Hawaiian Aloha Shirts inspired by Home Depot

As most of you know Wave Shoppe Hawaiian shirts is a mom and pop Hawaiian clothing manufacturer and retailer. Approximately 40% of the shirts and muumuus you see in our showroom are actually designed in-house. What few people know is how we actually get some of our inspiration.

Inspiration for the designs can come at anytime and often in the most unlikely situations. Lets use one of our most recent designs (pictured), a classic yet simple design containing hibiscus flower, palm and banana leaf.

This beautiful navy blue fabric contains 5 colors, 4 of which are shades of blue and a shade of grey. This was utilized in production of these blue Hawaiian shirts which are available in mens and womens styles as well as dresses.

The purple fabric, also pictured, follows the same convention, 4 shades of purple and a shade of grey. This color is also available as purple Hawaiian shirts in men and womens styles as well as muumuu dresses


Inspiration for this design actually occurred while I was at Home Depot selecting some paint for our family room.

Yes you read that correctly, Home Depot. While I was waiting for some help, I stood in front of the paint strips and was just mesmerized by all of the color combinations and variations of color.

It was almost impossible to resist thinking how cool it would be to have a Hawaiian fabric that was colored in such a way that it actually mimicked the paint samples.

So on a whim, I grabbed bunch of samples of purples and blues and stuck them in my pocket and preceded to purchase 2 gallons of grey paint for my family room.

A few months had passed and we just happened to be working on a new blue and a new purple fabric design. We were in phase 3 of the design process, balancing had been signed off on and we had just received our first colorized proofs in the mail. Proofing is always performed with design printed on paper, its the best and most accurate way to determine what the coloring will look like on a textile. 

Unfortunately upon our initial and immediate inspection of the artwork, we were simply not getting a good vibe from the coloring. The colors just didn't flow properly or disperse the design as evenly as we were hoping for.

And then it hit me, why not incorporate the colors used in these paint samples? Magically (one revision later) we all unanimously agreed that we had a winner and began prepping the artwork for printing on cotton.

And the grey color? Well I always have to be different, so we filled the area around the hibiscus stem with grey, the same grey we painted our family room in. It gave the hibiscus flowers some additional contrast and balance. That's a true story about the inspiration for that particular design. It has been well received and we anticipate using this very same coloring/design convention with some different colors, possibly red or green and I think that orange would look super cool with that treatment.

Mahalo

Cars n Beaches in Textiles

Its a well know fact that people have a love affair with automobiles, as well as a deep passion for the beachcomber lifestyle. When you first think of cars you usually associate them with highways and racetracks, a topic we will revisit in a little bit.

What you may or may not realize is that cars have also been at home in the sand. Be it driving up and down Daytona Beach or Corpus Christi Beach (since re-named North Beach). With the 1952 Nascar Daytona Beach Race claiming the lions share of fame, though driving up and down Corpus Christi Beach should be on everyone bucket list. There is an incredible amount of wildlife, especially if your into bird watching, as well as natural dunes to take in, not to mention 5 miles of drivable sand.

And next up is the surf crowd, while many popular surf beaches were once open to automobiles, those privileges are now just a fond memory of the good old days. Still there were many surfer that utilized station wagons, Ford Galaxy's, woodie cars and even panel trucks.

As you can only imagine, it was just a matter of time before the textile industry decided to meld the two together and print automotive themed fabrics. Many of which could be utilized in something novel like a Hawaiian shirt with a red woody car parked on the beach.

We can attest to the fact that just about every factory production car has most likely reproduced in a fabric. And due to the high cost of licensing, there are also a lot of fabrics sporting no name cars that slightly resemble their famous counterparts, some almost mirror them but we wont tread in those waters today.

Now back to racing, believe it or not Hawaiian shirts are quite popular at the racetracks, why I do not know, but they are everywhere. Even popular racetracks such as Fontana Speedway wear them as staff uniforms and such.

Of course Hawaiian shirts with cars are not limited to speedways, the car cultures demand a myriad of designs, themes and colors in their clothing. Patronize any car show or cruise night and you will see what we mean.

Luau Sized Mens Clothing

In Hawaii a luau (Hawaiian: lū‘au) is a traditional Hawaiian party or feast that is usually accompanied by live entertainment in the form of music, dance and or story telling. Most luaus feature food such as poi, kalua pig, poke, lomi salmon, opihi, haupia, and huli huli chicken. Most of the time the delicious food is served buffet style and overeating is just bound to occur.

Lets get this out front, when you dress for any luau you want to dress comfortable, as well as look "Hawaiian". The last thing you want is to be seen standing in line or sitting in front of a plate full of yummy food wearing a shirt that is so dam tight that it looks and feels like the buttons are going to blow right off the shirt. Even worse is if it actually happens.

It happens more often than you think, and while the guys may be somewhat at fault, some of the blame has to be placed on the clothing manufacturers. There are so many companies pumping out Hawaiian shirts that are way to small for the grade, some are two to three sizes too small and that's before washing! We sell a lot of big mens Hawaiian shirts for one simple reason, they fit.

