“We draw on our collective years of experience as Kanaka, living in this place and observing the natural world,” says Hina Kneubuhl, one of the company’s co-owners.

Kealopiko, which sells its clothes for women and men online, has nine wāhine employees. “It’s their hands that choose the placement, how much ink to put on the screen, how hard to press, what colors to use. Everything’s hand dyed, so they mix colors that vary slightly. They really have a lot of choice and agency over how each piece is printed, so no garment is exactly the same,” says Kneubuhl.

Even the weather affects each piece. “The way it comes out might differ depending on how sunny or windy it is that day. Those elements influence how the fabric dries and dye comes through. Everything is touched by loving hands and unique in its making.”

thekealopikoshop.com

Diversity helps define Hawai’i, so it’s not surprising that a diversity of ideas and approaches from designers helps define alohawear, the clothing of Hawai’i.

When I talked with Island designers about trends in alohawear, they described several distinctions. One that kept coming up was the differences between alohawear worn by locals and some tourists and resort wear mostly worn by tourists. And they talked about their inspirations, among them the Hawaiian culture and the real stories of local people – not tourists’ illusions about the Islands. Another common inspiration is nostalgia – re-creating the look of an earlier generation of alohawear.

Alohawear “represents us, our lifestyle, our culture and our aloha,” says Tom Park, director and head of brand at Kahala, a local maker of aloha shorts and other alohawear since 1936.

Duke’s pareo from Kahala, left, is based on a 1960s design. Right, Craig Katsuyoshi, owner of Helena’s Hawaiian Food, partnered with Kahala to create aloha shirts inspired by favorite menu items.| Photo courtesy: Kahala

“It is an easy way for us to share our aloha with the world. In Hawai‘i, an aloha shirt can be worn casually or dressy. Kids wear aloha shirts to school, bankers and attorneys wear aloha shirts in the boardroom. It really is the most versatile piece of clothing you can wear here in the Islands.”

Park says Kahala’s designers get inspiration from all over the Islands, and their creations tell the stories of those places. “Whether it’s Uncle’s mango tree, the beautiful heliconias they saw on a stroll through the garden or the sea life off the shore of Hanauma Bay, they are always looking for inspiration from daily life.”

Outsiders often consider aloha shirts, Hawaiian shirts and resort shirts to be the same things, but they’re not.

Authentic Versus Inauthentic

Tory Laitila, Honolulu Museum of Art’s curator of textiles and historic arts, created the “Fashioning Aloha” exhibit at the museum, which runs through Sept. 1. He says the only connection some so-called “Hawaiian shirts” have to the Islands is they’re called “Hawaiian.”

A scene from the Honolulu Museum of Art’s “Fashioning Aloha” exhibit, which runs through Sept. 1. | Photo courtesy: HoMA

“Alohawear and aloha shirts are designed for people in Hawai‘i,” he says. “The Hawaiian shirt can be for anybody who came to Hawai‘i … even the shirt with the birds that’s referencing Central America with their patterns.”

Laitila compares these kinds of Hawaiian shirts to “Hawaiian pizza,” a Canadian invention made with pineapple and ham, and has nothing to do with Hawai‘i.

As for a loud, brash Hawaiian shirt created outside of the Islands, he asks, “Is it even Hawai‘i? Is it a Hawaiian designer? I don’t know, but they market it as Hawaiian shirts.”

Many of the people I interviewed say Hawai‘i residents tend to look for authentic storytelling and actual local colors and images in their alohawear, rather than the loud styles frequently worn in mainland offices on casual Fridays and by similarly loud characters on TV and in B movies.

Andy Reilly, a professor of fashion design and merchandising at UH Mānoa, says local residents look for alohawear “that isn’t your typical tourist Hawai‘i with the bright colors and the sunsets and the dolphin jumping in the background. They’re looking at things that are more representative of what Hawai‘i is, so maybe more greens, browns, blacks.”

Reilly says his research also shows that locals prefer clothing that represents Hawai‘i or Hawaiian culture accurately and are turning to local and Hawaiian designers for that look.

“With tourists’ shirts it’s less about the story” than the aloha shirts that locals lean toward.

Inspired by Native Plants and Chants

Sig Zane Designs, a Hilo-based design company, has been educating and sharing Hawaiian culture through design for almost 40 years. Creative Director Kūha‘o Zane says “the term Hawaiian shirts has taken on an aesthetic that was created outside of Hawai‘i.”

