTE BAGS MAUI RUGGED SHARK Men's SHOES MAUI CHILI RECIPE HAWAIIAN ALOHA 100% COTTON SHIRTS MAUI, Hawaii IMAGES -Vintage Hawaiian Aloha Men's SHIRT and Women's styles of Paradise Found prints MUSEUM Choppers, Motorcycles, (GM) GENERAL MOTORS, Corvettes, Camaros, Chevrolets, Cadillacs, Hot Rods & Drag Racers. BOEING AVIATION, Helicopters, Airplanes, Men's Hawaiian Aloha SHIRT POLO PULLOVER MEN'S HAWAIIAN SHIRT HAWAIIAN ALOHA SHIRT HISTORY Hawaiiana, Orchids BOOKS MAP STORE Men's, Women's, Boy's and Girl's PINK FLAMINGO Hawaiian Aloha APPAREL HAWAIIAN Apparel CARE CLEANING PURCHASE Paradise Found or R. J. Clancey - Kalaheo Label HAWAIIAN Aloha shirt FABRIC HAWAIIAN MUSIC Hawaiian Aloha T-Shirts, Sweatshirts and Hawaiian Tank Tops HANA HOTTIES HOT SAUCE Paradise Found SHORT TANK DRESSES - CAP SLEEVES HAWAIIAN Aloha Maui WEDDING APPAREL for Boy's, Girl's, Women Men - White on White Shirts Dresses Merry CHRISTMAS Santa SHIRTS MARTINI, BEER, Tropical Drinks - Beverage Hawaiian Aloha Shirts Dresses.

Happy Aloha Friday

2010-04-30T09:24:00.000-07:00

Happy Aloha Friday everyone! Yep, Aloha Friday is my favorite day of the week, and a perfect excuse for all lovers of Hawaiian shirts to sport their favorite aloha wear for at least one day of the week. At the time of writing this I am thinking that I should be working on getting new products online, helping out at the San Diego Showroom, getting ready for the Friday night cruising Grand event (a 400+ classic car show where most participants wear car shirts that represent their automobiles), finalizing plans for the upcoming May 10th hula show etc. but to be honest I am just plain lazy today.

Maybe my laziness is attributed to the warm sunny weather and lack of supervision, I just don’t know and I really don’t care because its Aloha Friday. But then does anyone actually get much accomplished on Fridays?

Mahalo and happy Aloha Friday!

Scraps of Compassion

2010-03-09T13:54:00.000-08:00

Some time ago Charles and I were asked if we could donate some scraps of material to a group called Scraps and Prayers, they are a quilting group from Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Encinitas. We have always stuck those scraps in a tub or in the trash, never thinking that someone could use them to do good for others. Wave Shoppe Hawaiian Shirts believes in contributing to various charities and while we do a lot for others we can’t give every time we are asked so finding a way to get rid of our scraps and possibly do good was very exciting to us. We immediately jumped on board with this as well as asked our cutter to start saving our scraps and before you know it we had a really good size donation to give them. We had no idea how useful those scraps would turn out to be. Plus what could be better than going green for charity.

Several months later we were at our new store in Escondido when 3 of the ladies came to see us. They wanted to show us what they had been able to accomplish with our scraps and to say we were floored wouldn’t be an exaggeration. Those scraps of fabric were being put to great use. One of the things they did was to use the scraps to make quilts for the Wounded Warrior Battalion at Camp Pendleton. When a warrior comes there to recover they get a comfortable, colorful quilt to snuggle in and keep. I just know they must appreciate the fact that someone cared enough about them and the sacrifices they make to our country to make a quilt for them. The quilts are 60x80, cheerful and warm and fit their beds. Pictured above is just one of the surfboard quilts that will be given to a soldier.

They also used some of our fine prints to make quilts for those in their congregation who turn 100 years old imagine the glee of someone who reaches 100 years old and to celebrate that with their very own quilt is just wonderful.

They make Prayer Quits for members who are gravely ill and the thought that some of those scraps of material would be used to make a quilt that brings comfort to someone very ill gives us a very humbling feeling.

The ladies also brought us a hand made quilt which we will always value, but truth be told while we appreciate the gift just knowing what uses they had put those scraps to were enough to absolutely make our day. We believe that the quilt we are holding depicts every design and color we have ever donated to the scraps for prayers project.

Now when I mention sending Aloha around the world, they have certainly covered that too. Several quilts were made for the earthquake victims in Haiti and Chile. The thought that somewhere across the world a quilt is covering a child or adult who has lost everything they own and is suffering makes us feel all warm and fuzzy. It just goes to show what a huge difference a little bit of scraps can do when you have a group of good-hearted people doing positive things to help others.

Mahalo to the Bethlehem Lutheran Church Scraps & Prayers Group, we here at Wave Shoppe Hawaiian Shirts appreciate what you do for others in a big – big way!

If you have a comment, or your own story about going green for charity that you would like to share, please leave a comment and we will approve it. On-topic links within your comments are acceptable.

Summer Party Checklist, The

2010-03-08T14:31:00.000-08:00

Summer is not that far off and honestly it can’t get here soon enough. I am the kind of guy who takes great pride in being overly prepared for just about anything life can throw at me. Especially when it comes to industrial strength parties or hula shows.

But recently it has become clear that I really am not as prepared as I could be. Why just the other day I went to heat up the grill and it would not light, its out of gas, no problem I said, I will just go grab the spare propane tank out of the shed. Now do you think there was propane in that tank? Hell no there wasn’t, apparently I was already using the “spare” tank and its empty too. Ever have that happen to you?

You can call me lazy, overworked, or whatever, but the real lesson here is that I need to start working on some sort of summer checklist. Now I must tell you right away that my summer checklist doesn’t remotely resemble the one my wife maintains for me. No sir, my wife's checklist is never ending and so long that it will most likely have to be transferred to some other sucker when I die. My summer checklist is all about partying, so I only care that the freezer is full of meats, grill is clean, gas is in the tanks, coolers are washed out, lawn chairs are dusted off etc. you get the picture.

But I admit that there are times when I am throwing a party and am not quite sure how to do something, and out of fear I dont want to ask my wife, luckily we have the Internet. But hopefully you are not too much of a slacker and you are a bit more prepared for summer, unlike myself. Speaking of prepared, we have even wrote a few articles about some of the common obstacles ourselves and guests have run into during the summer months and would like to share them with you. Below are some articles that you may enjoy, and in no particular order.

How to wear a Hawaiian shirt - Believe it or not most men don’t know how to dress for success, the Aloha way. Learn how us slackers master that.

What to wear in Hawaii - Its bad enough that some people don’t know how to dress on the islands, worse is that they go out in public like that.

Graduation Leis - Say what? Yes, it’s now a tradition, so get reading so you can keep up with the Joneses.

How to dress for a Luau - Whether you got a luau invitation in the mail or you are throwing one yourself, this is a must read.

How to decorate for a Luau - Lets assume no one in their right mind is going to invite you to a luau, and you now have no choice but to host your own. This is a real luau party story, wrote by a real person (it all ends well).

What Shrinks Clothes - An Urban Legend Dispelled

2010-01-22T15:17:00.000-08:00

I have been meaning to write about one of our industries most misunderstood phenomena, which is what actually causes fabric to shrink, in particular cotton fabric and select rayons.

Now during my lifetime I have seen people show pictures of unwashed fabric and shirts compared against washed and dried articles, read statements proclaiming that its caused by dryer heat, and even someone trying to back up that dryer statement by saying that the appliance repairman told them so. But all those proclamations really fall short of answering the question.

While you may have indeed noticed that your cotton fabrics encountered shrinkage, you still really don’t know why. Did washing, drying or a combination of both cause it? Were there forces unknown to our civilization that caused it? A Government conspiracy maybe?

Here is what really caused you garment to shrink when you washed it, its called cellulose. Cellulose is primarily obtained from wood pulp and cotton and converted to textiles as well as other household materials that utilize converted cellulose. Yes its true, the wonderful solubility of cellulose in water is also what causes the shrinkage and wrinkling in your clothing when you launder them, machine washing and drying just makes the ill effects of shrinkage more noticeable.

Not convinced yet? The cotton actually draws in water so effectively that the cotton fibers swell way beyond proportion when wet and this swelling reshapes the garment. Hot drying simply chases the water out of the fibers at an accelerated rate and when you are drying the garment, the water and the cellulose molecules tend to compress the fibers as they dry. Obviously the clothes shrink and wrinkle in the process.

Another myth is that pre-washing prevents shrinkage. No it does not, while pre-washing is performed before a garment is sewn so to minimize shrinkage of the completed garment, it in no way prevents the sewn garment from further shrinking when its washed and dried. I would also like to add that there is no such thing as pre-shrinking, if it’s made from cotton it will continue to shrink until the cellulose deteriorates.

So now that you know what definitively causes fabric to shrink, you are probably wondering what you can do to prevent or minimize shrinkage. Well for starters you could take everything to a drycleaner, but that’s not cost effective for the masses. Our recommendation is to start out with good garments made from higher quality fabrics such as what’s used in our brand of Hawaiian shirts. Our Hawaiian apparel is constructed from cotton poplin fabric which has a higher thread count than most cotton fabrics; the high density minimizes the effects of water interacting with cellulose and minimizes shrinkage.

Hand washing and air-drying is sometimes suggested, but you have to remember that you are still introducing water to cellulose, thus the shrinkage is still occurring and just at a slower rate.

If you enjoyed this article please tell your friends. You may also be interested in how we design Hawaiian print fabrics.

Mahalo and have a wonderfull day!

Annoying Sales Strategies

2010-01-07T12:41:00.000-08:00

Like many people who do a great percentage of their shopping on the Web, I would like to consider myself to be a fairly savvy web shopper. But there are some tactics and strategies used by web stores, as well as brick and mortar stores, which are simply bewildering.

At the top of my list are stores that proclaim that “everything is on sale, everyday” and all I can think is that they have no idea how to properly price their products. So what that tells me is that they don’t know or care about sustainable pricing, dont care if they are cheapening their brand forever and that the value of the product is most likely way less than you or I ever care to know. In the end you get what you pay for.

And then there are the web stores that slash through the so-called regular price and show a so-called sale price. E.g. Regular price ~~$99.99~~ Sale price $35.00 While I can envision seeing that format used in a clearance or discount section, its pure silliness to do it to every single product offered AND to add more nausea to it, many will do it sitewide 365 days a year.

That strategy also prevents you from looking at any of their other pages and finding the regular price point (which is probably the sale price), but I assure you that you will never see that product sold for the slashed price anywhere, at any time. Folks, some simple Google's for comparison-shopping will often disclose that the so-called sale price is near (and shockingly sometimes above) their competitors regular pricing. Do stores really think that consumers are that inexperienced and gullible?

Finally we have one of the oldest, yet most backwoods tactic of them all, the “Sale, Store Closing” signage. There was a jewelry store next to ours that used that exact signage for over 6 years running! All I can say is that it was one of the most hideous operations that I have seen in a long, long, time, adding that the entire town most likely rejoiced when they finally lost their lease.

If you’re a consumer reading this we suggest that you shop around and compare, but make sure that you do not sacrifice lasting quality just to save a few pennies now. If you’re a business and you fall into any of those categories above, we would like to suggest that you use Google to find some informational sites which may help you with correcting your misguided course.

Mele Kalikimaka A.K.A. We Have Cookies & Aloha

2009-12-24T12:46:00.000-08:00

Aloha and Mele Kalikimaka! I was thinking what I would Blog about for my last post of the year, part of me feels I should tell you where to get a great Hawaiian shirt and the other part says to focus on fond memories of the past year. Given the fact that many wonderful things happen on a weekly basis and that I really don’t have time to write a book, I figure that I will close out the year with a short story about a new customer.