Shown on the left is a design that is very popular, the Hawaiian shirt is made from rayon material, which offer superior had vs. cotton shirting.

The print in this shirt has beautiful tropical leafs containing Polynesian designs and these Indigo (Blue) Hawaiian shirts are cut very liberally, the shirt will offer your body a comfortable fit in al of the right places without looking like you are wearing the wrong size.

We can not express enough the importance of choosing the best looking and well fitting clothing you can when planning on attending a luau. Even if the luau is on the mainland please take the time to select or a Hawaiian shirt that allows room for movement after washing. We guarantee that if you buy any handcrafted Wave Shoppe labeled shirt that it will fit well right out of the package, as well as after repeated washings. Wave Shoppe makes their clothing in the USA!

Ever been fired by someone wearing a Hawaiian shirt?

If you haven’t figured it out yet, I am the number one fan of Hawaiian shirts and clothing with motifs that depict the cool laid back lifestyle of Hawaii. When you wear one, even on a brutally cold February day in the northern United States, it still feels appropriate to cut out of work a bit early and indulge in a Mai Tai or four. Let me prove my point by telling you about a company I once worked for. For something like 10 years I worked for a company that made pilot training software, while some of the day to day tasks were somewhat challenging, my mind still wandered.

 

I lost track of the numbers of days and months that I spent dreaming of being on a beach with my toes in the sand.

 

Fortunately for me the company dress code was fairly loose, though the downside was they didn’t allow management to wear shorts or flip flops on the property, lesser employees could wear whatever, especially if it was hot outside. But if you were in management they expected you to dress business casual when in office, to business formal during business trips.

 

In the early years of employment with them, my daily wardrobe primarily consisted of sneakers, jeans and a toned down Hawaiian shirt, something similar to this reverse print Hawaiian shirt.  

But the longer I was at that company, the more daring my wardrobe became. The Hawaiian shirts in my work wardrobe became brighter and bolder with each passing month, my closet at home was a kaleidoscope of color! I remember one day in particular, I wore blue jeans with a shirt that had vivid yellow and red parrots and a sprinkling of green all on a white background, you could probably see me from space that day. I think some of the progression had to do with rebellion, I detested weekly meetings, and attendees were regularly subjected to some of the longest and most unproductive meetings in recorded history.

 

The meetings I was forced to attend were full of kiss ass people wearing ties and business suits, eagerly awaiting some drivel to spill from the CEOs mouth, and then there was me, usually wearing a shirt with big loud flowers and such. Meetings demonstrated that time really does stand still, like an old photograph. I mean who has not wanted to add color back into an old, black and white photograph at least on time in their life?  

In the final 2 or 3 years of employment there my passion for Hawaii and island lifestyles in general started spilling over into the 2 departments I managed. Be it a tropical screen saver, hula doll etc. by the time my employment was terminated most of my full time 8 employees had something tropical in their cubical, a few even converted over to wearing a tropical themed shirt at least once a week. Honestly, they were enjoying their jobs more than the company liked, it actually irked senior management to no end.

 

Sadly there was a dark side to my position, which was having to let go of contracted help or worse, terminate a permanent employee. My approach was pretty laid back, I would usually tell them we have to have a unpopular discussion and asked them if they would like to have it over lunch at Islands or down and dirty in the meeting room. Only a few opted for the meeting room, which provided no mechanisms to retain ones dignity.  

While I have never seen any of those people I had to let go, I am optimistic that they would be genuinely friendly towards me. I also know that they will forever remember being terminated (often for being slackers) by a guy wearing a brightly colored Aloha shirt.

 

 

 

Wrap Your Torso in Tropical Parrots

I realize that winter is just starting to kick-in in many parts of the country, but on this side of the united states its summer, and almost year round. Our weather, which averages in the high 70 to low 80s makes it easy to maintain a tropical mindset year-round.

When I am at the office my mind frequently drifts off to the beach or some tropical island, sometimes its all I can think about. Many days I am wearing a blue Hawaiian shirt with really colorful parrots that wrap my torso in tropical splendor.

I can shut my eyes and almost feel the warm ocean breeze and hear the waves gently crashing on the beach and the parrots squawking in the trees.

Yup, its hard to beat living in a warm climate such as this, though we most certainly pay for it. But its still worth it, mainly because I hate snow and winter and all that cold stuff. No thank you mam, its flip flops, shorts and Hawaiian shirts for me!

In our business it really is Hawaiian shirt Friday every day of the year. So even if winter is upon you think Spring and the next 3 or 4 months will pass much quicker. Need some tropics in your life? Here is a discount coupon that you can use on your next purchase.

Why we blog

Aloha,
If your reading this, then you are probably one of the many customers and subscribers to the Da Kine Hawaiian Aloha blog. You may also be a fan of our business on Facebook or Twitter. But recently it came to my attention that many readers, customers, and close friends do not fully understand why we actually blog.

