ORIGIN: Like many origin stories, Activiter’s started in Vegas. Stuck on the Strip in the heat of the day, the company’s co-founders – Rob Lafontaine and Ikaika Sheehan – decided to see a show (mostly for the air conditioning) and waited in…
At First, It doesn’t look like much. I’ve just parked in the driveway of Shangri La, which was once the home of Doris Duke, and I’m wondering where the house is. I see a small, plain, white windowless building nearby,…
In Hawaii, the business of hotel uniforms has traditionally been messy. A hotel would contract with a company to design and produce uniforms for its staff, but a different company would clean them. If the fabric shrank or threads came…
ORIGINS: Husband and wife Andrew and Rita Fowers first met 11 years ago at Brigham Young University Hawaii in Laie, where their location inspired a company. “When I was a senior in college on the North Shore,” says Andrew Fowers,…
Iolani Sportswear president Lloyd Kawakami remembers when aloha shirts were only made in Hawaii. Today, they are produced cheaply in Asia or sold under labels such as Tommy Bahama, which have no connection to the Islands. That competition has put…
LIKE MOST PEOPLE, I think about money often. Not about what I can buy with it – though occasionally daydreaming about a shopping trip to Tokyo never hurt anybody. No, my preoccupation is with how money works and how it…
Our Sources Reliable data collection on a big scale takes time. The most recent statistics available for this report are primarily from 2014, sometimes earlier or from 2015. Our information came from many sources; here are abbreviations and acronyms we…
Eric Rose can’t forget the day a year and a half ago when a group of Japanese businessmen walked into Morning Glass, his trendy coffee house in Manoa, and suggested taking the concept to Japan. “They came in out of…
Landmarks are common sources of surf-spot names, so many have been named after businesses on shore or businesspeople who owned beachfront homes. The following examples and the stories behind the names are from John Clark’s book “Hawaii Place Names: Shores,…