As many of you know we go out of our way to accommodate our customers needs, a few weeks back this lady came into the store and requested that we make her some 7X muumuus. Now normally that wouldn’t be a problem except for the Christmas holiday is right around the corner and sewing had already received their Christmas bonuses and for the most part have vanished for the year.

My wife was working the San Diego store that day and was well aware of the situation. But that wasn’t going to derail this customer, for moments after she was told there was no sewing she spoke those magic words that would open the gate to heaven, “I will bake him Christmas cookies”. That night I was told that I needed to make it happen or else (why me). Long story made short I managed to track down our main seamstress. While she laughed out loud at my lack of resistance for cookies she agreed to bail me out.

So a few days before Christmas she got the call that her order was ready, and in almost a blink of an eye she appeared with my plate of cookies (pictured above). So I must admit that whatever resentment I may have had for having to work so close to the holiday was instantly erased. So now that I am 3 pounds heavier than yesterday, I think that this is where I say mahalo prepare to jump ship for the rest of the year.

From all of us at Wave Shoppe Hawaiian Shirts, we wish you the best Christmas and New Years ever!

Mahalo and Mele Kalikimaka

Polynesian Holiday Entertainment San Diego - Lets Hula!

2009-12-03T10:39:00.000-08:00

Its always challenging to get in the mood for the Christmas holidays, more so when you live in a warm climate and never get to see snow. To help everyone get in the proper mood we are compelled to produce a holiday hula performance on December 12th 2009.

This is a very authentic show that will be performed by the incredible Pipanie O Patitisa Hawaiian Dancers followed by an authentic Samoan Fire Knife Dance! Live music by recording artist Quintinn Holi.

If you attended the August performance you will know that this is a seriously good show. Where else in San Diego can you find Polynesian holiday entertainment that’s not only family friendly, but free as well.

The show starts at 5:30pm and runs to 6:30pm or later and you certainly don’t want to miss the fire knife dancers. Grab your lawn chairs and come on out for a spectacular holiday show, Polynesian style. We do want to add that while many December nights are warm there are instance where it gets cooler so you may want to bring along a sweater or jacket. Of course we have a lot of nice Hawaiian shirts for men online, as well as womens apparel such as mid length and long muumuu and childrens clothing in-store. We also have big sizes for men and women.

The hula show will be held in the large parking lot that is adjacent to the front of our showroom (which is in North San Diego County) and it’s really easy to get to. There is street parking as well as many public parking lots that are adjacent to our showroom. Below is a Google map that you can use for acquiring directions.

View Larger Map

15% off Coupon for In-Store and Online Purchases

2009-11-27T11:15:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from the Wave Shoppe!

To print this 15% off coupon for in-store purchases, simply click your browsers printer icon.

Redeem right now with coupon code: ALOHA09

(Coupon valid until 12-31-2009 and my not be combined with any other discount coupons, past purchases, or wholesale orders.)

Plus Get FREE Priority Shipping on Any Online Order Over $75
(Shipping is automatically adjusted at checkout and no coupon code is needed)

Top Rated Hawaiian Shirts for Men

2009-11-10T11:50:00.000-08:00

We have great news for all of the men that cherish Aloha wear, sales and inquiries for hawaiian shirts for men have exploded in the past weeks. Hallelujah, thats the kind of news men want to hear!

That can only mean that there is going to be a lot of Hawaiian shirt gifting for the men that have worked so hard this year. Some have asked why they should choose Hawaiian shirts for mens Christmas gifts and we always say that there is nothing quite like a loose comfortable fitting shirt that brings a bit of tropical flair into our often thankless male lives.

We too want to reward all of the men that wear Hawaiian shirts by pointing out that you can check our promotions page where you can find the latest coupon codes and access to special offers.

Mahalo everyone and may you and your families have a simply wonderful and safe holiday season!

Do It Yourself Luau Do’s and Don’ts

2009-09-17T13:02:00.000-07:00

Do It Yourself Luau Do’s and Don’ts

Well it finally happened. The other day a middle age couple came into our store to purchase some luau party supplies stating they were going to a family orientated traditional Luau. To our dismay they headed right over to the coconut bras and rainbow hula skirts and started filling their shopping basket with items that are usually worn at a Luau hosted by a wild college fraternity such as Alpha Luau Muumuu.
And as it always happens… I looked over at my wife and received one of those “be nice and go over and help them” looks.

So I moseyed over to the couple and offered them some helpful suggestions on how to dress for a Luau, as well as steered them in the party supply section that they needed to be in. If I could read minds I would say that the gentleman that was with the lady was thanking me a thousand times over.

But my day gets even more bizarre with the very next customer. A very nice lady came in and said that she is taking over decorating for her friend, whom had planned an upcoming Luau. So I asked that fateful question, “why are you taking over?” Her response? She said that the lady passed away and that no one had cancelled the party.

I spied a pink pig centerpiece in her basket and said to myself, here we go again, I am going to have to teach her how to decorate for a Luau and be convincing at that.

So that’s how it is for those retailers that live the life of aloha, but I must admit that was happy that I could offer some Luau salvation to a few brave soles.

Mahalo

Elvis Has Left the Shoppe

2009-09-12T11:49:00.000-07:00

As part of yet another free concert held at our North County showroom we were proud to host San Diego’s finest Elvis Presley Tribute band, called Graceland.

In case you didn’t make it the show… all we can say is that Elvis totaly rocked Wave Shoppe Hawaiian Shirts.

Songs played were as follows:

(Set 1) All Shook Up, American Trilogy, Blue Christmas, Blueberry Hill, Burning Love, Can't help Falling in Love, Don't Be Cruel, Fever, Get Back, Guitar Man, Heartbreak Hotel, Hound Dog, I Can’t Stop Loving You, I Don’t Have A Wooden Heart, I Got a Woman,In The Ghetto, Jailhouse Rock.

(Set 2) Johnny B. Goode, Little Less Conversation, Little Sister, Love Me, Love Me Tender, My Way, Mystery Train, Patch it Up, Polk Salad Annie, Promised Land, Proud Mary, See See Rider, Suspicious Minds, Teddy Bear, That's All Right Mama, Trying to Get To You, Viva Las Vegas, Walk A Mile In My Shoes, You Gave Me A Mountain

The Elvis show ran a full 2 1/2 hours and went well into the evening. As you can see from the picture below, darkness was not a deterrent for the crowd.

I still recall watching the real Elvis Presley when I was a child and I still love listening to his wonderful musical arrangements. Without a doubt my favorite Elvis tune is Suspicious Minds.

But this wasn’t just another beautiful day in Aloha Land, it was also 9/11 and there was no way that we were not going to pay tribute to all of the people that lost their lives that tragic day.

The band felt it was fitting to do something special so they sang Elvis’s rendition of America the Beautiful, written by Katherine Lee Bates. Elvis recorded this version on December 13, 1975 at the Las Vegas Hilton. Elvis has left the shoppe, mahalo!

Escondido, California gets a dose of Hawaiian Tahitian Dancing

2009-08-23T19:56:00.000-07:00

Aloha, towards the end of each year we try to do something momentous and this year is no exception. It became clear to us last year that our business is growing faster and larger than the current facilities can handle, which includes the additional 950 square feet we added onto our shipping operation. So the decision we made was to add even more square footage and open a retail showroom to showcase our Hawaiian wear.

While the business has already come out of the gate at a very fast pace, we thought that we would kick things up a notch by hosting a free Hula show. Also keep in mind that our showroom is located in the historic shopping district of Escondido, California. We sponsor a hula group out of Palomar College; Directed by Patriceann Mead, and in my own words, this Hula show was simply out of this world.

It was not long after we set up the speaker system that there was a run on Hawaiian shirts for men (even though leis and flower hairclips were also selling at a brisk pace).

The crowd of people soon started to gather in front of the storefront and it wasn’t long before the street was completely filled with onlookers and shopkeepers from some of the local businesses.

I mean there are not many men that can pass up watching beautiful Polynesian girls shaking their booty in public.

Im my opinion I had the best seat in the house, which was dead center of the stage.

But if you look at the picture of the fire knife dancer below, it appears that even Peggy (standing in the doorway) found a moment to enjoy the show while working in the store.

So you think this was a hula performance geared for men? No way dudes, we covered all the bases.

While this show was family friendly, we still managed to take care of the ladies fantasies with a fire knife dancer.

I wont name names but I recieved feedback from more than a few ladies that said they wouldnt mind helping with "putting his fire out" if you know what I mean.

While we took a few hundred pictures of the Hula show, it certainly isn’t feasible to post all of the hula girl pictures in a single blog post, so we hope you enjoyed the ones we have selected for you.

Mahalo!

Designing Hawaiian Print Fabrics

2009-07-05T16:07:00.000-07:00

Aloha, customers frequently ask me how we come up with the designs for the Hawaiian fabrics that we use to make our Wave Shoppe line of Hawaiian shirts.

A ways back I took a stab at it with a post titled Hawaiian Shirts, from Conception to the Consumer, but after giving it more thought I didnt really start at square one. So lets start with the picture of me eating pineapple ice cream (hey, I am at Dole).

While I look innocent enough with my ice cream and all, the reality is that I am thinking how cool this pineapple garden would look on a fabric. On one hand it's easy, on the other, its really challenging.

I eventually took out the digital camera (after I finished my snack) and started shooting some pictures of the garden and all of the different varieties of pineapple and surrounding Colors.

Not long after that the wife wandered over and said "whats the matter, you never seen a pineapple?"

Soon it all set in and she said to me "how much is this one going to cost?" (Did I mention how much I love my wife).

So once I got back to the mainland I sent the artist some of the pictures I took while in Oahu.

All I will say at this point is that I am very blessed to have so much talent on my team.

Pictured on the left is the rough sketch made from my photographs. FYI We will usually spend around 3 to 4 weeks on the sketch alone.

This space left intentualy blank (didnt have any more to write)

Pictured on the left is the completed fabric. So there you have it, an example of how I come up with most of my designs, which is now about 60% of our line.

Our goal is to produce 90% of our own Hawaiian fabrics for shirt production, as well as making it available for sale to the general public.

Mahalo for reading!

Teleporting Hawaiian Shirts

2009-05-05T12:33:00.000-07:00

Manufacturing great Hawaiian shirts is just one component of a successful aloha wear company; the second is exceeding your customers expectations with outstanding customer service.

"I recently bought a shirt that was too big; I returned it and received the appropriate size that I needed. I just wanted to let you know that the turn around was amazing. I bought the shirt to wear at a Jimmy Buffet concert and thought that there would be no way that I would get the new shirt back in time. Thank you for such great service.

Troy"

We go the extra mile for our customers and we guarantee that you will be quite satisfied with your purchase and impressed with the timely delivery. But if for any reason your not satisfied, you could always take advantage of our liberal 30-day return and exchange policy.

P.S. We really cannot teleport Hawaiian shirts, the super fast delivery just makes you feel like we did!

Mahalo everyone!

Famous Women In Hawaiian shirts

2009-04-18T17:22:00.000-07:00

Seldom mentioned are the women of Aloha whom often wear Hawaiian shirts as much as men, so we thought we would offer a brief tribute to the ladies of Aloha. First on our list is Clarissa Haili who was born on October 28, 1901 in Honolulu.

While you may, or may not, recognize her by her given name, or have known Clara as a hula dancer or choir singer, you will most certainly recognize the name Hilo Hattie. Clara legally changed her name to Hilo Hattie back in 1941. Amongst her many namesakes, this revered entertainer is the iconic force behind what’s now the Hilo Hattie brand of retail stores.

