TRI Co Hollywood, CA.

TRI Co
4657 Hollywood Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90027
(818) 572-5121

Tri Co is a partnership of three companies, Dice, The Great Frog London, and Dixie. I got to meet Dean Micetich who is the owner of Dice Magazine and also has a band called The Black Tibetans. His band played at Russ Popes event at Dixie Long Beach a couple nights earlier. Jon Tubbs is the owner of Dixie Long Beach and is also a sales rep I believe for Red Wing Boots. I met Tubbs years ago when he worked for Vans as their Florida sales rep. The Great Frog London specializes in custom hand carved jewelry that they make in their basement in London. They've been doing this since the early 70's. I can really appreciate what I see going on here at Tri Co. They've built a community, support their friends brands and have done a great job their shop!

Dice recently did a collab project with Neighborhood Japan which is a highly sought after apparel brand. That make high end vintage styles motorcycle and custom hotrod inspired apparel with a technical twist. A couple of the pieces like the vintage throwback baseball jersey and varsity jacket you see on display on the right.

Really dig the Tri Co neon light and vintage wood paneling on the back wall.

50's inspired striped longsleeves that outlaw bikers wore back then.

Brick and wood seemed to be the motif throughout all these vintage inspired shops.

Lots of good reads here. Magazines and books from Japan that you can't get anywhere in the U.S. except for here at Tri Co. 

Jason Jessee's Black Tibetan pan on display along with his Hard Luck brand deck and his Santa Cruz Guadalupe reissue deck. This is the bike that inspired where the custom chopper scene is today. Jason was way ahead of his time and is still inspiring skateboarding and chopper enthusiast today without even trying. 

Glory Sales and Service Hollywood, CA.

Glory Sales and Service

4659 Hollywood Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90027
Neighborhood: Los Feliz

(323) 644-5679

glorysales.com

The Glory sign out front has the old vintage service station sign feel to it which is what they were going for. 

Not sure who's bike this is but it looks like one of the Hide Moto or Bratstyle bikes from Japan.

I really like the way this shop looks at first glance. You don't see shops like this in Hawaii. The closest thing you'll see like this is old service station in Kalihi or in Waipahu minus the clothing.

Their cash wrap felt like you were actually at an old service station with a bunch of collectibles on display in the showcase in the background. Lots to see and keep one interested.

Brixton bag display was cool.

Master of Disaster wall.

Interesting way to display beanies. Most of the hanging wears was from Brixton. We carry Brixton at Blue Hawaii Surf but the look and feel is totally different due to the way we display it. Glory does an excellent job of making all the brands they carry have that vintage work wear feel.

Levi's apparel never looked better especially the way Glory displays it.

Denim work aprons 

The Hundreds Los Angeles, CA.

Friday morning the Blue Hawaii crew set out to meet up with Scotty Litle and Mike Franklin over at the new The Hundreds headquarters somewhere up in Los Angeles. I had been to their old headquarters a couple times which was pretty amazing. However this one was probably twice the size and had way more interesting things to see compared to the old place and the old place wasn't shabby at all. The Hundreds takes the approach of employing the people who help to make up the community that they are catering too which would be the skateboarders, artist, dj's, musicians and so and an so fourth. With this being said when you see their facility it becomes apparent that Ben and Bobby really take care of their employees and try to make the daily work experience a good one. They've got a mini ramp for starters so you can skate during your lunch break or after work so that's rad. The employees working the warehouse get around via skateboards and bicycles so they get their daily allowance of excercise while working. They've also got a bunch of cool art to look at from world renowned graffiti artist and artist in general. It's a pretty inspiring place to work I imagine. Following their history from back when they were do everything out of the original Rosewood shop to where they are today is amazing in itself. I'm interested to see what the future has in store for The Hundreds with the ever changing landscape of the street wear scene. With Bobby, Ben, and Scotty at the helm I'm confident that TH is in good hands and will be around for a long time to come!

Bill Hundreds by Madsteez

So sick! Wish I had my board and Kyle Yanagimoto with me! He would've destroyed this thing!

Would you look at the size and amount of screens they've got in here! 

Rad!

Possibilities are endless with the selection of inks they have here!

Look... it's just like the SXA Studio except it's 100 times bigger with more state of the art machines. No matter what it's good to see The Hundreds printing their own tees in house. That's cool!

It's amazing how many tees they pumped out just in the time we were here!

I need me one of these flash dryers. My work light just ain't cuttin' it!

I need me one of these dryers too but it's the size of my entire living space so I guess it's back to the work light for drying my SXA tees!

Good braddah right here! Scotty Ill has been with The Hundreds since he was 17 which is roughly around 10 years I think. I like that Scotty is still a skateboarder and doesn't give a f*ck about what a sales manager is supposed to look like. Scotty's just Scotty and that's rad. We need more Scotty's in the world! Mahalo for the tour Braddah Scotty and for the skate deck! Stoked!

I've actually got me one of these Don Pendleton prints from when "Baby D" Dave Miyataki was our rep. Miss you Braddah Dave! 

Us Versus Them San Diego, CA.

After a visit with Alyasha we headed over to Us Versus Them a few blocks away. We carry UVT at Blue Hawaii Surf and I wanted to see their buildout in person to get a better understanding of the brand and what they were all about.Outside of having a shop like this it's really hard for a consumer to understand and get a feel for exactly what a brand is. When we arrived it appeared that they were closed but James Banuelos the owner kindly let us in and gave us the lowdown and history of Us Versus Them.

