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

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!

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.


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15% off Coupon for In-Store and Online Purchases

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

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

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

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

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

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

A ways back I took a stab at answering thise questions with a post titled Hawaiian Shirts, from Conception to the Consumer, but after giving it more thought, I felt that I didn't really start at square one.

So lets rewind a bit and start with the picture of me eating pineapple ice cream whip (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 cotton Hawaiian print fabrics for shirt production, as well as making select fabrics available for sale to the general public.
 

Mahalo for reading! Visit us at www.waveshoppe.com


 

Teleporting Hawaiian Shirts

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.