Next on our list is legendary songstress Karen Keawehawaii shown on the right sporting a pink floral muumuu.

While we could not find a picture of Karen in a Hawaiian shirt, I would venture a guess that she has one in her wardrobe closet.

Karen is an active Hawaii songbird and also operates a website that features handcrafted PUA Melia, Okika, Lilia, Kiele, and Tiare Flowers. According to the website the plumerias are made of foam.

Ah Quon McElrath, an esteemed union pioneer whom served as the social worker for Local 142 in Hawaii.

Every picture tells a story and this one is proof that Hawaiian shirts for women have been in Aloha style for many years and we feel that they are here to stay.

Around 5pm (PT), Thursday, Dec 11th 2008, Ah Quon McElrath passed away at the age of 92. She will be remembered as an active member of the 50th Anniversary Statehood Commission as well as being a strong voice that represented labor and the working people of the State of Hawai’i. She will be missed by many and as we honor her.

Famous Men in Hawaiian Shirts

2009-04-06T11:22:00.000-07:00

We can’t think of anyone who better personifies men wearing Hawaiian shirts than the king himself, Elvis Presley.

Editors note: Our own research strongly suggests that the red Hawaiian shirt Elvis wore in Blue Hawaii was created by the late Alfred Shaheen.

But we also know that prop masters frequently modified apparel on location, so its possible that the design was a slightly modified version of the original design.

Many famous men have donned Hawaiian shirts for men including the likes of Frank Sinatra, Tom Selleck of Magnum PI fame and why even president Barack Obama has been seen sporting a Hawaiian shirt.

So whether you’re a famous movie star, or a laid back surfer type of guy, be assured that there is a Hawaiian shirt in a design that will match your attitude.

Are you ready to buy? You can get the latest Hawaiian shirts online at the Wave Shoppe Web Store.

Mahalo and have a great summer!

Hawaiian Aloha Summer

2009-03-22T13:10:00.000-07:00

The surf culture and Hawaiian shirts go hand in hand, so make sure you have a good stock of Hawaiian shirts for the summer. Good Hawaiian shirts are usually bright enough to be seen from space.

As an added bonus, if you wear a Hawaiian shirt to the beach you stand a better chance of being found by the Coast Guard (if you are swept out to sea by a rip tide).

Plan on hitting the beach to hang 10 this summer and make sure you have the latest Hawaiian shirts from Wave Shoppe, your friends will be completely stoked by your awesome good looks. Who knows, you may even catch the eye of a beautiful wahine surfer.

Hawaiian Shirts Made with American Aloha

2009-03-20T13:54:00.000-07:00

I started out with the intent of writing about why you should buy American made apparel and using an American flag image. But I decided that I would use the photo on the left because it is more disturbing (and it should be).

Believe it or not, in this day and age there are still many countries engaging in making apparel with child labor as well as operating adult sweat shops. This is usually an inherent property of developing countries such as India, Sri Lanka and Malaysia etc.

But we would guess that if you looked deep enough you would find some examples on the US mainland as well. The Fashion District in Los Angles comes to mind.

Apparel, such as Hawaiian shirts from Wave Shoppe are made in San Diego, California and Honolulu, Hawaii. In contrast, Tommy Bahama merchandise is actually manufactured in the Far East (China), though we are sure that they use labor compliant apparel companies for manufacturing. When you purchase Hawaiian shirts we would suggest that you purchase from a company that offers American made Hawaiian shirts. There is a good chance that the money you spend will be re-spent within our own economy and not used to stimulate some county you don’t live in.

For more information on these labor abuses we recomend visiting the Child Labor Coalition

How you can still buy American? MSN offers some good advice and you can visit sites such as Still Made In USA for listings of companies that offer American made products.

If you know of a great resource site that lists companies that sell American made products, please leave a comment with the URL to the site and there is a good chance that we will approve it.

Hawaiian Shirts, Cool Summer Clothing

2009-03-10T10:40:00.000-07:00

Do you really think this “Hawaiian” look is so last season? Think again! Hawaiian shirts are a great way to make a unique summer fashion statement, especially if you’re going for that classic summer look with a pair of your favorite sunglasses, cargo shorts and and optional sandals. Hawaiian shirts are the perfect outdoor apparel to don for summer events like backyard parties and picnics at your favorite beach; Hawaiian print shirts lend a sort of colorful playfulness to any look and leave a lasting impression with all whom gaze upon you.

Bold, loud Hawaiian prints work best in this style, especially in 5-panel or allover floral print and Hawaiian pineapple shirts, which make for fun beach wear.

Cotton Hawaiian shirts are a good way to keep cool in the hot and frequently muggy summer months, whether at home or on the sands of Hawaii.

Imported polyester and other synthetic materials are an option when choosing material for shirts, but they do not breath well and you may find yourself feeling quite sticky in the summer heat. Cotton Hawaiian shirts are best.

Worn with a silly hat, board shorts, beach sandals (optional) and vintage sunglasses, Hawaiian shirts are an affordable way to stay in style as well as fill out your summer wardrobe. If your local Aloha shirt shop is only carries a limited supply of designs, check out some of the online stores, the patterns and colors are almost limitless and you can get some great on-line deals on this summer’s hottest Hawaiian apparel.

Sewing Hawaiian Shirts

2009-02-24T11:45:00.000-08:00

Sewing Hawaiian Shirts

Ok its now time to talk about sewing Hawaiian shirts and the crown jewels of our business, the seamstresses.

Sewing is one of the most pampered departments in our company, and for good reason.

Allow us to say that we are blessed to have some of the best seamstresses in the apparel industry.

Elaborating that a good seamstress will sew a Hawaiian shirt like she is going to wear it herself and rarely if ever misses a deadline or makes a mistake that effects the quality of product going to the consumer. All of our employees have a say (and authority) in every phase of construction, especially sewing. If sewing takes issue with the cut product, it’s the end of the road for that batch, no questions asked. That’s just one of the many quality control policies we have in effect.

So how do they assemble and sew a Hawaiian shirt? Believe it or not, it’s a visual that requires a lot of skill and hand eye coordination. Of course an industrial sewing machine helps and not to leave out button machines, 4 thread serger and miscellaneous supplies of the trade.

When the cut Hawaiian shirts get to sewing, the seamstress will dismantle the pack and separate the sections. Then the interfacing is pressed on and sewn and placed back in the rotation. The next step is what separates a fine quality Hawaiian shirt from the imports, that being a shirt pocket that is perfectly matched to the pattern and grain. Matching pockets is nothing short of an art, you can either do it or you can not. With some of the ladies having over 25 years of experience in commercial and niche sewing we assure you that ours are of unparallel quality.

Once the pocked has been matched and sewn into the panel the remaining pieces are then assembled and serged where required. Serging builds in a lot of strength in high stress areas like a sleeve opening etc. The final phase is attaching the buttons. We do not use just any button, we use oversize buttons made from genuine coconut shells. While we have seen everything from wood to plastic buttons on many shirts we think you can not beat the old school look that a coconut button adds to the shirt closure. The final leg of the shirts journey is to pressing and a final stop at quality control where each sewn shirt is inspected and then packaged and labeled.

Ok there you have it, the genesis of Wave Shoppe Hawaiian shirts. I closing we would like to mention that we will always cut and sew our shirts in Hawaii and the USA, our shirts have been inspected by some of the top people in the industry and the high quality of construction is always at the top of the list. We are proud to be an American company.

Below are the 3 posts in this series, feel free to link to the posts for reference:

Hawaiian Shirts, from Conception to the Consumer

Patterns and Cutting Hawaiian Shirts

Sewing Hawaiian Shirts

Patterns and Cutting Hawaiian Shirts

2009-02-23T11:49:00.001-08:00

Patterns and Cutting Hawaiian Shirts

This is the second post of the series on Hawaiian shirts which is appropriately called Patterns and Cutting Hawaiian Shirts. Assuming you got past designing and printing your fabric outlined in phase one and have received your new Hawaiian print fabric, its time to take out the cutting saw and cut it all up. So its off to fabric storage to get a few roles of your favorite design and deliver them to the cutting room.

Now while it all sounds easy so far, you are reaching a critical stage in making Hawaiian shirts. This is where the tires meet the pavement and any mistakes can and will completely ruin your new Hawaiian fabric.

So before you do anything more you need to inspect your Hawaiian shirt pattern. At Wave Shoppe Hawaiian Shirts we use commercial grade patterns graded by a professional pattern maker.

These are not the Hawaiian shirt patterns you see in Wal-Mart. Patterns do degrade so you need to make sure that they do not show any signs of damage, as well as makeing sure no pieces are missing.

Make sure you store your patterns in a dry place because the pattern paper will absorb moisture and shrink significantly.

The next step setting up for the cut. Once you have loaded the roll of fabric on the rollers and you have the table prepped it time to lay down the layers. Depending on quantity needed we cut anywhere from 18 to 100 layers at a time. I want to take a moment to give credit where credit is due, and thats to the cutters who have a thankless job. We all agree that sewing makes or breaks a shirt but its our personal opinion that the Hawaiian shirts develop their distinct personalities on the cutting tables.

At the point of setting the patterns and creating the marker, a good fabric cutter in San Diego will take into consideration how the completed piece will look when sewn together. Where you position the pattern piece is crucial to achieving the desired effect in the finished product.

Ok we now have the fabric setup and the marker is completed and weighted and or clamped, looks like we are ready to rock. Depending on the amount of layers you can either use a rotary saw or my personal favorite, a super sharp 8” knife saw. At this point is the men are separated from the boyz. Start following the lines and cut out every required piece, remember that a single mistake like a deep or off marker cut will make the entire layer unusable, were talking total scrap.

When you have completed your cut you tie the size together and move on to the next cut, and you continue to cut until your back starts to hurt, which usually sets in pretty quickly. That basically sums up cutting, we hope you found it informative enough to make the determination that you don’t want to do it yourself. Our next post in the series will be sewing Hawaiian shirts, the final yet most critical phase in making a Hawaiian shirt.

Mahalo!

Hawaiian Shirts, from Conception to the Consumer

2009-02-22T11:46:00.000-08:00

Hawaiian shirts, from conception to the consumer.

Welcome to the first in a series of posts outlining how Hawaiian shirts are made.

While the consumer only sees the completed shirt, there are a lot of processes that must first occur. So lets jump right in with coming up with a design and a brief overview of that process. I am one of those people that map out everything in my head and rarely put anything on paper myself and I place a lot of emphasis on how our customers will perceive the design on the fabric.

Remember that you have maintain your “Aloha identity” while at the same time satisfying your customers needs.

Once I have the overall Hawaiian design in mind, I will contact our Hawaiian design artist and she will start the process of extracting the information. The first renditions for our Hawaiian designs come to us as sketches, once the general concept is nailed down we discuss the repeat and then move on to coloring. Shown on this page is a print that is in its 4th iteration with partial colorizing, but it should be enough to illustrate how its done.

Eventually we make it to the point where we have the design approved and locked and ready to go to the printer. But that’s just one leg of the long journey, while you may have print ready Hawaiian artwork, you are far from having cut ready Hawaiian print fabric. The next step involves what is called strike-offs, whereas the design is sent overseas for screen setup and once those are prepared, the printer will run off about 1 yard of printed fabric, that is what’s referred to as the strike-off. Once that has been ran we will receive digital images for review, if all looks good the strike-off is then sent back to us for approval or rejection.

