KAPA‘A — Coconut Marketplace has embraced the one-love philosophy with the addition of its newest tenant, Rasta Clothes Kaua‘i. “Rasta Man” and Frank Kelso opened the store on Sept. 8. The two said a shopping center lease would require moving
KAPA‘A — Coconut Marketplace has embraced the one-love philosophy with the addition of its newest tenant, Rasta Clothes Kaua‘i.
“Rasta Man” and Frank Kelso opened the store on Sept. 8. The two said a shopping center lease would require moving a lot of merchandise, but that the Coconut Marketplace guarantees a lot of daily traffic.
“This is the spot,” Rasta Man said. “Everyone comes through here.”
Kelso, a fan of Bob Marley and the one-love philosophy, said he was also looking for something different.
“This has been very enriching for me,” Kelso said. “It’s not just a business and that makes it interesting. There is never a dull moment.”
Kelso and Rasta Man met through an acquaintance and started a business relationship. They are both doers, who don’t just “talk” but know how to get things done.
“I like his philosophy and how he handles things,” Kelso said of Rasta Man. “Its all straight forward.”
Kelso has experience in land development and is currently updating his second business, AR Manual, an online insurance-claims management system for adjusters.
Kelso handles the financials and Rasta Man runs the store. He said it would not have been possible to make this store work as one-person. Everyone involved brought something valuable and great lessons were learned along the way.
With reggae music playing, customers walk on a bamboo floor below a thatch ceiling. There are racks of merchandise, display cases and wall hangings.
Rasta Clothes Kaua‘i is not the first reggae clothing shop on the island, but Rasta Man said they have brought it to a new level with locally manufactured clothing and merchandise for infant to size 6X. That helps to reduce costs when something doesn’t have to be shipped.
“It was by accident, actually,” Rasta Man said. “We were trying to find stuff and we couldn’t. So we started building a collective economic family.”
It works as a co-op that adopts the Jim Rohn philosophy of a “100 percenter club”, he said. The associates are all experts in their own field, whether logo designs or sewing, but they meet regularly as a group to stay on the same page with the store’s vision.
Unless every one can see the big picture there will be problems, Rasta Man said. The meetings offer a broader scope of thinking as they each apply their own skills and talents to making products independently.
At the same time that Rasta Man steers the store operations, and Kelso makes all decisions regarding purchasing, the associates and customers offer valuable input to gauge direction and product selection.
This is the second store for Rasta Man. He was set up in a tent at the Anahola Marketplace, where he had to pack and unpack his merchandise daily. A break-in and robbery ended that project, he said, along with a health crisis that took him several months to recover.
At the time the store had also taken another kind of loss. Rasta Man said he thought he was getting a good deal on 6X shirts, and upon receiving them discovered that no-one could get their heads through the collar.
By using local suppliers, the learning curve with the new store has been short and is going pretty well, Rasta Man said.
The Coconut Marketplace store has many times more merchandise and ideas, he said. They know the supply chain to ensure quality and that no sweatshop labor is involved.
Along with the Rasta, One-Love items, there is a Shinto Buddhist shrine that sits in the corner. The store offers sunrise shells and handmade jewelry, along with Hindu rudraksha beads, crystal eggs and a variety of stones including moldavite.
“It’s all about adding a little mystery and fun to life,” Rasta Man said.
The popular singer, Messenjah Sela, came in from California for the grand opening. The arrangement led to a very agreeable contract to sell Sela’s popular jersey clothing line at less than the Internet price.
The store plans to bring in popular music acts monthly. They will perform at various venues but would also hold CD signing sessions at the store.
The popular band B.E.T. is scheduled for Nov. 9.
“This will be big because they are hot right now,” Rasta Man said.
The store is also promoting Kaua‘i’s own entertainers and deejays to support them and to expand more into the entertainment business.
The store also offers Rude-Boy Rasta gear and a Bob Marley line that includes everything from posters, hats, headbands and wraps, to king-size blankets, bags and flags.
The associates make it possible to offer affordable custom leather hats, original tie dye shirts in red, gold, black and green. The racks are full of dresses, reggae board shorts, tank tops and towels, along with stickers, logos and printed shirts all made in-house.
There is a large line of hand-made items, including an Ethiopian line of Haile Selassie pins that he said are sure-bet collectibles.
There is just one rule for the store. A sign as you enter reads, “No Bad Vibes.”
“Everything we do here is positive, and everything we are going to do is positive,” Rasta Man said.
Part of that message is actively working to dispel the stereotype that all Rasta shop are about marijuana paraphernalia. They don’t sell such merchandise.
Rasta Man said he feels personally responsible for the youth he works with daily in basketball and other community projects. His merchandise appeals to youth and he said it means sending the right message.
“We encourage education and sports,” he said.
Rasta Clothes Kaua‘i is as much a cultural center as a store, he said. They support four local charities including a youth basketball league, Hawaiian schools, and the Haile Selassie School in Ethiopia.
They are currently looking at opportunities for healing projects with a local massage school, concert promotions for emerging local artists, and are developing a reggae scared straight program for local schools.
As a business owner and Rastafarian, he said it is important to instill respect for others in youth, as well as in themselves. He said youth should listen to the one-love message in the reggae lyrics and not just to the beat of the music.
The island culture connection goes far back to a time when Africa and Polynesia were making great contributions to the world in math, science and navigation, he said. Today, there is the post-colonial connection with the Hawaiian sovereignty movement that has embraced Bob Marley’s one-love philosophy. The aloha way is also universally embraced, he said.
“This is the Garden of Eden and everyone feels it,” Rasta Man said.
• Tom LaVenture, staff writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 224) or by emailing tlaventure@thegardenisland.com.