I think about a lot of topics and why I do something's and why I don't do others, but the blogging portion is pretty clear. Like a lot of our friends and customers businesses, we are a shining example of a mom and pop business. Our business model is pretty clear, we manufacture and sell Hawaiian shirts on-line and in our retail location in downtown Escondido CA. All in hopes that we will make enough money to pay our day to day bills, and maybe get a few items for the grandchildren, as well as covering a little entertainment for ourselves. Fishing fits the bill for me and my wife.

We primarily we use this blog as a venue to advertise and promote our products, we post for anyone that will read. Promoting a small business in a niche market can be daunting as the market is small and advertising budgets dry up fast, though there are many months where advertising money is non-existent.

But I have to say that in the back of my mind that I am also hoping that a reader or customer will have some Aloha and possibly blog or simply tell their friends about us. I believe that is also referred to as wishful thinking. I am also the first to admit that we don't have the advertising money to compete in the paid advertising arena.

Word of mouth is a powerful tool that shouldn't be taken lightly by any business, it can make you prosper or break you as well. How does your blogging help us? Well it's a multifaceted objective, in one hand doing so give you something to write about, it also exposes our business to your readership (which helps us with new customer acquisition). Your friend my in turn tank you for turning them on to some great products. Secondly, a blog article or webpage with a URL in it pointed to your favorite product page (like the one in this article) helps us somewhat improve our position in search engines.

Admittedly it's a small amount boost (though good karma may come your way), but it all helps. Especially when our survival on the web relies on us bettering the big box stores and goliath shopping sites like Amazon, all of whom could care less about providing things above and beyond customer service. We will even open up the store on days that we were scheduled to be closed, all just to help out the customer with tight time constraints. Even if you just have a minor question you can call our office at 760-294-1765 and we will do whatever it takes to help you. Charles will answer, call in the morning and he will just listen to whatever you have to say, mainly because it takes him forever to wake up and be productive.

Ok so your saying to yourself what do I get out of all of this. Monetary wise you get nothing for your efforts, but in terms of karma and do-gooding brownie points, the reward can be monumental. Your efforts will in a sense bring you even closer to the Wave Shoppe family. There are not enough words in the English language to describe our sincere appreciation for our customers.

Mahalo \m/

Selecting Shirts for Redheaded Men

Most men that come into our retail store have no clue on how to select shirts that go well with their hair color. The guys that have the toughest time are the gingers (redheads) because there are so few colors that compliment redheaded men. Those who are characterized by their paler, whitish skin and golden hair color will look their absolute best in warm blues and greens in varied shades of navy and olive colors.

At Wave Shoppe we offer a good selection of men's Hawaiian shirts that will compliment men with red hair. The ultimate challenge in selecting a green shirt is to select a shirt that doesn't make you look like a leprechaun.

Finding pictures of famous redheads on the internet is almost impossible, I was thinking a picture of Prince Harry in a Hawaiian shirt would make a good illustration, but I couldn't find one. So the next best thing is to just provide you with an image of the shirts we think would look good on gingers.

First up is a green Hawaiian shirt with pineapples, in a green color that has a hit of grey in the shirting (gray is another good choice).

The grey works because it is a very lite shade of grey with an overlay of sage, if it was too prominent, then it wouldn't work as well.

This particular green color works well for men with red hair, especially those whom want to wear a green shirt, yet has a green coloring that is far removed from being leprechaun green, a color and stigma you want to avoid at all costs.

When it comes to blues, there is a broad spectrum of shades of blue, especially with dye lots in shirting, but we think navy blue Hawaiian shirts look best on gingers.

Whether you have short red hair or even tressed red hair. Regardless of your color preferences, navy blue should be hanging in the closet of every red headed, Hawaii loving, American male. Navy blue just makes a man look good, especially when it's a navy blue Hawaiian shirt!

In closing we want to add that some of the worst shirt colors for men with red hair are black and tomato reds, those colors do nothing for gingers and should be avoided, unless you are carrot top (Scott Thompson) and don't care much about how people perceive you. He doesn't have a problem wearing orange or bright red shirts, but then he has some sort of celebrity status and we don't.

Automobile Threads

It's pretty common to place a design or embroidered logo on a shirt to shows ones affiliation to a company or brand. But when you have a obsession for vehicles, such as automobiles, you go all out and get a shirt that looks like a billboard ad for your favorite auto. 

While we have certainly seen our share of t-shirts with a full spectrum of automotive themes, from my personal favorite, which were the shirts with big daddy Ed Roth's Rat Fink rat rods, to almost every make and model of classic car, its probably been put on a t-shirt.

But equally popular with the car crowd are Hawaiian shirts with cars which are adorned with everything from woody cars, to hot rods such as 5-widow ford coupes. While t-shirts are predominantly white, a Hawaiian shirt with automobiles can come in a myriad of colorways. White, blue and green are very popular colors with automobile enthusiasts.

Fontana Speedway wearing Wave Shoppe's white woody car Hawaiian shirts

 

Wave Shoppe's which are designed and manufactured in Hawaii. That particular shirt boasts a red woody car parked on a palm tree lined beach.