Due to variations in dye lots you may or may not get the actual colors you originally anticipated, so seeing the physical strike-offs are mandatory. Unfortunately some strike-offs do get rejected and its back to square one. But given the fact that you didn’t print and essentially ruin 3000 yards of Hawaiian fabric, it’s a minor setback.

Ok so now we are 8 to 10 weeks into the process, assuming the colors and repeat are what you were looking for its time to sign off on the strike offs and begin printing. Well you hope they will start right away but that’s not always the case. In many countries you have to deal with things like Chinese New Years whereas the plants shut down for a month and in some instances the local governments will shutdown entire industrial power grids to conserve electricity. Typically the entire process of going from design to printed Hawaiian fabric is about 3 months but you should also be prepared to wait as long as 5 months, and that does not factor in shipping which is usually by sea.

We hope you found this informative and come back to read our next post, where we will be discussing Hawaiian shirt patterns and cutting.

Mahalo,

The crew at Wave Shoppe Hawaiian Shirts

Announcing Shirts for Group Sales

2009-02-02T15:06:00.000-08:00

Were already 1 month into the New Year and that much closer to summer, that means its time to start thinking about Hawaiian parties and Luaus. There are certainly hard economic times ahead for some sectors, but we would like to help you out by offering Hawaiian shirts for group sales at a price that fits even the tightest party budgets.

How does $19.50 per shirt with 8 lively Hawaiian designs to choose from sound?

Right now there is a good supply of shirts available and in stock, but the quantities run low during peak, so we suggest that you plan your group party early. Below are a few sample designs that are available for group sales.

Blue is very popular because it is a color that appeals to men and women.

Red is also a great choice and you cant go wrong with a traditional Hawaiian design.

Charlie Weis in a Hawaiian Shirt

2008-12-27T14:58:00.000-08:00

Its almost the end of the year, a signal for those that sell products that its time to start the daunting task of taking a physical inventory. But first, we want to make a quick post to congratulate the Notre Dame Fighting Irish on their first postseason victory in 15 years. We are not big football fans, but due to the fact that we were the supplier of the Aloha shirts A.K.A Hawaiian shirts for the Notre Dame staff, we made an exception and watched the game.

Above and below are game pictures from the 2008 Hawaii Bowl and some pictures of Charlie Weis, coach of the University of Notre Dame, as well as Greg McMackin, coach of the University of Hawaii.

While it’s my understanding that the Hawaii Bowl is not considered a big time event, I think that this is the way every game should end (as deplicted below).

Men acting like real men, what a concept.

But you cant help but wonder what Charlie Weis was really thinking.

"Look at me brah, I kicked your ass while in crutches”

This is my favorite picture of Charlie Weis. With all of the negative stuff I have read about him on the web he still manages to muster up a big smile.

Charlie and his team deserve that trophy because they simply outplayed UH.

Congradulations Charlie!

Ok, I know you are saying to yourself "where can I get a blue Hawaiian shirt like the one Charlie Weis wore in the Hawaii Bowl?"

Well it just so happens that we have that design in 2 colors, a red, and the now semi famous blue. While you missed our shirt sale that we had in October, you can still pick one of the Mauna Loa shirts from the shirt store.

Hawaii's 50th Anniversary

2008-12-04T11:29:00.000-08:00

Aloha everyone,
We would like to inform everyone that Hawaii is approaching its 50th Anniversary of Statehood. The state was admitted to the Union on August 21, 1959, making it the 50th state.

Read more at: http://hawaii.gov/statehood

Here is a preview of Hawaii's 50th Anniversary Statehood stamp

Prepare early for the celebrations with a new Hawaiian shirt. We can help you save 15% on all purchases from Wave Shoppe! (Hurry, sale ends December 25th)

Use this coupon code at checkout: Holiday

Spooktacular Sale

2008-10-16T17:11:00.001-07:00

Its time to take advantage of spooktacular savings. 3 days only! Save 10% on all purchases.

Use this coupon code at checkout: trickortreat

And you can combine that with...

Free Priority Shipping: All orders over $75 will automatically receive free Priority shipping (USA only). Priority is fast, most orders are delivered in 2 to 3 days!

We also offer Next Day Express shipping to most locations, the cost is reasonable, about ½ of what FedEx would charge.

Brand new Wave Shoppe design. These red Hawaiian shirts have a traditional tapa print with hibiscus flowers on an airbrushed background. 100% Cotton Poplin - Perfectly matched shirt pocket

Priced at just $45.95

View Shirt Details

Brand new Wave Shoppe design. These blue Hawaiian shirts have a traditional tapa print with hibiscus flowers on an airbrushed background. 100% Cotton Poplin - Perfectly matched shirt pocket

Priced at just $45.95

View Shirt Details

This offer of 10% off is valid until 10/19/2008 and does not apply to wholesale orders. Happy shopping!

Have we lost our Aloha identity?

2008-09-05T13:04:00.000-07:00

Normally we just do our own thing, which is making Hawaiian shirts, but having received so much feedback about the "other shirts" from our customers we decided we would write about some of the differences in Hawaiian shirt patterns and construction.

Now it’s not our place to police the Hawaiian shirt industry, but consumers really do need to know that Hawaiian shirts are not created equal.

Lets use some feedback from a first time customer as a talking point.

"Hi. I received the shirts last night. They washed up great, and the fabric is fabulous. Thanks a lot!!

(P.S. these are a million times better -- fabric, cut AND sizing) than the ones I recently ordered from Honolulu which look like "old lady"shirts.
Thanks again!!"

An authentic Hawaiian shirt will have... Continue reading

Tiki Discovered in San Diego

2008-07-09T14:53:00.000-07:00

Luaus were started by King Kamehameha II way back in 1819 and they continue to be the feast of choice for islanders as well as mainlanders.

We want to do our fair share of partying as well as helping you luau well into the night. We are even planning on offering free luau recipes, so you will have no excuses.

While we once thought of offering fire roasted pigs online, we settled on www.luaushirts.com bringing you an array of items that will assist you with putting together your own luau (you just have to get your own pig).

The best recipe for a luau is authenticity and variety. We offer a wide variety of apparel for luaus such as matching Hawaiian shirts and our very own unique brand of Hawaiian t-shirts made with exclusive Hawaiian and Polynesian designs on 6.1 weight 100% Cotton.

And you cannot forget outdoor luau décor and decorations, offering a wide array of bamboo furniture such as sun chairs and bar stools, and of course we even have bamboo bar sets. After all you can never have enough decorations.

Saving the best for last, drinking and eating supplies. We have acquired a nice assortment of mongo sized Tiki mugs that hold lots of your favorite liquor and some really wild stuff like a shrunken head decanter that you can drink out of by yourself or hand out straws and share with friends. Keep an eye on this site as all of the products are in stock, it’s just a matter of getting them added to the store.

Have a wonderful summer and get your luau on whenever possible!

Who Else Wants Reliable Models?

2008-06-02T10:55:00.000-07:00

We certainly do, but we simply gave up on hiring human models for our apparel line. Allow us to introduce Leilani, the official model for Wave Shoppe Hawaiian Shirts.

Fashion model Jennifer Korbin has nothing over our girl. Leilani is always on time, wears anything we ask her to and best of all, she dont talk back.

Yes, she is one reliable red head. Shown in the picture, Leilani is modeling one of our black swimsuit coverups with sequins and embroidery.

Sheer beach apparel is very popular and guaranteed to set you apart from everyone else. Wave Shoppe's sarongs and beachwear are available online.

Sorry, Leilani is not included with your purchases, you will have to find your own sexy mannequin.

Fathers Day Gift Ideas

2008-05-27T10:26:00.000-07:00

Fathers Day is Sunday, June 15th 2008

Aloha folks,
I usually don’t get many gifts, but when I do get gifted... just let me tell you that I value the gift more than having gas left in the car after Peggy has drove it. Having said that, you have plenty of time to order and the recipient will be most appreciative.

While its officially referred to as Fathers Day, its also Guys Day, so check out my personal recommendations below. Save on Gas and buy on-line.

We will pay your shipping. All orders over $75 receive free Priority shipping (USA only). Don't forget that we offer free gift wrapping (just tell us you need your order gift wrapped).

These scenic Hawaiian shirts with Hot Rods are a new addition to our automotive themed shirts.

This design is exclusive to our store and guaranteed to please.

Priced at just $45.00

View Hot Rod Shirts

Honolulu locals give this design a big thumbs up. Very old school and about as authentic as you can get, the airbrushed look and chocolate color is very tasteful.

Priced at just $45.00

View Turtle Shirts

This print continues to be quite popular. 100% Cotton with Tiki masks, pulmeria flowers and palm trees.

Like all of our mens shirts, it has a perfectly matched shirt pocket.

Priced at just $45.00

View Tiki Mask Shirts

Made for wine connoisseurs, this is a very high quality shirt that really compliments the fine wines made in wine country.

No wine lover should be without one of these shirts!

Priced at just $48.00

View Wine Shirts

Hawaii Things You May Not Know

2008-05-09T12:03:00.000-07:00

Tourists do not know jack about pineapples. Surprisingly if you ask a tourist how they are grown, they will say in a tree. No, pineapples do not grow on trees (see picture).

For all you Lost followers looking for The dumpster filmed in Lost (early on in the season one of the Lost cast members was tossed into a dumpster). So here it is in all its splendor and full of trash (we actually had tour guide point that out to us)

Hanauma Bay is an awesome place! The walk down to the water is easy, but coming back up after a few hours of snorkeling is not. We recommend that you break down and purchase the round trip transportation from the Visitor Center to the Bay. It’s just a few bucks. Oh and for you smokers, there is no smoking on the beach.

Vog enhanced sunsets, Vog is Hawaii’s version of smog, which is spewed into the atmosphere by the volcano on the Big Island; if the trade winds are low you can get some extra spectacular sunsets.

New Hawaiian Sundresses

2008-05-05T20:32:00.000-07:00

Summer is just around the corner so there is no better time to introduce a few of our newest additions to the Wave Shoppe Family, Hawaiian tube-top dresses (also known as smocked Hawaiian sundresses). These are pretty cool because the top portion is elastic and almost guarantees a good fit on most women. These tube top dresses are made from 100% Rayon and the dress length is perfect for just about any occasion.

Burgundy Hawaiian Tube Top Dresses

The rich burgundy color makes this dress look quite regal. Perfect sundress for anytime.

Blue Hawaiian Tube Top Dresses

Deep blue rayon is quite luxurious and matches up well with just about any style of footwear, even flip-flops.

Red Hawaiian Tube Top Dresses

Girls this is not just any ole smocked dress, it’s a smoking hot red dress. Elastic tube top ensure a good fit in all the right places. Dress has birds and Hawaiian flowers but who really cares, its red rayon!

You wont be disappointed with these Hawaiian tube-top dresses, the quality is excellent and best of all, the dress will fit you. View all Hawaiian Dresses

Good Eats in Oahu

2008-05-02T10:53:00.000-07:00

On a recent excursion to Oahu (for you mainlanders its one of the Hawaiian islands) a tourist asked me if I could recommend any good places to eat. Believe it or not I drew a complete blank. You see I am always hungry and I will eat at any establishment that will seat me in the Aloha attire that I usually wear, which usually consists of a tacky Hawaiian shirt, tore-up shorts and flip-flops. Adding that I only shave and brush my hair when its absolutely necessary. So I guess I should redeem myself by making a few recommendations.

Lu Lu’s Surf Club, Waikiki Beach

Spam is widely eaten all over the islands and breakfast is no exception. Here we have an omelet filled with spam, hash brown potatoes covered with onions and shredded Spam, and of course a side of Spam

I dont care much for lunch. My suggestion is to go over to Dole Pineapple Plantation and stuff your face with pineapple ice cream which can be found inside the store and follow that up with a container of fresh mango from the nice lady selling stuff outside.

