Why the heck

Mahalo for asking about Route 99 Hawaii and why we have chosen not to refer to it by its Hawaiian name, Kamehemeha highway. The first reason is out of respect for native Hawaiians; we chose not to capitalize on the historic/authentic name, since both founders are not native to Hawaii, but have lived, worked and volunteered on O’ahu for 20 years. 

Not being of Hawaiian descent, our brand is named after the highway that brought the founders to the North Shore of O’ahu, where the local community showed us great aloha, welcomed us, helped us navigate through some rough patches in our lives. Without this support and aloha, we would not be living and working here for the past two decades.  The mission of our Brand, in turn, is keep sharing aloha and giving back to the community: We have several, ongoing & developing partnerships with Native Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement, Kahuku Schools, AccesSurf and Friends of Sunset Beach. Our Acts of Aloha campaign features stories of people being impacted by acts of kindness to inspire further acts of kindness. 

We’d welcome you to visit our home shop located in Waialua, Hawaii — where we work with Hawaii designers, Lauhala weavers, and other local artisans. We’d welcome to continue this conversation offline or in person. 

Our goal is to give back more than we take from Hawaii.