While discussing the difference between aloha shirts and Hawaiian shirts, Zane says he does not want to cede either term to outsiders, including Hawaiian shirts. “I don’t want to give them that term. I think we should own both terms. They can have resort wear. I don’t want the term resort wear, but we can own aloha.”

Zane has been working with the company for 21 years and has been helping his father, Sig Zane, since he was a little kid hanging around the Hilo shop. Sig Zane Designs integrates the teachings of Hālau O Kekuhi, the family hālau, into its work. The design of their shirts is inspired by chants, mo‘olelo, hula and nine native plants: ‘ie‘ie, ‘ōhi‘a, palapalai, pala‘ā, koa, ‘ōlapa, maile, kukui and laua‘e.

“In our hula kuahu, there’s a core of nine plants total. And those are our main inspiration, because those are the ones that we learned to make leis out of. They’re the ones that we use in our kuahu practices,” Zane says.

The inspirations for designs can be historical. “Sometimes it might be like a mo‘olelo that my dad hears from some kūpuna in the area about a specific plant, and it may have an additional use, or may be a part of a larger legend of that area. And so it ranges, but I would say a lot of it has to be based within cultural narrative.”

In fact, Zane says, an accompanying narrative is now expected in local designs. “We were able to shift what the norm is in Hawai‘i. … You’ve got to have a narrative behind it.”

Designs Beyond Clothing

Zane says he is constantly looking for opportunities to expand his designs beyond clothing. As an example, he says he was a part of the conversation when UH Mānoa planned new wayfinding signs on campus. Initially, the university had contracted two mainland designers and Zane sat in on their meeting as a consultant. During the meeting, a UH staff member said designers should not create a Hawaiian design without a narrative behind it.

Examples of how Hawaiian designs have moved beyond clothing. Left: The wall pattern was inspired by Kapa textures. Right: The bilingual building signs at UH Mānoa showcase plants from that valley. | Photos courtesy: Sig Zane

The resulting bilingual signs – in English and Hawaiian – that stand in front of various buildings were recognized with a design award as part of Fast Company’s 2023 World-Changing Ideas Awards.

Zane says aloha shirt designers can bring unique perspectives from their clothing into “all aspects of the design industry.”

“I would hope that no matter if it’s a developer from the mainland, or if it’s even a company from the mainland, that they tap into the talent of visual artists” in the Islands. Designers who make their living off of alohawear, he says, “can also help design the spaces within Hawai‘i.”

That’s what Zane and his father have done: Their designs have appeared in Louis Vuitton stores, the foyer of American Savings Bank branches and the exterior of Hawaiian Airlines planes.

“We’re using the visual artist talents that we have here and implementing them beyond just the platform of fashion,” Zane says.

“We use the aloha shirt as more of an aesthetic platform that can be almost like a storyboard to tell a story. But now we’re starting to take some of those values and some of those functionalities that we talk about in these narratives, and now we’re starting to implement those into our real world today.”

Bringing Back Vintage Designs

Alexis Akiona, owner and founder of the clothing company Lexbreezy Hawai‘i, says her mission is to inspire all generations to wear alohawear every day, not just on Fridays.

“Anytime I’m seeing somebody with their alohawear on, it gives me a sense of pride,” she says. “We live in Hawai‘i, we have the aloha spirit here. It’s a sense of home, it’s a sense of our culture. … It connects us to not only now, but generations.”

Akiona says she creates comfortable alohawear that shares the stories of Hawai‘i’s people, plants and patterns. But she says that when she started her business, “alohawear wasn’t really trendy. It was for lū‘au, weddings, family parties.” Now, it’s making a comeback – and that includes mu‘umu‘u or other vintage styles that people sometimes find in their tutu’s closet or at thrift stores.

Lexbreezy Hawaiʻi says it is modernizing alohawear for all genders, ages and sizes. | Photos courtesy: Lexbreezy

“I’ve seen it mostly with professionals or maybe people in their 30s or 40s and young people.”

At UH Mānoa, Reilly says he oversees the world’s largest historic collection of aloha shirts and other alohawear, a part of the university’s historic costume collection. He estimates it has 10,000 to 15,000 pieces, with clothing from the 1930s to today. People can study Hawai‘i’s fashion trends over the decades, including those inspired by 1970s pop art and the corporate ’90s, with their more muted colors.

The collection includes early alohawear made from rayon, often nicknamed “silkies” for its silk-like feel, from the 1940s and ’50s to contemporary versions of Hawaiian shirts, plus representative examples of clothing – including traditional pieces – from Southeast Asia, Pakistan, Turkey, Western Europe and other places or examples influenced by those places.