This was the view from the small alley that UVT is located. Kinda tricky finding it but if you know where Horton Plaza parking lot is on the G St. side you'll run into it. Already was digging the window display when walked up!

300 G St
(between Union St & State St)
San Diego, CA 92101
Neighborhood: Gaslamp

usversusthem.com

VIP parking stall right in the shop!

I've seen this place online as well as Instagam but there's nothing like seeing a place in person. James Banuelos pictured here is the owner of UVT San Diego. He also owns City Fog his other company that makes surfboards as well as clothing. James is originally from Santa Cruz and grew in that 80's surf, skate, hot rod culture. He's a pretty passionate guy when it comes to what it is that UVT and City Fog is doing. I first noticed UVT a few year back because of a video that was online showing some lowbrow art, tattoo art, and custom lowriders on the UVT website. UVT came about in Temecula where one of the founding UVT partners just recently opened up the UVT Garage where they work on custom cars and have shows as well. This is definitely a place where someone who's into lowbrow art and custom culture should come to support. Unfortunately with all the big box mall shops packaging up image and feeding people the wrong message it's really hard to be heard and understood. It's shops like UVT were community is built and knowledge is shared with like minded people and people interested in this lifestyle should be supporting. Mahalo James for your time and for showing us some aloha!

Quiver of City Fog logs and old skool skate decks on display.

Custom striping and artwork on an old sewing machine, gas tank, and helmets.

More striping and artwork mixed in with some UVT gear and Social D video.

Custom lowbrow art on some surfboards. Would be cool to see these things out in the water. Wonder if the flaked out purple board would give the illusion of a lure. Maybe better on display!

Window display with a place to kick it and take in everything. Kinda bummed because I didn't take photos of the whole build out in the shop which was very well done.

Alyasha Owerka-Moore

After our lunch at Neighborhood we met up with Alyasha Owerka-Moore over at his loft for a quick chat. I had briefly met him 5 or so years ago in Vegas at his booth when he was doing Fiber Ops. I then again met him at Dixie for Russ' event through our mutual friend Len Higa. I know of Alyasha through some of the things I've read online and in magazines as well as through stories told by mutual friends. I was surprised when I had gotten a text from Len saying that Aly was down to meet up with us at his loft to talk a little story. I don't really know him personally and for him to take the time out and to have us come over to his living space was quite generous. When we got to his loft I was pretty blown away by all the memorabilia and nostalgic collectables he had accumulated and displayed throughout his space. Although I was fascinated by all of it I was even more caught up with his stories regarding his background and history in the skateboarding and street wear scene. I had never heard any of it before and now realize why Aly is held in such high regards by skateboarders and those in the fashion scene. He was part of that first wave of kids who skateboarded in New York who was into punk rock and hip hop as well as the fashion of skateboarders at the time. Through this small scene things just organically happen to take shape through his friendships and networks that pretty much brings him to the point at which he's at today. I could've easily spent a couple more hours talking story with Aly but we were on a tight schedule and had to hit the road back up to Long Beach. Hopefully one day soon I can stop by and talk story with Aly again but this time with no time constraints. Mahalo Aly for your hospitality and sharing the aloha with us!

Felt like a scene out of Pulp Fiction but with way more rad memorabilia. The bomb in the backgound was from Len Higa of Onimotorworks. Aly said it was one of those fake bombs that the Navy used to fill with water and used for training to simulate mounting onto aircraft. Len got a hold of it and sealed it up and built the mounts for it. Aly has since used it for a prop for some photoshoots. How's the Rock em' Sock em' Robots!

Neighborhood San Diego, CA.

After the long ride here from Long Beach and the numerous stops along the way the crew was ready fo' grind! The fella at 5&A Dime pointed us this way and I gotta say it was a good choice. It was pretty much the obvious choice since it was right across the street but sometimes when it's too obvious it doesn't mean that it's gonna be good. In this case it was both obvious and good! When I first saw the name of the restaurant I immediately thought of Neighborhood Japan which is a clothing company not a restaurant. I thought maybe these guys were either biting their name or trying to lure in the type of clientele that Neighborhood Japan has to come an eat at here. Either way I gotta say the environment was inviting, the service was excellent, and the food was really good. I had a hummus sandwich on an open faced piece of garlic bread with some sweet potato fries, and a salad for a very reasonable price. I'd definitely come back if and when I were in San Diego.

Address: 777 G St, San Diego, CA 92101

Phone:(619) 446-0002

Skateboarder owned?

I dig the usage of tile here to make up the image of the city of San Diego.

Uh you guys get Keystone Light?

It's all about the details.

Proper upholstery work!

The ceilings are so high in here that I didn't notice the Buck up top at first.

Hummus sandwich on an opened faced piece of garlic bread with asparagus, cheese and spinach broke da mouth!

These were the kinda fries that you just can't stop eating! These fries should be available everywhere.

Very refreshing and tasty salad with fruits and candied walnuts. 

Big ol' onion rings too!

Terry and Michael about to get kanak attack. As a matter of fact Terry got a bad case of kanaks after this. He started to doze off at Aly's place in the middle of a really good history lesson. Sometimes no can help though.

Claim your stake here.

This tripped me out for a quick second.

Ain't that the truth.