FYI Yes that's me eating pineapple ice cream.

Now comes dinner, which is my favorite meal of the day. Since you are already at Dole I would suggest that you get your ass back on the road and head over to the Kahuku Shrimp Farm where you can dine on yummy shrimp, it’s a culinary roadside delight that’s served right out the back of the of the famous Kahuku Shrimp Truck.

Mahalo and happy eating.

Free Hawaiian Shirt from Wave Shoppe

2008-03-22T12:14:00.000-07:00

Do you know of someone who is making a contribution on the Web, or in his or her community that does not get the recognition they deserve?

Why not nominate them for a free Hawaiian shirt?

Simply Post a Comment with a description of why you feel they deserve a free Hawaiian shirt. We will choose one special person from the nominations and they will be allowed to select a Hawaiian shirt of their choice from our website and they will have the opportunity to be featured on our blog along with the winning nomination.

Nominations must be posted by April 30th 2008. No purchase necessary to cast your nomination and you may nominate more than one person as long as you make a separate post. But you must also nominate someone that we can actually get ahold of.

The winner will be chosen by peeps that are not affiliated with our company. Wave Shoppe Hawaiian Shirts will cover the cost of the product as well as the shipping cost.

Visit Wave Shoppe Hawaiian Shirts

Hawaiian Wine Gifts

2008-03-04T12:25:00.000-08:00

When wine is the topic of conversation one of the first locations that may come to mind is California’s wine country. But did you know that there are 2 wineries that are actually in Hawaii?

Yes its true, while there may be a few private vineyards in Hawaii, the two that we know of are the Maui Winery over at Ulupalakua Ranch in Kalua and the Volcano Winery located in where else, Volcano HI. Check em out, as long as you don’t live in a “dry” location they will probably ship to you.

On a similar note you should know that Wave Shoppe offers a really slick wine shirt that has grapes and wine bottles on it. The artwork is well done and the Kona cotton fabric adds to the shirts sophisticated look. Take delight in a Hawaiian wine gift that really compliments the fine wines made in wine country!

New Summer Beachwear

2008-02-13T13:53:00.000-08:00

Aloha everyone, summer is fast approaching and we wanted to get the word out about our new colorful line of Hawaiian sarongs. We know that there are many different designs available, but not a lot of the sarongs are embroidered like many of Wave Shoppe's are.

The butterfly sarong pictured on the left features a big hand-painted blue butterfly that is accentuated with embroidery around the body and wings of the butterfly. And the bottom of the sarong has intricate embroidery which further compliments the good looks of this sarong.

You can also find an interesting looking orange sarong called flower marge, the flowers are hand painted and look really sharp. Well thats it for now, see you at the beach!

Rick and the Green Banana

2008-01-20T13:12:00.000-08:00

Aloha everyone,
First off we want to apologize for the lack of light in this video, we shot it at night without the aid of additional illumination. Last night was Ricks 50th birthday and we celebrated with a good ole fashioned Hawaiian Luau. Allow us to introduce, Rick and the Green Banana.

Its amazing what people will subject themselves to, especially after you pump them full of double strength Mai Tai’s and beer.

Free SEO Brain Food

2008-01-14T13:29:00.000-08:00

Aloha everyone,
We wanted to turn you on to a freebee from my friend Dave at Huo Mah. FYI Dave’s brain food is always up to date.

“This year we have added more great content and updated much of the existing stuff. In the world of search optimization, like most industries, things are always changing and it is important to have only the latest techniques and strategies. As the year goes along, we will also be updating the SEO Handbook and sending to customers Free of charge. We also decided to give away a FREE copy of the Ultimate Guide Google Personalized Search this year as well... no purchase required... just head on over to the site and get a copy, it's on me!”

Get your free copy today: Fire Horse Guide to Personalized Search

While Dave is my fave, you may need some SEO from SEO Design Solutions, Jeff's company offers SEO consulting and great SEO tips on his SEO Blog

While the services below are not free; we do encourage you to take a look the information and services offered on the websites below, offered by some of the finest people in the industry.

These days its challenging to find a good social media consultant but if you find your self in the position of looking for a well rounded social media consultant we would like to recommend Mr. Justin Parks, owner of www.justinparks.com

Ecommerce development is something that businesses should not take lightly, be it ecommerce development or custom CMS systems or ecommerce website design. IWB offers a comprehensive list of services with focus on ecommerce website design & marketing and more.

Mahalo

Charles

Merry Christmas from Wave Shoppe

2007-12-24T09:28:00.000-08:00

Photo courtesy of www.seaturtle.org

The folks at Wave Shoppe Hawaiian shirts want to wish everyone a merry Christmas!

Your Opinion Counts

2007-12-20T12:38:00.000-08:00

We are working on purchasing fabric for our summer line and we were wondering what you thought of this print. It is a rayon fabric with hibiscus flowers and timeless Woodies. We are thinking about doing this particular print in men’s as well as women’s. Your opinion counts so drop us a comment and let us know what you think.

Awesome Waikiki Holiday Lights Tour

2007-12-10T11:52:00.000-08:00

If you are going to Honolulu for Christmas we highly recommend that you check out the Waikiki Trolley Holiday Lights Tour!

Mahalo and mele kalikimaka

The folks at Wave Shoppe Hawaiian Shirts

Top 5 Things I Do Not Need for Christmas

2007-12-06T17:37:00.000-08:00

Hi Folks, I have been diligently busting out orders and exceeding our customer’s expectations (like the rest of you should be doing). But after a few weeks of emails, surfing the net and managing the business and my personal life, I finally concluded that there are some things that I just don’t want any more. So without all the fanfare here is my top five.

#1 Email offers from my competitors telling me that for “one week only” I can get 50% off my purchase. Come on people, what that really means is that you already jacked up your prices prior to sending you this offer and we will still hit record profit margins. Honorable mention goes to one that writes “Wear a tropical shirt now and then. Vow to watch more sunsets. And if you can't go slow, at least go slower.” I sure hope that is not someone’s native tong.

#2 Forum discussions about nofollow – All of you are sheep and I do not want anyone to ask me to participate in those discussions.

#3 Forum discussions about TBPR – Participating in such threads is concrete proof that you have been abducted; so for the rest of the year please do not ruin a good thread by bringing it up. People are so out of touch that they cant tell the difference between PageRank and TBPR.

#4 I do not want to hear the screeching drone of my manipulative x wife; my son still hasn’t received the Christmas gift she promised to send 2 years ago.

#5 Lastly I do not want anyone to have a bad Christmas, spending the better part of my childhood in foster homes makes me an authority on bad Christmas’s.

Having said that... We are not wealthy, but during the month of December we are offering readers of this blog Free Priority Shipping for any purchase over $25 You should take us up on the offer.

Enter Coupon Code: HOLIDAY2007 during checkout to receive free Priority shipping. Offer expires December 31, 2007 and you can not combine it with any other offers. Visit Wave Shoppe

10% Online Discount for all Holiday Shoppers

2007-11-20T13:35:00.000-08:00

Aloha from the Wave Shoppe,
Have you made your list and checked it twice? Don't forget to add some of our beautiful Hawaiian shirts and dresses to your holiday shopping list.

Take advantage of our special offer while it lasts!

Order now and receive a 10% discount on any item in our store

Enter Coupon code: DAKINE2007 during checkout to receive your 10% discount. Offer expires December 10, 2007

You'll love all of the great money saving services and discounts we have to offer. Upon request you can get your purchase shipped in a holiday gift box, or gift-wrapped for free. Of course you can still get free Priority Mail Shipping and a free Hawaiian lei when your order tops $75.

There's never been a better deal . . . you don't want to miss it!

Shop at Wave Shoppe

Cyber Monday is just a bunch of mumbo jumbo

2007-11-12T11:23:00.001-08:00

Well its almost that day of the year, the Monday after Thanksgiving whereas everyone transforms into on-line mega shoppers. And we all know that the Christmas holiday is the period where starving merchants pray for huge sales.

Myself I think Cyber Monday is just another fabricated marketing term that really doesn’t drive any more sales, in fact it’s possible that it harms the brick and mortar sites. Boos and hisses to those “come on everyone is doing it” buzz phrases.

Provide a quality product and you will have sales everyday; we don’t buy into Cyber Monday.

Furthermore I was reading an article today and I said to myself just who the heck is Keynote Systems; exactly how do they track my performance?

“Keynote Systems, which tracks the performance of Internet sites, historically has found that the biggest load on Web sites comes on the Friday and Saturday after Thanksgiving, not the Monday."

IMO most of the shopping is done when people are at work, when the boss man is not looking. So any weekday can be a good day for sales. Certainly the type of product being sold can be a factor, but for the most part the day of the week does not matter much.

I think that the best metric for measuring sales is to monitor the credit card companies and see what they reported as peak periods. Hmm wouldn’t it be cool to have regularly updated info via a RSS feed from the credit card companies. Cyber Monday is just a bunch of mumbo jumbo.

Happy Birthday to Me

2007-11-09T09:40:00.000-08:00

Aloha, for those of you that don’t know me, my name is Charles. If you don’t know me that’s quite ok, I barely know myself. I really didn’t plan on a post today but then I remembered that today is truly a personal day for me.

November 9th 1998 is the day that I decided to stop drinking so today marks 9 full years without any alcohol.

To be honest I had a really great time when I was drinking but it seems that no one else did. But what ever, I am going to get myself a Häagen-Dazs ice cream bar and just kick it for the day.

Stop by and say Aloha, we follow.

Google TBPR is your Idol God

2007-10-27T13:43:00.000-07:00

Mark that it is God that is worshipped in the form of the idol (TBPR) and not the idol as God (ranking money terms above the fold). And it is cast that the naive spend their days obsessing with the green bar while we are busy dominating the SERPS. God wears a Hawaiian shirt.

There you go, my spiritual post of the year.

Mahalo and remember to score a mens Hawaiian shirt, for you are the sun, dancing on the shore.

Hawaiian Words Hawaii

2007-10-23T21:51:00.000-07:00

Hawaiian word meaning akamai is smart or clever and the ala road is not path lined with pineapples, say Auwe "Oh!” "Alas" denotes the surprise you just got when you entered our hale house or building. I am writing this to appease my favorite haole "not so caucasian person" Dale, formerly from the USA where any foreigner can learn the Hula classic dance of Hawaii. Kai is the mighty sea mastered by kane da man. Kapu taboo is forbidden like Hawaiian Hawaiian shirts, which should not be confused with kaukau, which is Hawaiian for food. Keiki is a baby, or child and kokua means something like help I have fallen on the lanai, porch, balcony or veranda and cant get up. Have pity and shower me with a lei which is a strand of flowers with leaves, shells, money or nuts.

Lua is a restroom in HI and I bet you are wishing I would say mahalo (thank you) but I want to tell you about the Mahimahi or as you know them from the Dolphin family, fish. Makai toward the sea because I am a malihini to Hawaii. Call me a stranger, newcomer or guest but dont head towards the mountains (Mauka).

Women in Hawaii really do wear Muumuu which is a long, loose-fitting dress that is loved by all ohana, family, and close groups of Hawaiian descent. When you sea food made by someone in a muumuu you will say it is ono (also a name for an island fish) or if they give you some pupu hors d'oeuvre or poi, which is a Hawaiian food, made from taro root, delicious. Puka means hole or opening and wahine are woman; pali is a cliff or cliffs that you jump off.