The designs and color combinations available are only limited by your imagination. Many of the Hawaiian car shirts contain secondary themes such a 50s diners, cruise nights, and of course imaginary beach themes. Ha, most of the classic cars I have seen at car shows would get stuck in the sand, so many designs are just pure fantasy.

One thing I have not seen on Hawaiian shirting as of yet are the expensive late model cars such as Cadillac SRX parked on the beach or a Cadillac CTX or the Audi A8 L W12 cruising town, but its possible that those cars and many others could actually make it into a Hawaiian shirt in the next 20 years or so. I mentioned Cadillac because at some point in our future the 55 Chevy's are going to step aside and those Cadillac models are going to become the new "classic Chevys".

And take note that shirts emblazoned with cars are not just for the guys, as you can see in the picture above, the are a lot of women working at the speedway and they wear all sorts of shirts with automobiles when they are at work.

Hawaiian Shirts Last Forever and Other Fairy Tales

In todays topic we are going to discuss what it actually takes to manufacture well made clothing, though we will be sticking to our circle of expertise, which is manufacturing Hawaiian clothing. Our Hawaiian shirts will almost last forever, here is why:

At Wave Shoppe we offer our customers a variety of purchase options, you may purchase in-person at our retail store or you may purchase clothing online on our secure website. We primarily carry 3 clothing labels in our store, RJC, KY's and our own label, Wave Shoppe.

The major differences between the 3 labels we carry is that the RJC and KY's shirts are a camp style cut, meaning they do not have yolks and are open collar and do not button up to the neck. The Wave Shoppe shirts have yolks and under collars and button all the way up to the neck. We also apply fusible interfacing in key areas before sewing.

In short there are quite a few more components used to make Wave Shoppe's Hawaiian shirts for men vs. the camp shirts sold by others.

We firmly believe that the added components add a layer of sophistication to the shirts we manufacture, a comparable shirt would be the shirts made by Kahala, though our shirts are priced considerably less.

Material wise there is also a broad range of shirting utilized to construct Hawaiian shirts. Some shirting used in imported garments (as well as many garments sewn in Hawaii) has a noticeably lower thread count, which starts showing wear after just a few washings, imported shirts definitely wont last forever. All of our shirting used in the construction of the Hawaiian shirts sporting the colorful Wave Shoppe label is cotton poplin, which is a very durable, higher end cotton shirting.

But nothing lasts forever, even our shirts. All in all the shirts we sell in the showroom will last you quite a long time, longer than most of the Hawaiian shirts online. I have a few that are still looking good after 10 years of hard wear and tear.

We did promise you a fairy tale so here it is, on Amazon: The Emperor's New Clothes: A Fairy Tale (Little Pebbles)

Mahalo

Tropical Clothing is for all Species

With winter just around the corner you have to ask yourself, why get more tropical clothing, such as Hawaiian shirts, today? That's actually a pretty common question that's also relatively easy to answer.

Since humans are warm-blooded, we tend to design and surround ourselves with environments that incite warmth and coziness, and in many situations, tropical settings. You see it in our cars, our homes, and especially in our clothing choices.

Pick just about anyone living in a snowbelt state and ask them what they think of when its cold and snowy outside, if I was a betting man I would say they think of Spring or something tropical.

While you may find it odd that someone would be making snow angels while wearing a Hawaiian shirt and shorts, I am willing to bet that it has happened quite a few times. I have personally seen people snow skiing in shorts and Hawaiian shirts.

Ok so you say that's a guy thing? Nope, with the availability of brightly colored women's Hawaiian shirts on the internet, womens button-up shirts such as these womens purple Hawaiian shirts from Wave Shoppe's Ohana collection are giving the guys a run for their money.

Why if yopu don't believe me just go to any Jimmy Buffet concert, you will see a plethora of women wearing Hawaiian / Tropical garb and en mass. Be forwarned, the lady landsharks often choose colors and patterns so bright and bold that they are often eclipsing the mens tailgate wardrobes. And all in the name of charity, well, usually.

Save the manatee: www.savethemanatee.org

And on that note we wish to wrap things up with a picture of  one of our awesome (and charitable) customers taking the Polar Bear Plunge while wearing a one of a kind ugly Hawaiian shirt from Wave Shoppe's 2014 Ugly Shirt collection.

Take the plunge: www.plungemd.com


Mahalo!

Hot Hawaiian Shirt Costumes for Halloween

Insane asylum Hawaiian shirt

Halloween is that one time of year that people are encouraged to dress like they came from an insane asylum, people dress up in everything from ghoulish to fairytale. For those that want something more in-between and are not morbidly interested in death or disaster, we recommend going Hawaiian. You can choose form an array of men's Hawaiian shirts on Wave Shoppe's website, though a few shirts stand out more than others. Below are our top 2 picks.

 

Men's orange Hawaiian shirt with parrots

Orange is a color that is symbolic of Halloween, thus a Orange Hawaiian shirt would be quite appropriate, especially for men. Sure it would be nice to have a Hawaiian shirt with pumpkins but you cant have everything, can you.