“In my role as curator, I’m looking at it as, ‘What is the story of the people of Hawai‘i?’” Reilly says. “A lot of other museum collections focus on pictorial garments and very high-end garments. And while we do have great examples of those, this focuses more on what the people were wearing.”

At left, this 1968 ‘Iolani fashion Hapa Jac shirt is showcased alongside more than 50 other garments in the Honolulu Museum of Art’s “Fashioning Aloha” exhibit. At right, a late 1950s Kahala tunic top for women from the HoMA exhibit. | Photo courtesy: HoMA.

So the clothes can be accessible to all on the web, Reilly is starting to digitize pictures from the collection, like palaka shirts worn by plantation workers in the 1940s and shirts made from rice bags in the 1950s. For now, access to the collection is solely through Reilly, and his busy schedule allows only an hour or so a week to accommodate visitors.

Old styles are coming back, Akiona says. “It’s kind of a new trend. It just reminds people of what fashion was years ago before it got all modern. … It’s just a reminder of their kūpuna.”

Kahala and Tori Richard are among the local companies bringing back historic designs and selling them as collector’s editions.

“We are always looking to our extensive archive of thousands of prints dating back to 1936 for inspiration,” says Park, the Kahala director. “A lot of what makes Kahala special is reintroducing our heritage prints to a new generation of aloha shirt fans.”

HoMA’s Laitila says that in his eyes, nostalgia will always be trendy, “whether you’re looking back on your parents or your grandparents.” At least 20 years must pass before nostalgia sets in, he says.

But the aloha shirt itself is a Hawai‘i icon, and Laitila predicts that won’t change.

“I know that fast fashion does exist, but there is opposition to fast fashion. So having clothes that are well made, and that can be serviced, is desirable, and a lot of our alohawear is. I know some sons that have inherited their fathers’ and grandfathers’ shirts, and they wear them proudly.”

Food and beverage startups that lack the space and equipment to get ahead have a new way to scale up production without outsourcing to the mainland.

The Wahiawā ValueAdded Product Development Center officially opened its 33,000-square-foot manufacturing and educational facility at the end of May. The center, a joint effort of Leeward Community College and state government, includes five kitchens, processing equipment, cold and regular storage, as well as spaces for packing, shipping, receiving, demonstrations and learning.

“The positive impact this center will have is tremendous,” says its manager, Chris Bailey. “The central theme of the center is education and incubation. I see this as a playground for (entrepreneurs to innovate) more and more Hawai‘i food and beverage products.”

Much of the technology at the facility is geared toward creating “value-added” products. “Adding value means taking an agriculture input – a fruit or vegetable coming from a local farm – and transforming it through some process,” says Bailey.

“This could be heating, chopping, boiling, blending or frying to turn it into something that you could command a higher price for.”

The possibilities are endless: Pineapples and passion fruit can be juiced and concocted into a cocktail mixer. Meat can be cut, marinated and dehydrated to become jerky. Potatoes can be peeled, sliced and cooked into potato chips with a variety of flavors.

“The facility’s equipment includes an industrial potato peeler that can knock out 50 pounds of potatoes in a couple minutes. For those that are processing sweet potato or ulu for chips or fries or whatever, this will save them hours of time,” says Bailey.

She Can Make More Tomato Jam

Mahina Akimoto Reppun, co-owner of Morning Glass Coffee + Café, says she plans to use the facility to create tomato jam.

“We save the ends of the tomatoes from lunch service, process them, freeze them and then we turn them into jam. So it’s a nice little exercise in minimizing our food waste by repurposing something to use it on the menu again,” says Akimoto Reppun.

Her company currently makes small batches in-house but is ready to scale up production.

“The jam is really popular, so it sells out fast. Right now it’s a little hard for us to keep up with the demand.”

Akimoto Reppun says the center is a stepping-stone for entrepreneurs who, for now, need the extra space and equipment.

“I think what people miss seeing is that the center’s an educational piece. It’s not the end all be all for manufacturing, but this is definitely a really great first step for people.”

State Sen. Donovan Dela Cruz, whose district includes Wahiawā, was the catalyst behind the Wahiawā Value-Added Product Development Center and secured funding for it at the state Legislature.

“I’m always asking myself, what jobs can we create so people can stay and live in Wahiawā or any small town here that needs economic revitalization,” he says.

Dela Cruz believes the center will help unlock the tremendous potential of Hawai‘i’s food and beverage industry. “We’re talking about reversing the brain drain, making strides in economic development and helping agriculture.”

