Haters are going to hate, the American Flag story

Aloha, normally we keep our noses out of politics and focused on our clothing brand, but today we are going to make an exception. As many of our customers will attest, Wave Shoppe produces a specialty shirt that is so messed up and ugly looking that it has been officially (and appropriately)  named the ugly Hawaiian shirt

Sample Ugly Shirt

The shirts are in step with patchwork shirts, we lay out 1 layer of each fabric on hand and then cut it up and make "patchwork" Hawaiian shirts from it. The designs and colors we use can be anything from traditional Hawaiian designs to some oddball prints like fabric with Santa or a old car, even the American Flag.

The story behind using flag material goes way back to when we started receiving requests for our service men and women for ugly shirts that contained something patriotic like the flag sewn into the mix. So being supportive of our service members we had no choice but to rise to the occasion and make them. Once word got out amongst the troops we had military contractors calling us wanting to buy Ugly Shirts in bulk. Even a general and his staff at Centcom wanted in on the action.

CJ2

We also got a lot of requests from troops stationed in Afghanistan for shirts with not only the flag, but also cigars. They apparently had makeshift cigar clubs in the middle east and wanted to go all out. Yep, you guessed right, we added cigar material.

Cigar club

So noting the popularity of the flag material with our active military, we began to randomly include flag material during regular production, that way everyone has a small chance at getting flag in their shirt.

So a few weeks ago we sold a couple of Ugly Shirts on our Amazon store and about a week later we received a inquiry about returning the purchase. What bothered us is that the customer said they were returning the shirts not because of a defect, or that they simply didn't like them, but because of the flag material. They stated that they didn't like the American flag, even if it was upside down.

I will be honest, that comment made me angry. Having a grandfather that fled Czechoslovakia to come here to fight in WWI with the US Army, I couldn't believe someone took offence to our flag. I refunded the purchase in its entirety as soon as we received it from the customer, but its a dam shame that some in our society have become lost souls without conviction or patriotism.

As I thought more and more about this I decided that my reaction to all of this is to produce a higher percentage of Ugly Shirts with flag material. And if one day I have the capitol, maybe a ultra patriotic American Flag shirt composed of multiple flag styles/designs. One thing for sure, patriotism will not be a unspoken or forgotten word in our household or business.

Top 10 Hawaiian Shirt Websites on Page 10 of Google

 Today we are visiting the murky depths of page 10 of Googles search results, yep that place that rarely gets visited by anyone. So today I did a search of the word Hawaiian shirts to see not only where www.waveshoppe.com was listed, but the less fortunate as well.

Top 10 Hawaiian Shirt Websites on Page 10 of Google are as follows:

1. https://www.golfdigest.com/story/game-improvement-hawaiian-shir "honestly its a awful website, as soon as the website opens they hit you with a full screen video. When you do make it to the article titled "Game improvement: Hawaiian shirts aren't only for luaus" there is a 1 paragraph blurb on how a Hawaiian shirt can improve your golf game. though I believe lots of practice will serve you better.
2. https://totalfratmove.com/5-hawaiian-shirts-ensure-you-dominate-this-spring/ Titled "5 Hawaiian Shirts That’ll Ensure You Dominate This Spring" this page is one ginormous ad for a Hawaiian shirt retailer, enough said.
3. https://www.forbes.com/forbes/welcome/?toURL=https://www.forbes.com/sites/katiechang/2016/11/27/how-to-incorporate-the-hawaiian-shirt-the-years-most-surprising-fashion-trend-into-your-wardrobe/&refURL=https://www.google.com/&referrer=https://www.google.com/ another garbage website, first visit hammers you with one giant ad. I can easily see why its buried in the back of the internet.
4. https://postgradproblems.com/embrace-the-hawaiian-shirt/ Titled "Embrace The Hawaiian Shirt" it appears to be a blog post that rambles on about clothing choices and personal hygiene or something.
5. http://www.kyifi.com/ site belongs to a Hawaiian shirt wholesaler but it super hard to navigate and doesn't look very user friendly.
6. http://www.whowhatwear.com/hawaiian-shirt-trend The Next Big Trend Is Already Lurking in Your Parents' Closet its one of those BS fashion blogs that wants you to think their models depict what the future of Hawaiian fashion in going to look like. The reality is that its lip service for their advertisers 
7. http://www.eonline.com/news/781533/diane-kruger-makes-hawaiian-shirts-look-cool-no-really Diane Kruger Makes Hawaiian Shirts Look Cool—No, Really She has odd looking legs
8. https://www.heddels.com/2015/05/beginners-guide-hawaiian-shirts/  A Beginner’s Guide To Hawaiian Shirts AKA images of washed up Hollywood actors wearing Hawaiian shirts
9. https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2017/jun/29/from-elvis-to-balenciaga-five-ways-to-wear-a-hawaiian-shirt From Elvis to Balenciaga: five ways to wear a Hawaiian shirt Yawn... another site like #8 on my list
10. http://www.bigkahuna.com/ and I end my painful journey with a competitor website, not sure a link will help them any but its the thought that counts, correct?

If you dared to visit even a few of those websites it becomes clear as to why they are way back on page 10. Personally if our company site ever looked like one of those and we couldn't correct the issues, we would seriously consider pulling the plug on it. IMO Hawaiian themed websites should look as fun as the shirts they sell, not laden with popups and ads.