Men's ugly Hawaiian shirt

Of number 2 choice would be Wave Shoppe's world famous ugly Hawaiian shirt which is concocted from an array of non- matching, non- complimenting fabrics. If your looking to be viewed as hideous looking this Halloween we suggest choosing one of these shirts. Each ugly Hawaiian shirt is different from the next so you are insured to have a one of a kind Hawaiian Halloween themed costume.

Brown is not the official color of poverty

Today I was doing a little investigative reading on colors and ran across a Wikipedia entry that I just don't agree with.

"Brown is the color of dark wood or rich soil. It is a composite color made by combining red, black and yellow. The color is seen widely in nature, in wood, soil, and human hair color, eye color and skin pigmentation. In Europe and the United States, it is the color most often associated with plainness, humility, the rustic, and poverty. It is also, according to public opinion surveys in Europe and the United States, the least favorite color of the public."

They make the claim that brown is a color associated with poverty and that it is one of the least favorite colors in the USA and Europe. I have to disagree with that statement and question how they arrived at such a conclusion.

My first case in point would be stating that a tapa Hawaiian shirt is normally brown in color and brown Tapa cloth is highly prized color amongst collectors.

Explorer Captain Cook sure liked the color brown, in fact he was the first European to collect Tapa cloth and introduce it to the rest of the world. In Tonga, tapa is known as ngatu, and in Tonga it is of great social importance to the islanders, often being given as gifts. Hey, have some poverty brah (said no Tongan ever)

So off to the internet to do some more checking. I checked some home decorating sites as well as performed some simple searches for best colors, favorite colors, etc. and came up with this consensus: "The most popular color in the world is blue. The second favorite colors are red and green, followed by orange, brown and purple." So far, the fine people of the Internet sure don't indicate that the color brown is a disliked color. But you cant believe everything you read on the internet can you?

But wait, pictures don't lie, let's do some additional image searches for "poor people" and "poverty". While I saw a lot of poor people wearing clothing colors such as white, blue, and black, there was very little in the way of brown clothing.

And then I was thinking that chocolate is brown, does that have an association with poverty? Umm nope. What about coffee, its brown in color, is that a sign of poverty?

Even many famous, prestigious universities are built from brown bricks. Not grey or red bricks, but brown, that alone should tell you something about the color brown.

In the end I think the majority consensus on the Internet got it right this time, and Wikipedia is plain wrong. Whether it's colored artificially or naturally, brown is always considered a neutral, yet undeniably popular color. I will always view it as a color associated with nature and our beautiful planet earth and will never look at it as a color symbolic of poverty.

By now your saying to yourself "you didn't mention brown skin color" and your right, I didn't go there because this blog is primarily about product marketing, textiles and clothing trends, not racial issues.

List of Top Hawaiian Shirt Designs for 2014

With a plethora of Hawaiian prints (in sometimes up to 6 colorways) being churned out by this manufacture and that one, choosing a good design for your personal Hawaiian shirt can be a monumental task. Our approach to choosing what to print (or what not to print) is relative simple. When it comes to men's Hawaiian shirts we primarily think about how to match Hawaiian clothing as well as incorporating select customer demographics into our decision.

If we had to pick the top colors for men's Hawaiian shirts based solely on sales numbers we would have to say that blues, purples, greens, browns, and lastly honorable mention for whites, are amongst the top picks for 2014 Wave Shoppe’s most popular shirts in those colors are as follows:

 

Pictured on your left is a blue Hawaiian shirt with pineapples. A good choice for guys that like a bit of a toned down look that's not quite a reverse print.

Product URL
www.waveshoppe.com/hawaiian-shirts-41.htm







Next we have a beautiful purple Hawaiian shirt in a men's cut. This is a big customer favorite, especially with the men that wear khaki shorts, as well as wedding parties.

Product URL
www.waveshoppe.com/hawaiian-shirts-38.htm







Green is another  popular color that pairs up well with khaki or sage pants as well as looking good on men with brown or darker colored hair.

Product URL
www.waveshoppe.com/hawaiian-shirts-42.htm

Last, but not least, we have brown. Brown Hawaiian shirts are always sophisticated looking but when you incorporate a tribal design in to the shirt you end up with a more than stellar looking garment.

Product URL
www.waveshoppe.com/hawaiian-shirts-43.htm




Please note that replicating tapa shirts on cotton is the norm nowadays and the brown tapa Hawaiian shirt above is an extremely detailed and fine looking design on cotton.

Top 5 Father's Day Gifts (by a Dad)



There are no hard rules for any types of gift giving, and that also applies to Fathers Day gifts. Nonetheless fathers can be difficult to buy for, mainly because they are not usually very open about their feelings, desires, wants etc.

But being a dad myself as well as having a fairly well rounded appetite for variety, I thought I would offer some affordable, yet realistic suggestions for Father's Day gifts (solid choices that wont backfire on you).

Even if you have only observed dad for a few minutes a day, you can still come reasonably close to figuring out what he may like.

So below is my recommendations for affordable Father's Day gifts (in no particular order), as well as a few recommendations on where you could purchase it from.

