Our love of the North Shore, where our Route 99 brand was “born,” inspired us to create a unique, locally-made product. It is common practice for our industry to market caps embellished with synthetic, imported weaving material as “lauhala”. We set our sights on incorporating the “real-deal” into our brand.
Excitedly, we searched out a locally-sourced, genuine lauhala item woven here in Hawaii. We found Jill Komperda, a passionate, locally recognized master lauhala weaver. Jill took her first lauhala class in 1994 through Adult Education at Leilehua High School. In 2013, she completed a Lauhala Hat Weaving Class from Ulana Me Ka Lokomaika’i (To Weave from the Goodness Within). She is a prolific weaver preferring to weave solo (instead of with a group) to strengthen her self-reliance, problem solving skills and unique design creations.
Like us, Jill lives on the North Shore making our collaboration all the more easy and successful.
Aloha kekahi i kekahi Visor
Polynesian Tribal Pattern Lauhala Full-Panel Hat
Mean thorns and dirty freshly gathered lauhala
De-thorned and unusable parts removed (only about half of each leaves’ length is usable)
After washing in the ocean alongside hala fruit
The weaving
Weaving on a cap