Pau means we are done, as in finished. Mahalo to E Noa for letting us have some fun with their Hawaiian words.

Let's Hula

2007-10-18T14:55:00.000-07:00

Aloha everyone, how about a little love for a grass roots hula school in California.

According to their website, a family owned business named Let's Hula Dance Studio, located in the San Fernando Valley in Granada Hills, CA.

Hula is for all ages, if you are in the market for Hula lessons in southern California give them a shout. Let's Hula Dance Studio Schedule

Great article about sucky Wal-Mart

2007-10-10T09:43:00.000-07:00

Time is running out for mega wanker Wal-Mart. Maybe there is a chance that mom and pop Internet merchants shall inherit the earth once again.

"The Internet has changed shoppers' preferences and eroded the commanding influence Wal-Mart had over its suppliers. As a result, American shoppers are increasingly looking for qualities that Wal-Mart has trouble providing." Read more about Wal-Mart's woes

New Tiki Print

2007-09-21T15:48:00.000-07:00

Aloha everyone, its Friday and the start of another long weekend at Wave Shoppe.

We have about 1500 shirts in various prints to place in display packaging before Monday.

I have no idea how many shirts I have folded but it's a lot.

Amongst all other things, we have completed the Tiki shirt ahead of schedule and its now available for purchase.

The Tiki mask print runs up both panels and the shirt pocket is matched to the print.

Is Your Web Business a Target?

2007-09-13T09:56:00.000-07:00

Is this you and your business?

Morning everyone! I was reading a post in a forum this morning and it simply amazes me when I see how vulnerable some of the web “businesses” really are. Most of what you read and hear in the forums is the steady drum beat of SEO. But this poster was commenting on how someone emailed him because the name he used was similar to his own and asked him to change it, (the names are not trademarked or brand-able). Now my take is that the guy that sent the email is just a big pussy and can’t take the heat. But more amazing is that the other guy does not appear to have licensed his business.

Listen up people, registering a domain is not the same as actually licensing a business in California and the rest of the USA for all that matters. Now there is a fair amount of smack in the forums about how one makes this and another makes that. I wonder if any of the web owners realize that they literally paint a big target on their web by not properly licensing it.

Is it worthwhile to engage in Negative / Positive SEO to deliver a knockout punch to your competition? Naaa if they are doing sales online just look them up online in the county records or call the county office, if they dont have a license, simply report them for failure to report income and pay sales tax.

Having said that, if you are truly committed to your business, you need to make sure you do it right. The financial and legal benefits far outweigh the few dollars you will spend on permits and licenses. If you do not, loser is the word that comes to mind.

Leis Review

2007-09-11T16:56:00.000-07:00

Aloha everyone, while we think fresh Hawaiian leis are the best, there are situations that call for simulated silk leis. Our gripe is that lately a lot of crappy silk leis have been making it into the market. I.e. long spacers, small cheaply colored flowers, narrow weak thread, short in length, etc.

Well we decided to make our own to our specs, but we must admit that we made them overseas so we could compete with online stores like Oriental Trading. Overall we are quite pleased with the quality of the products we had manufactured.

Here is the deal: Wave Shoppe would like to get the word out as well as get some genuine input on the quality of our new leis. Having said that, purchase one or more Hawaiian leis from Wave Shoppe and post a review of the product. Email us a link to the properly credited review and we will issue you a complete refund for the lei or leis, less the shipping. Killer editorial reviews may even get a refund for the shipping.

We will make the offer good for all leis purchased during the month of September 2007. We are also limiting this offer to 2 free leis per review. You can buy all of the leis you wish, but we will only refund you for 2 and you will have 30 days from the date of purchase to notify us and collect on the offer.

The top 6 leis on the Web store are made by Wave Shoppe. Kukui Nut and Seashell leis are not part of this offer. Makalo, Wave Shoppe Hawaiian Shirts

Labor Day Surfing

2007-09-02T08:53:00.001-07:00

Many vacationers head to the costal areas of California or islands in Hawaii for a warm reprieve during the long winter months. The best times to hit the surf in Hawaii are from Labor Day through fall, which are outside the Aloha State’s rainy months (which start in November and end around March, approximately).

With HI having some of the best beaches in the world (California beaches are also nice), daunting volcanoes, towering mountains, glistening waterfalls, and vibrant flowers, the scenery here is nothing short of spectacular, and, at six hours from the West Coast (A.K.A Pacific Seaboard), you can be standing on the island of lanai in short order, watching the sun set behind the Pacific.

This Labor Day we are just chilling out with a few friends, with a trip to the always crazy Pacific Beach in San Diego, CA.

Wal-Mart Ends Layaway, Removes Fabric

2007-08-31T14:16:00.000-07:00

Wal-Mart is now offering low income families a sharp stick in the eye! I was reading this article on MSNBC and the first thing that came to mind was corporate greed.

Wal-Mart, how will your customers get through Christmas now that you have done away with layaway purchases?

Wait, we know the answer, a Wal-Mart credit card with an interest rate that is now up to 27.49%

2 Headed Turtle(s)

2007-08-24T11:00:00.000-07:00

Ok, is this 2 turtles sharing one body or 1 turtle with two heads? One of natures many mysteries, presented to you by Wave Shoppe. Have a great day everyone!

See Hawaii as did the ancient Hawaiians

2007-08-17T14:36:00.001-07:00

See Hawaii as did the ancient Hawaiians and Captain Cook! According to the website, Ocean Joy Cruises will take you to the Unspoiled Waianae coastline where dolphins, turtles and other Hawaiian sea life play and flourish. Now normally I would say that’s a pretty bold statement, but one of my friends had the opportunity to take one of their tours and he said to me that
"you really do get to swim with the sea turtles in their natural environment" well that was all I needed to extend my endorsement.

I remember being in south Florida around Melbourne Beach to observe the green sea turtles coming ashore to lay their eggs, what an awesome experience that was. If your going to HI for some dolphin watching or snorkeling action, this is a must do cruise.

Five Random Things I Remember

2007-08-14T12:02:00.000-07:00

Five Random Things I Remember (well sort of):

Eating at the very 1st McDonald's: The first McDonald's Restaurant opened in Des Plaines, Illinois by McDonald's Corporation founder, Ray Kroc, on April 15, 1955.
Being scared shitless by the big blue Toys "R" Us Easter Bunny back in the early 60s.
The underground bowling alley by the “Greeks” restaurant and the Glen Ellyn Theater, FYI There really were such creatures as greasers.
Living with a colored family during in the 60s racial segregation (we were right next to the Billy Graham Center), not a very good place for a white boy!
Actually seeing a comet burn through the atmosphere in the daytime, it was a totally awesome orange fireball.

What’s Your Favorite Ice Cream?

2007-08-02T16:16:00.000-07:00

Aloha, now this is a company that’s well known and cherished by just about everyone that has a passion for ice cream. In Hawaii, the Farrell's franchise is owned and operated by E Noa Corporation, a Hawaii-based company specializing in providing sightseeing tours around the island. You may know E Noa from the trolleys they operate around Honolulu, prominently known as the Waikiki Trolley.

We all have our weaknesses and Farrell’s Ice Cream is certainly one of mine. I was looking over their menu and I think my absolute favorite has to be the Farrell’s banana split, check this out.

“This is the flagship of Farrell’s Fleet of Fabulous Fountain Fantasies. Three scoops of our creamy vanilla, rich chocolate & sweet strawberry ice cream smothered with chocolate, pineapple & strawberry toppings, crowned with billows of whipped cream, nuts & a cherry. Oh yes...& of course, a banana.”

What’s your favorite ice cream or concoction?

Plus Size Hawaiian Shirts

2007-07-20T14:03:00.001-07:00

Every woman wants to look her best and Wave Shoppe is here to help. Over the summer we have received numerous requests for plus size Hawaiian shirts in sizes ranging from 1X to 5X, some of the emails were borderline pleas. We strongly believe that when a company claims that they listen to what their customers are saying, they had better be able to make good on that.

We are very happy to announce that our pattern maker has completed the patterns for our plus size Hawaiian shirts. Believe it or not there is still a lot of work that needs to be done before the plus sizes go into full production. Like we started out saying, every woman wants to look her best, and who better to help us make the perfect plus size Hawaiian shirts than our loyal customers. So we are currently cutting sample plus size shirts from each of the patterns and sending them to the ladies for evaluation. Once the ladies give us their feedback and hopefully approval, we will then go into production. Look forward to these plus sized shirts as they will be comfortable, as well as stylish and affordable. And most importantly, they will be cheerful and flowery!

Free Hawaiian Apparel E-Newsletter

2007-07-12T13:13:00.000-07:00

Featured: matching mens and womens shirts

Ok we listen to our customers. It seems like it took us forever but we finally added a simple email sign up form for our current and prospective customers. Wave Shoppe does not do a lot of emailing but when we do we will use it to notify you of special offers, the latest information on upcoming Hawaiian apparel releases and special discounts that you can only get at Wave Shoppe Hawaiian Shirts. You may find the form conveniently located on the Home Page of our Hawaiian clothing store and Blog. Mahalo everyone!

Macadamia Nut Therapy

2007-06-29T18:01:00.000-07:00

Well today couldn’t get much better, it’s a payday Friday and when I arrived home I found a box of goodies from my bro over at Enoa in Hawaii. I definitely have time for a little old fashion macadamia nut therapy. Thanks Dale! Hopefully we can make it over for one of your personalized Pearl Harbor tours, after all it is Hawaii's most popular tourist attraction.

Friends of Aloha

2007-06-11T13:36:00.001-07:00

Well my trip to Hearst Castle was quite interesting, sorry to disappoint but I am just way to busy to post any additional pictures. Actually I shouldn’t be blogging but what the heck. One thing I wanted to share with you was what happened while I was in nearby Morro Bay, which just so happens to be where my competitors Hawaiian store is located. Well in the name of making a long story short... I walked in and introduced myself, after Jim caught his breath he said “I admire you, because in a short timeframe you have managed to do what we have been trying to do for over 5 years”. Well that certainly caught me by surprise, not anything near what anyone would expect. All in all it was one of the most rewarding visits that I have made in a long time.

Probably more than once I wished that I took the route he did with Aloha Shirt Shop, which is re-selling fine Hawaiian apparel made by someone else, but ironically he countered by saying that he wished that he was able to get into manufacturing his own Hawaiian apparel like we do. What’s that saying about the grass always being greener on the other side of the fence?

So today production deadlines have slid terribly close to being critical. I could not help but wonder if Jim would be so willing to be in my shoes today, LOL probably not. But I am going to give Jim, owner of Aloha Shirt Shop, a lot of credit for what he has accomplished so far. The old store that used to be located down here in San Diego really never did his business justice, so I was pleased to see the new Hawaiian shirt store in Morro Bay; it is exactly what I hoped it would be!

Hearst Castle, La Cuesta Encantada

2007-05-31T16:04:00.000-07:00

Well folks it’s Thursday and the start of my weekend. I am going to treat myself to a few well deserved days off and take a trip up the California coast in my Corvette to visit Hearst Castle. I have never been there but from what I hear the tapestries, art art and building structures are truely magnificent and a must see. Truthfully it’s the mediterranean/gothic look and feel of the castle that sucked me into going; I think all of the lion statues and overall mediterranean motif really cast Hearst Castle in its own dimension. When I return I will try to post some behind the scenes pictures of Hearst Castle, that is if I remember to take my camera.

U.S. forces killed on Memorial Day

2007-05-29T15:06:00.000-07:00

We normally shy away from posting out political viewpoints on the Web, but its time for us to pull out of these places and start focusing on what needs to be cleaned up in our backyards.