• If you have noticed that dads clothes look a bit greasy or that he smells like gasoline or diesel fuel he would probably appreciate some tools. If you have a good budget I would recommend a pre-boxed tool set like this 165-Pc for $89 sold by Sears or if you have a smaller budget check out the sets offer at auto parts stores like this 54-Pc for $39 sold by O'Reilly Auto Parts

• Dad is usually missing in the morning and on the weekends and when you do see him, he is carrying a rod and box and smells like fish or beer or both. Odds are dad likes to fish and let me tell you right now, dads fishing equipment and tackle are sub par at best. big ticket items like new rods and reels can be tricky to purchase so I would take the safe route. 

  

• My recommendation here would be for you to either buy him a nice gift certificate from your local fishing supply store or go online and get him a Bass Pro Shops Gift Certificate (my personal favorite). But if your dad is not tech savvy enough to use gift cards and you need to actually buy a fishing gift for him, I would recommend sticking with basic baits such as a handful of crankbaits from Bass Pro any of those colors listed will work on a wide variety of waters.
   
• Dads constantly spotted in the crawlspace or under the sink or spend a lot of time in the attic? My guess here is that a new flash light will cause dear old dad to do backflips. My recommendation is twofold. First choice is a Maglight combo set sold by Home Depot for $50 and my second yet equal pick will be a spotlight such as this Stanley 10 watt sold by Walmart for $45. Don't be cheep on the light, the higher candle power and wattage the better. Many lights are re-chargeable and come with a car adapter, as well as a charger.

• Clothing! Ha we all know that when faced with going clothes shopping that dad would rather wear his clothes until they literally turn to rags. You can approach this a few ways, but I always go for whacky t-shirts with sayings/designs or colorful Hawaiian shirts from a well known company such as Wave Shoppe or one of the many others found online. I would stick with online shopping because that's where you are going to find the largest variety of men's Hawaiian shirts.

• Your dad more or less mopes around the house and spends most of his time watching television? Slippers to the rescue, yep house slippers are the ticket. Get the kind that have some sort of plush lining and can be easily slipped on and off like these Deer Stags from Zappos and how can you beat that price of $27 I mean in addition to the comfy slippers you will most likely be able to spring for a Fathers Day Card as well.

Aloha from Italy?

Every once in a while I run across something that myself or science for all that matters can not explain.

I ran across this image in a Google shopping ad and I just had to get more information on whom on earth would wear a Hawaiian shirt with a red bandana and skinny jeans.

To my dismay there is a online company selling Saint Laurent labeled silk Hawaiian shirts that are made in Italy of all places, and get this, they are only charging $890 for the shirt. OMG really?

I guess what I really want to say is that if there are that many punk ass bitch looking kids, that have so much money, to buy a ridiculous priced Hawaiian shirt made in Italy, then the world has gone to hell in a hand basket.

Sorry but that's just way to much money to spend on any type of clothing, not alone a Hawaiian shirt.

Even basic street gear from Aloha shirt shop sells for under $140 though people whom want more value and bang for their dollar tend to shop at places like Wave Shoppe Hawaiian shirts whereas the prices range between $38 and $48 for American made Hawaiian shirts (made in California and Hawaii).

Unprepossessing Shirts

While some people may say that ugly Hawaiian shirts are not particularly attractive or appealing to the eye, it doesn't necessarily mean the person wearing it isn’t attractive on the inside. Actual customer pictures sent to Wave Shoppe Hawaiian shirts suggest that despite their unprepossessing appearances, the customers could still be suave and possibly even a little animal magnetism going on. 

For those that are unfamiliar with this recent fashion trend, you need to know that it didn’t originate in Hawaii, they originated on the mainland, in a very messy textile cutting room.

These ugly Hawaiian shirts are the byproduct of years of shirt manufacturing, as well as making good on a few snide comments pertaining to what we were going to do with our remnant fabrics. Our response was usually that we were going to cut all of it up and make it into Hawaiian shirts and actually sell them.

People said we were crazy, nothing would match and that they would be hideous looking, we said exactly. Its not the first time people have questioned Charles rational.

Let it be told that in this type of manufacturing / business model that there really isn’t such a thing as scrap fabric, we use almost everything and only when the pieces become trace fragments of cloth, do we ever toss any of it. 

So 5 or 6 years later we were brainstorming on new products that could be brought to market. Even micro clothing labels such as Wave Shoppe Hawaiian Shirts need to be mindful of breaking into new retail vertical spaces.

 

Thus the cutting shop was eventually given the directive to start blindly cutting up reserve fabrics (that were not being utilized for the current line). While we initially produced just a few shirts in our more popular sizes, they sold out within a few weeks. A more expansive production of ugly Hawaiian shirts that followed did the same.  

Realizing we may have hit on something, we made the decision to jump in with both feet and run off large amounts of ugly shirts in all of the sizes (Small through 5X). The problem we faced now is that we wiped out much of our excess fabric during the first two productions.

 

Obviously we had to have the shirts, so we went out and purchased a few thousand yards of fabrics from some of our suppliers. Mind you none of which will be used in our traditional shirt line.