To be honest I have no idea why we are even in some of these countries, isn't that something the UN should be handling? Regardless, when you see type saying "112 slain" its time to make some changes. Read more at msnbc

Memorial Day

2007-05-28T14:13:00.000-07:00

Memorial Day is the day of observance to honor those who died during each of the wars in which the United States fought.

MIKE, WE MISS YOU!

Thank you to all of the soldiers who died for our country. Taps is played at funerals to let the heavens know that a hero is coming.

Dont forget the men and women that are currently serving our country, hook em up with some goodies, we do.

Give Aloha for Fathers Day

2007-05-14T13:32:00.001-07:00

Ok folks, Fathers Day is just around the corner. Yep it’s that magical time of the year when you try to suck up to your dad by getting him a gift. Being a guy I will assure you that it has a much different meaning then Mothers Day, though I am still not quite sure what it means the moms on that particular day. But I do know that you will be quite sorry if you forget.

Men on the other hand are fairly simple, especially when it comes to receiving gifts, because Fathers Day is the one time of the year that we can actually get a gift that we want without any repercussions.

Dad has probably been eyeing something cool for quite some time now (and no, not the sexy neighbor girl). But if you confront dad and ask him why he don’t just go out and buy it the poor guy will probably tell you that the misses won’t allow it.

But wait, there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Hopefully all you boys and girls remembered to hook mom up with a gift for Mothers Day, so we can make the assumption that her defenses are probably at a all time low. Fathers Day could very well be the only day that you can fix dad up with something he really wants, of course you need to probe dads mind for the answers. Ha ha good luck! Please allow us to help you with that by giving you some insight on some gift ideas for Dad.

Tools: Yes tools still continue to excite us, dad doesn’t get a lot of recognition until something gets broken around the house and dad has to save the day by fixing it himself. How about replacing the tools you constantly lose or fail to return in a usable condition? Maybe think about getting him a good rechargeable flashlight and one of those 101 piece tool kits from Home Depot?

Clothes: Now here is where you can score extra brownie points. Most women do all of the shopping in the household which includes dads clothing. Shure we wear them with a smile, but I assure you there is a difference of opinion on what looks good and what don’t. But unless dad wants to do his own shopping, he proclaim that it all looks great and he will wear it. But in reality dad wants a car shirt so he can reminisce about the days gone by, back before he met your mom and when he had things.

Food: Any type of food will do as long as you don’t make dad pay for it and mom did not cook it. How about a grip of Chinese food carryout (let dad eat in front of the TV) or if you are by a casino, drive him to the buffet and let him pig out (take your car and burn your gas). Make it even better by giving him $50 of your own money to blow on the slots.

Well there you go, my top picks for Fathers Day 2007

Delete links to Maui Shirts

2007-05-11T14:12:00.000-07:00

Ok I am simply floored, I was doing some phrase research on Google the other day and I ran across one of the most horrifying Blogs I have ever seen. The Blog states that it is authored Mickey Steinborn, who also indicates that he is the owner of Maui Shirts. This Blog is full of ramblings and rude comments about his customers. Now I don’t care one bit what people do in their day to day adventures, but you should never bite the hand that feeds you by posting negative comments about your customers on the Web.

In regards to my title, when you link to a site you are giving it an endorsement and guilty by association if the recipients are doing people wrong. But you can be the judge, at the end of this post I will provide you with the address of this site, and yes, I ask that you consider removing any links you may have to his Maui Shirts dot com site.

Below are samplings from the Blog, let it be known that we do not condone nor endorse anything that Mickey Steinborn has to say.

Mickey Steinborn: “They send me nasty email about my poor customer service. They point their finger at me. They shout with bold letters and complain that my customer service is poor. They go out of their way to leave negative feedback in the public forum. The say I communicate poorly. Well, when I run up a goof like this, I simply block their IP address, place their email in the spam blocker and get on with life and real people. I have tried to deal with these negative people. I try to reason with them. It’s simply a waste of my time. They are bent on screwing with me. I will not deal with people who want to bring me down to their level of incompetence.”

DoOD quit spending your time writing in your hateful comments in your blog and take a communications class at your local college.

Mickey Steinborn: “Vindictive Fat Lady with a hair ball stuck in her brain”

Ok that title alone clearly demonstrates that this post is full of hate aimed at plus sized people, a clear sign that some people should not interact with others, ever.

Mickey Steinborn: “Then there’s the sad, misguided customer from Amazon.com who is a 2X. I wonder if she is ugly too? Most big people are kind and friendly. Not this one. She didn’t read the size chart.”

Hmmm were those words supposed to attract more customers?

Mickey Steinborn: “I suggest a diet or date with Richard Simmons for this fat lady before she sings. She has the word kitten in her email address. The only thing kitten about this double X size of a woman is the hair ball she swallowed when she was younger. What an attitude. Vindictive, vicious and just plain stupid. She says my exchange policy is rigid and ridiculous”

Wow, if I took a wild guess I would say that this guy intentionally flamed and insulted this poor customer, and on the Web of all places. We love all sizes of people!

Why someone would feel so compelled to say such bad things about people is probably going to remain a mystery. But when people cross the thresholds of decency and write heresies about their very own customers and then allow it to propagate the Internet, something needs to be said.

Myself, I do my part to help customers as well as business owners, even competitors. A business owner with integrity would never post stuff like that about customers, but it’s clear that integrity is not included in everyone’s DNA. If your talking smack about your customers you should probably redeem yourself as quick as you can, at the very least you owe your customers a sincere and formal apology.

You may find these quoted excerpts at [blog dot mauishirts dot com]

Thanks for reading along and remember to say something nice about your customers! In turn they will say something nice about you!

Wave Shoppe Hawaiian Shirts customer: “We just got our shipment. Thank you so much for your professionalism you make shopping the internet a Blessing Thank you, Ted W.”

Origins of the Hawaiian Shirt

2007-05-03T09:10:00.001-07:00

The Palaka shirt’s fascinating beginnings, a Hawaiian staple using a unique material named Tapa.

Think of Hawaii and the first thing that comes to mind is the Hawaiian shirt. This well known garment is the Palaka shirt and has a long history. Little has changed throughout time including the material used. One cliché that comes to mind is ‘styles always come back’, for this shirt style has never gone out. One wouldn’t think of trees being used to make clothing, but for centuries it has been and still is used.

Used for ceremonial and functional use, the Tapa cloth is also found used for the ever popular Palaka shirts as well as wall tapestries in many Hawaiian homes. The Palaka shirt that uses this unusual material has an interesting story in itself. Coming from other countries in Asia such as China and Japan, the Hawaiian field laborers found in their hands shirts with tails. To help protect them from the hot sun the workers improved the shirts for more practical use by taking off the tails and making them of light loose fitting material instead of the rich embroidered silks they were originally made in.

These now traditional Palaka shirts are sometimes seen with the darker print on the inside showing the faded patterns on the outside. It appears the shirt is worn the wrong way, but this is really the way they were created to show the muted pattern. Usually found in traditional basic colors such as black or brown, but are also made in a multitude of colors and fabrics. Tapa fabric is not a very sturdy fabric and tends to be used more for the higher ceremonial purpose and special occasion. It is seen sometimes worn by government officials, chiefs and in weddings.

This material can be found in about every home usually on shirts, decorative quilts or wall ornaments. Tapa’s that are given by a chief or royal family holds more value and most often time will be displayed in the home. Because the process is completely made of and with natural sources it is friendlier to the environment. Even the brushes used to apply the natural dyes and paints are made from sticks with frayed ends. Simplistic and beautiful from a culture that respects nature and tradition in an ever changing modern world it’s good to know that with tradition the old customs of Hawaii still find a place in today’s society. Read the entire article on Origins of the Hawaiian Shirt.

Pets in Paradise

2007-05-02T17:01:00.000-07:00

Meet Buddy and Cujo, our highly dysfunctional house pets. Now before you start to question how such cute looking animals could ever become dysfunctional, I ask that you take a moment to get to know them. Let’s start with Buddy the cocker spaniel, whose name alone should be a good indicator. The story with Buddy is that he hails from the south, though stories of trailer park dwelling can not be confirmed.

Legend has it that he lived with some drunken hillbilly that hit him a lot which eventually lead to Buddy being tossed from a pickup truck and left to fend for himself.

When I first met Buddy it was apparent that he assimilated his dig quite well, I remember the house having a ball hitch on it. So eventually Buddy moved in with me in this somewhat fancy town home community, to him it must have been a scene straight out of Beverly Hillbillies, he was in dog paradise. Now I admire Buddy, he treats all things equal, those BMWs and manicured bushes and plants were all treated the same, clearly there is no shame in his game.

So now that we have briefly touched on the genesis and evolution of Buddy, lets all meet Cujo, our 4 year old Pomeranian. Now here is a dog that’s a complete head case, we paid money for Cujo at one of those adopt a pet fairs in Balboa Park. When we adopted her we were told that its name was cookie and that it must have escaped from someone’s house. So ok, it would fit in the C4 Corvette we had back then, plus it was small enough to take for car rides so the adoption papers were signed.

OMG what a terror, what they failed to tell us is that it had not ever developed any social skills; personally I think someone tossed it out the door and the running away part was just a cruel trick. Nonetheless Peggy liked it and renamed it precious (we all know how that story ends) but amazingly after a few short weeks Cujo and Buddy learned to tolerate each other, like vinegar and oil. Around our house it’s pretty much nonstop mayhem with these dogs, Cujos acts of defiance and Buddys evil, but well executed trailer park antics.

Man don’t even make me tell you about the nerve racking snoring that these dogs subject me to at night. But this is what they live for, when they are not bothering each other they can be found lounging on their backs on the couch or trying to coheres me into giving them some of those expensive dog treats. They may well be pets in paradise, but one day I will get the last laugh. Hmm maybe I need a 3rd dog!

Chocolate Hawaiian Shirt Friday

2007-04-20T11:37:00.001-07:00

Well folks you can tell its Friday, actually a pretty lackluster Friday. I originally started giving thought to planning out my weekend but the thoughts quickly shifted to my can of macadamia nuts, enhanced with sea salt. So basically here I sit with my macadamia nuts wearing a one of a kind chocolate colored Hawaiian shirt that looks something like a cross section of Hawaiian MilkyWay bar, except for that it is covered with sea turtles (Honu).

Its clear that I am not accomplishing much at the moment, but I am certainly enjoying my Hawaiian snack. Which brings to mind that eivissu has not yet sent me a box of chocolate covered macadamia nuts, pay up eivissu! Well I will probably end up cutting an order for a customer and working on the website this weekend. But then if I get really motivated, I may just start working on my Hawaiian gifts for Christmas. If you are a good customer or in our elite circle of friends that serves up loving anchor text for the shirt shop, you usually get rewarded with a unique, handcrafted Hawaiian shirt from the Wave Shoppe.

Graduation Leis

2007-04-18T13:11:00.000-07:00

Beautiful Hawaiian Leis have long been a part of the culture and tradition of the Polynesian People. Exotic, colorful Leis were made from island flowers, leaves and other natural items such as shells, feathers, twigs intertwined. Surviving the passage of time Leis are still an important part of Polynesian Culture, and many other cultures in society have embraced the spirit of Aloha by continuing the tradition of wearing and giving Leis.