 

Currently our inventory of these garish shirts is 50% over normal inventory levels, but we anticipate that demand for these shirts will soon outpace supply. If you’re looking to win a ugly Hawaiian shirt contest at the office or a luau, these are the ugly Hawaiian shirts to have.

 

These are not necessarily gag gifts either. Of the few hundred or so ugly shirts we have sold so far, its our estimate that over 80 % of the recipients are actually wearing them or have worn them at least once!

 

I will admit that as I see more and more of the ugly shirts released from sewing, that they are growing on me. Let it be known that I don't have one for myself yet, I guess I am a bit of a wimp or possibly have a weak Aloha spirit. But these are all one of a kind collectables, so I will eventually succumb to putting one in my Hawaiian shirt collection.

 

 

All of our customers that have provided us with feedback have reported that they are the talk of the water cooler and consistently win their office contests, as well as often finding themselves engaged in deep conversation about their odd looking shirts.

 

"Often times, my office mates (when I wear my ugly Hawaiian shirt to the office) often point out the fabric from the other shirts I have.  I enjoy watching people look at the shirt, and try to figure out where they’ve seen some of the other patterns."

 

""Not even the bleeding eyeballs detracts from the pleasure of this magnificent shirt!".

 

That's all for now folks, grab yourself one of these shirts and have a little fun this Summer. Mahalo and have a great day! Charles

 

Spring is here and it heralds a busy season at the Wave Shoppe

Spring is here and it heralds a busy season at the Wave Shoppe.

I just love the first day of spring! Soon I will be planting a little garden outside our office and every year as I am planning it the conversation with the Hawaiian shirt King goes like this. “I cannot wait to plant my garden this year” says Peggy owner of the best Hawaiian apparel store in San Diego. Charles pipes in with “well don’t forget you need to water and weed the garden because I am too busy to do it”.

So I plant the garden and after the first week lose interest in it and of course Charles starts to water and then weed. Then he also brings in the vegetables, takes them home, cleans them and cooks them up.  Not sure why he bothers to tell me he won’t water and weed because we both know it is a task that will fall on him.

He is right about one thing we really are very, very busy because spring heralds the start of our busy season. Right now companies are looking for event shirts for the summer and we do supply a huge selection of event shirts that are used for company picnics, conventions, and company shirts. The fact that we make our shirts in the U.S.A. means we get a lot of orders from small business and unions and those companies that feel it is important to buy U.S.A. made products.

So while Charles will be busy in the garden, he is also available to help our wonderful potential customers who are looking for wholesale shirts for their event. You can reach him at 760-294-1765.

 

Boy Scouts of America troop visiting Hawaii wearing Hawaiian shirts purchased in bulk from Wave Shoppe



 

 

To Tuck or Not To Tuck – that is the question

Sometimes my customers ask me the craziest questions and todays’ customer wins the award. This gentleman comes into the store and bellows dramatically from the door “To Tuck or Not To Tuck! That is my question!

I have to say I was amused by his question as well as his dramatic flair but he really wanted to know so I kept my response to my standard answer of “there is not steadfast rule”.

 

I have been asked this question before and the answer is that we work really hard to make comfortable, colorful Hawaiian shirts here at the Wave Shoppe and we encourage our customers to wear their shirts a little loose and hanging down instead of tucking them in. 

 

After all a loose fitting shirt allows for air to flow through and keeps you cool and comfortable I did say at the end of our conversation the only thing we discourage you to do is wear one of our shirts and pair them with black crew socks and any type of sandals because that is just wrong on so many levels!!!!

So if you are reading this blog post and you wear sandals and black socks, instead of getting all dignified and letting me know why it ok in your opinion. I say to you “ Bruddah just get some Slippahs! 

 

Here is another article on how to wear a Hawaiian shirt (with more pictures of course).

 

 

AAARRRRGGGGHHHHH Parrots!

Parrots! I seem to be surrounded by them at work and at home. At the Wave Shoppe Hawaiian Shirt store in Escondido we sell Hawaiian shirts, muumuus, tropical dresses, tropical signs and we have some really cool, colorful parrot wind chimes among other things. The parrot wind chime sound is a tinkling of wood and really quite soothing and that is about the only soothing parrot I have ever heard.  

For some unknown reason I allowed my husband to talk me into getting an Umbrella Cockatoo. Anyone who knows me knows that I have always had a fear of birds. This stemmed from being attacked as a child by a giant macaw when I was 5 years old. I simply walked by this birds’ cage while playing with my friend and this bird jumped me and while he didn’t do any physical damage I was pretty scared and simply preferred to stay away from birds. Don’t get me wrong when I saw birds I did not freak out and run or anything embarrassing like that I just preferred to stay away from them especially parrots.

One day my husband told me he had found a reputable breeder who had a baby cockatoo and could we just go look at it? He said a baby cockatoo would be small and getting it small would enable me to grow comfortable with it by the time it was full grown so we headed out to just “look”. I didn’t find out until later that Charles had been to the bank the day before and funnily enough he had just the right amount of cash to buy that parrot in his wallet. By the way we adopted the bird and named him Coco and he was not small.