In the US and many other countries, you can see bright, pretty, Hawaiian Leis at luaus, parties, weddings, and the ever popular backyard BBQs. A growing trend in the United States is the giving of Leis to High School and College Graduates to wear with their cap and gowns to graduation ceremonies. Does the average High School or College parent know about this new tradition? Am I the only parent in the dark? My one and only daughter graduated from high school this year and upon arriving to her graduation was so surprised to see a colorful myriad of Hawaiian Leis gracefully draping over the shoulders of the graduates. The graduation cap and gowns were black so the leis stood out and added such visual beauty to the outfit. I found my daughter and breathed a sigh of relief to see her wearing 2 leis that I later learned were given to her by a family friend. Yep here I am co-owner of a company that sells absolutely beautiful Hawaiian Leis and I didn’t know anything about the graduation lei tradition.

I was so grateful to my friend for giving my daughter the leis. My daughter came up to me afterwards and asked why I didn’t bring her some leis she was expecting lots of them from me and had even told her friends that her Mom would be bringing lots of leis and that she would share them with the few students whose parents didn’t realize that getting leis at graduation was a symbol of “future luck”. I decided there and then to reach out to other parents, aunts, uncles, and family friends to be aware of this tradition and prepared for it. SO whether you know someone who is graduating or attending a luau, party or backyard BBQ be sure to buy a lei for them and give them a little piece of aloha and good luck at the same time. Buy from WaveShoppe unless you want to make your own leis from flowers-feathers etc

A kid from Chicago

2007-04-16T11:50:00.000-07:00

Aloha everyone, a few weeks have passed since we wrote anything (brain cramps), but I thought it would be fun to get off the beaten path and write about something quite different, me. See back around 1958 there was this women messing around in the back of a car and the next thing you know here comes little Charles. Well I hate to say this, but the guy who fathered me wanted nothing to do with me and it was the 50s, a time where illegitimate children and the families that spawned and harbored them were shunned.

So I was sent off to catholic charities and stuck in a place for unwanted children called the Cradle House. Enter my grandfather and grandmother, my grandfather was a dear man and immigrant from Poland, full of pride. He worshiped the USA so much that after he came through Ellis Island he lied about his age so he could join the military and serve his new country in WWI. My grandmother was from the Ozarks and she never had a job and never drove a car, but could cook and I would have put her up against Rachael Ray any day of the week. A few months after going to the Cradle House they claimed me and I lived with them for a couple of years until some social worker decided I needed to go to a home that they selected for me. I will always let my grandparents serve as my guiding light, my grandfather, an honored American hero, and my grandmother, a person with values that were in the purest sense.

My friend Raff Ahlgren, FOX 6 Community Affairs Director says I should write some books; after all I have the uncanny ability to remember events and words spoken to me like it was just this morning. Unfortunately a life full of repression and abuse is not what I wish to spend my time remembering.

Here is the short list: 5 abusive foster homes (which include my natural mother). Having to sometimes wear girls shirts from the Salvation Army because the foster homes could not justify spending their state issues check on me. Placement with a colored family; which just so happened to live next to the Billy Graham Center during the Martin Luther King civil rights movement. Being thrown through a second story window by a drunk that was pissed that he had no more silver dollars to steal from me (my grandfather had gave me a handful for every birthday). Not having the ability to develop trust. Having my front teeth knocked out because I drank somebody’s soda while staying at their house. Setting myself on fire and spending my entire summer vacation in a burn unit with 2nd and 3rd degree burns on 60% of my body. I eventualy got tossed out on th estreet at 16 whereas I worked as a farmer, welder, machine operator, truck/car mechanic, service man, warehouse worker, computer tech, management, etc. 2 failed marriages in 15 years.

On the subject of child support, please tell me why I still have to pay thirty thousand dollars in compounded interested on back support that’s been fully paid for quite a while? Does it matter if one of my emancipated children lives with me while the leaches continue to let my blood?

I am now currently employed as a manager for a crappy software company and the proud owner of two unique businesses, Wave Shoppe Hawaiian Shirts and Film my Ride Picture Cars, I made them by myself. I am chairperson for some well know charitable events in San Diego and I funnel money to the needy and those that go without as deemed necessary.

Yes I know what your thinking, how on earth does this guy still function. Well some days I don’t, but I have managed to look past all this and I have even managed to develop some real friendships, ones that I sincerely believe are genuine in nature. My shirt shop is so cool because for once in my life I can do something that allows me the opportunity to truly express myself. Sure I could dwell in the darkness of my past but why? It’s an incredible feeling to make a happy looking Hawaiian shirt knowing that some other human being will be wearing it; they will be helping me disperse Aloha with good karma.

So the light at the end of the tunnel is quite bright and I am excited about the future. In just a few short years Wave Shoppe has quadrupled in size and revenues, and my collection of Hawaiian shirts is immense, not bad for a kid from Chicago. By the way I want to thank Janeth for the inspiration to hang my own laundry in public view. If you are ever in a position to don one of my shirts, be assured that it contains some rich history and some moral threads.

How many Hawaiian Islands?

2007-04-04T12:06:00.000-07:00

Ok, just how many Hawaiian Islands are there? You may or may not know this, but did you know that what we refer to as the Hawaiian Islands comprise a total of 137 islands? I sure the heck didn’t know that, actually the more I learn about the islands, the stupider I feel.

We are constantly searching for link love from Hawaiian themed sites; but I feel like we have already visited every Hawaiian site ever made. So with nearly 137 Hawaiian Islands how come we have so few Hawaiian websites? It’s because they are all uninhabited, that’s why.

Below are the islands that are best known, but certainly not a comprehensive list of every piece of real estate in Hawaii that’s not covered with sea water:

• Hawai’i
• Maui
• Kaho’olawe
• Lāna’i
• Moloka’i
• O’ahu
• Kauna’i
• Ni’ihau

What intrigued me was the island of Kaho’olawe, which is theoretically “uninhabited” I could not help but wonder what it would be like to have my very own island. Just think, as supreme ruler and big kahuna of my own island I could do what ever I wanted to do, just like Kamehameha the Great did. To make life a little more interesting I could even weave a little technology into my lifestyle and create a vast network of Hawaiian websites with dedicated IP addresses and link all of them to www.waveshoppe.com

In the meantime I suggest that you quickly jump into your canoe and paddle over to your PC to give us some well deserved link love. KW: Hawaiian shirts Ha, ha, ha Charles, why should we even do something like this for you? Well folks, this act of kindness will not only improve your overall karma, but it will also earn you a make-believe get out jail free card that could be instantly redeemed if you are ever threatened with something like being thrown into the Fire Pit of Pele. Remember, you are not invisible and you can be found.

Ok enough of entertaining myself; today we are going to have a trivia question. If you go on a trip to Hawaii wearing a traditional black/brown Kukui Nut lei, what do the local natives do to your Kukui Nuts?

Yes, you will actually get a prize for having the best and most comprehensive answer. Our winner will receive a discount code for $5 that can be used to purchase any product on our site. But to keep things fair we need to have a minimum of 4 different user posts in the Comments before I will choose a winner (you have to have the correct answer). This offer is good until April 30th 2007 Get creative, it will improve your chances of winning some Aloha!

Waikiki Trolley Transportation

2007-04-01T22:12:00.000-07:00

Aloha everyone, today I want to turn you on to a cool way to get around Honolulu, the Waikiki Trolley. This is a great way to visit historic sites, beautiful sceneries, and world-class shops and restaurants. This marvelous Waikiki trolley transportation service even offers three different lines!

This is Honolulu's only service that takes you to Honolulu's most popular tourist attractions and back to Waikiki, now that’s a deal. Their website boasts on-line discounts and trolley ticket deals that are hard to beat, how about $45 for a 2-adult 4 day trolley ticket, yeah baby that’s got aloha. And when you think it cant get any better, how about downloadable coupons for local shops offering gifts or discounts to Waikiki Trolley passengers, leaves you with extra $$$ for macadamia nuts and we all know how much we love those little jems.

Chocolate Covered Macadamia Nuts

2007-03-21T09:16:00.000-07:00

Stroll on over to http://www.introducemyblog.com/ and introduce your Blog. Drop them some link love and you’re entered for a chance to score some yummy chocolate covered macadamia nuts from Hawaii.

Fabrics for Dummies

2007-03-18T16:27:00.000-07:00

Well another exciting week has passed and another is about to start. Buying Hawaiian fabrics is a weekly task around here, but just this weekend I concluded that a lot of people couldn’t tell one fabric from another. So that poses an interesting question, just how do you tell what is what?

Our area of expertise is primarily all fabrics Hawaiian, which include cotton, cotton blends, polycotton and rayon fabrics. Cotton is obviously made from Cotton fibers and it’s probably the most popular and comfortable fabric for apparel. Polycotton is pretty popular because of its durability and wide array of designs available on polycotton.

Rayon fabrics are made from natural wood fibers and are probably the most underrated of all the fabrics, I think people confuse them with the polyester shirts back in the days of disco shirts. Shirts made from polyester are not bad, after all they do hold color forever but there is that stigmatism… one that the fabric may never shake off. Remember when bakelite was all the rage?

But if you were holding them in your hand would you really be able to tell what’s what? Believe it or not many of the fabric sellers cant either. So I developed a simple yet reasonably accurate way to tell, you will need a small piece of the fabric and a lighter or similar source of flame.

Take a small piece of fabric in question and light one corner of it, allow it to burn for about a second or two (observe the smoke and color of the flame) and then blow it out. Then take a look at the edge of the fabric where the flame was.

Cotton: Burns without any distortion of fabric, the fire line is very clean and even.

Rayon: Burns much faster and resembles burning paper, the burnt fiber will feel like fine ash.

Polycotton: Somewhat smoky burn, the fabric will curl while burning and the fire line will have a shiny edge to it.

Polyester: Noticeably more smoke than other fabrics and the fire line will look just like melted plastic.

SEO Hawaiian Style

2007-03-11T11:57:00.000-07:00

Aloha boys and girls,
I got up this morning thinking I would write about Hawaiian shirts or something like that, but after checking the Google SERPS I changed my mind. As most of you have figured out by now I am a student of Gypsy SEO and I wanted to take a moment to pay homage to my teacher (he did say get a blog and write about whatever you have on your mind that day). See in the early days when I first met Gypsy on line in a forum, he gave me some advice and off I went on what sounded like an endless road to an unknown destination.

The advice was way too simple, basically all about staying on topic (which has evolved to themes). So about a year has passed since our first conversation and I have been a tireless student the whole time. My better half Peggy will tell you that I really do work 7 days a week and that my days are roughly 16 hrs long. It's all about being a geek, how bad do you want it?

Our primary business is manufacturing Hawaiian shirts and though it’s a niche it is quite competitive and obviously the money terms are a real bitch to rank. But I have stuck with it and Dave, owner of Reliable SEO, has continued to mentor me. I won’t say no one else has given me good advice, but Dave shines because he did not discount my sometimes-crazy ideas. Instead he would say something like “its possible” “lets research it more”, “did you see this about that” etc. Then I would really mess with his analytical mind and send him a picture of a new Hawaiian fabric, I think he cringes when faced with the unknown. Ha ha ha wait till he sees the crazy Hawaiian shirt I am making him.

Well back to this morning, I needed to take some pictures of some new products (like the bird of paradise shirts) but I figured that I would do some quick checks of the datacenters to see how our keywords and phrases were doing. In our business ranking “Hawaiian shirts” is like trying to rank “Hawaiian vacations”, good luck they say. Well long story short, we finally moved into the #2 position on the data centers that I queried this morning. Now I realize that this may not be some great accomplishment in the eyes of the veteran SEO people, but it meant a lot to little ole me, and I guess that’s all that matters, doesn’t it.

My next post will certainly be a bit more Hawaiian, but for now I have to get the pictures done (Peggy just told me I need to quit messing around get them done, today!), Mahalo.