Baby Cockatoos are really big about the size of 6 canaries all together and they are expensive!!!!! Lifetime commitment as they live longer than humans do. They are messy, destructive, annoying attention grabbers but when they are loving and sweet they make up for all the negatives. My parrot sits on my shoulder and runs his claw through my hair giving me what my husband terms “googly eyes” he says he will have a problem with the bird when it begins to sing me Barry White songs!

So for all you parrot lovers out there. We invite you to hop in your car and take a drive to Downtown Escondido to come check out our wooden parrot chimes!

The chimes are only available in-store but they are really colorful and look good in patio areas, bars and poolside.

On the left is an actual picture of one of the parrot chimes we offer in the showroom.

And of course we have lots of Hawaiian shirts with parrots in an array of colors. One of our most popular parrot shirts are these orange Hawaiian shirts with parrots and we sell this particular shirt year round.

The Dreaded Wedding Invitation



The wedding invitation said for all guests to dress in “Aloha Attire” as the wedding will take place on the beach and the elderly couple who visited my store last Saturday begged for advice on what to wear. “Aloha Attire” simply means that the men should wear a Hawaiian shirt and the women should wear a Hawaiian muumuu dress! Nothing to panic about, but some people are really concerned that they dress to the occasion. The wedding was the next day and this couple had been all over San Diego County looking for something tropical to wear and found us after their granddaughter did a Google search.  

Now I do know a little something about casual beach and Hawaiian weddings. I have probably worked with about 25 brides in the last 4 years and have become accustom to helping the bride and groom dress those who are in the wedding ceremony including bridesmaids, groomsmen, ring bearers, father and mother of the bride and groom etc. These events are typically casual, but most of the brides want a color coordinated look so that the wedding pictures come out looking great instead of too crazy!

My female customer was in her 70’s and after trying on quite a lot of clothing decided on the blue Hawaiian mid-calf muumuu we stock here at the Wave Shoppe showroom located in downtown Escondido on Kalmia Street. She was about 5’1 so the mid-calf muumuu fit her perfectly ending well above the ankle, so she didn’t have to worry about tripping on the hem like she would have if she would have worn our traditional long muumuu. I asked her what shoes she was pairing with it and when she said heels I discouraged her from that choice and suggested a pair of sandals that she could easily slip off and get rid of the sand that a beach wedding surely would bring.

Now the husband had been sitting in a chair patiently waiting for his wife, but he was getting bored. I know that look as he started to look like my Charles right before he bolts out of a store. So I suggested our white/blue Hawaiian shirt and he tried it on and it looks good with the blue Hawaiian mid-calf muumuu as the colors are complimentary. So voila they bought those items and exited the store very excited that they would look like a couple, but not match exactly.

I really do enjoy helping customers find what looks best on them and if you come to the store and don’t know what to choose just ask me. Beware; I am brutally honest, but you will look your best in the clothing I help you find.  

 

Peggy

 

A True Obama Care Story

First off let it be said that my wife and I are self-employed and pay 100% of our health care premiums. Last year we were told by our current insurance company that our rates were increasing by around $150 per person, which would would have made our combined monthly health care costs higher than our mortgage.

When every penny counts we found out that the same company offered slightly better insurance (benefits and deductible wise) in Obama care (covered California) and given the small monthly rebate, we reluctantly got on board. Fast forwarding past all the enrollment BS, we eventually received our new insurance cards and noticed that our current Dr was not listed on it.

 

After many calls to health net, our provider, we finally got through to a human being and were told that our Dr was not participating in covered California (Obama care) so that was why they assigned us a new one. Since it was not all that far from the house we decided to give things a chance and took a drive to meet the newly assigned Dr and check out the facility. When we got there we were simply shocked, the window dressing wasn’t even in my native language, below is a picture of the actual place, honestly we never got out of the car.

 

So we went back on their website and looked to see what our Dr options were. We reside in one of the largest cities in Southern California and there was exactly 10 doctors in my area that practiced at our local hospital. 4 were pediatricians, 2 were not taking new patients and I couldn’t pronounce the names of the others except for the last Dr on the list.

 

We went to meet the prospective new Dr we had signed up for online. When we walked in he had a sign above his ft. desk that said “restore the constitution” and I instantly knew he was the Dr for me. So in a insurance world that runs on referrals, I made my first appointment to get a referral to have my pacemaker service performed. They basically read the activity logs, check battery life and make calibration adjustments if needed

 

I said to the Dr “you know there are zero heart doctors in this plan” he said “yes, it will be interesting to see who picks this up”. Well it’s been 2 weeks now and I haven’t heard a thing. If this was a life threatening topic I would certainly go to the emergency room or go to a cardiologist and pay for it, but I think I will wait a little longer to see how all of this is going to pan out.

 

Personally I don't think this program will be sustainable and we will be forced to change insurance providers again. And you can be assured that when Obama care fails the insurance companies are not going to roll back the premiums to pre-Obama care rate hikes.