Many food and beverage entrepreneurs start operating out of their home kitchens and selling primarily to friends and family and at farmers markets. The equipment needed to grow beyond that is expensive and requires more space than most startups can afford.

The Wahiawā center rents that manufacturing equipment and space by the hour, as well as provide guidance to entrepreneurs so they can turn their side hustles into full-blown careers at a fraction of the cost of doing it on their own.

Fruits and vegetables with cosmetic imperfections like bruises or odd shapes are shunned by retail grocers, but Bailey says they can be just as wholesome and tasty as standard produce and “you can transform them into value-added products, whether it’s a hot sauce, jam, juice or ice cream. You can even have it dehydrated or freeze-dried.”

Produce that would have been tossed gets new life.

“This will help farmers because 40% of their produce are offgrades and don’t go to market. But now the farmer has the ability to sell more of their produce and make more revenue,” says Dane Wicker, deputy director of the state Department of Business, Economic Development & Tourism.

The Wahiawā center will help farmers sell their off-grade crops to entrepreneurs, who could then transform them into value-added products. Or the center could help those farmers to create their own value-added products.

“It’s an incredible opportunity for many of these small businesses to be able to learn how to use this equipment and then have it as a resource,” says Denise Yamaguchi, CEO and founder of the nonprofit Hawaii Ag & Culinary Alliance.

The facility’s wet kitchens have a commercial hood system to ventilate air and support production of food products such as ulu and kalo chips with fryers, baked goods with ovens, as well as hot sauces and jams with steam kettles. | Photo: courtesy of Wahiawā ValueAdded Product Development Center

From Land to Market

Leeward Community College’s 12-week ‘Āina to Mākeke Program – meaning from land to market – works with students at whatever stage they’re at with their businesses, says LCC Chancellor Carlos Penaloza.

“So whether they still need to develop their own business plan, are at the point of marketing their product or mastering their product, we can help.”

Students, in a cohort of 15, learn how to scale-up kitchen recipes into ready-for-market products that can drive midsize food or beverage businesses. Graduates will then have priority access to the Wahiawā center and a free one-hour consultation with the staff.

Because of government subsidies and additional funding from organizations like the Hawaii Ag & Culinary Alliance, “we are able to offer up a lot of what we have at a very reasonable price,” says Penaloza.

Two cohorts graduated from ‘Āina to Mākeke last year, and Yamaguchi says “35% of those 29 businesses have already been picked up by major retailers like ABC, Foodland Farms and 7-Eleven.”

That proportion may rise now that cohorts have access to the center’s equipment.

But graduates aren’t meant to operate there forever, as the center needs to continuously make room for new entrepreneurs.

“It’s not going to be a viable career for any of these entrepreneurs if they don’t have the tools or resources to move on to the next stage,” says Dela Cruz. The program is designed to prepare them for eventually procuring their own warehouses and equipment.

And as Hawai‘i’s food and beverage industry grows, so will the network of support and partnerships, he says.

“For example, one guy who ended up building a warehouse had enough space to lease to other small businesses and they shared the facility together. So you start to see the spillover and effect of entrepreneurs now supporting other value-added entrepreneurs.”

All spots for the program’s third cohort are filled, but applications for the fourth will open online later this year.

Powering Up Hawai’i’s Exports

Value-adding processes often extend a product’s shelf life. A slightly under ripe banana will last about a week on the counter before it’s covered in brown spots, while an unopened package of freeze-dried bananas can stay good for years if stored properly, and six months to a year even after opening.

High-pressure processing is especially good at extending shelf life while preserving taste, texture, appearance and nutritional value because it doesn’t rely on heat.

“The HPP machine is really the crown jewel of the facility,” says Bailey. “You can fill that HPP machine with your bottles of juice to seal them up real tight. Then it applies pressure as tense as the bottom of the ocean, which kills pathogens. On average, it can extend the life of a cold-pressed juice type of product up to 30 times. That’s a tremendous upgrade.”

Long expiration dates make overseas exports more likely.

“Hawai‘i as a brand is incredibly well known. So if these value-added products are able to capitalize on that brand it will not just help our local agriculture industry, but our entire economy and strengthen Hawai‘i’s brand,” says Yamaguchi.

Dela Cruz’s long-term vision is having food processing facilities with educational programs on the Neighbor Islands, with the large Wahiawā center as the flagship. The first such facility, the Maui Food Innovation Center, opened in December 2022.

“What we don’t want to do is duplicate the same thing throughout the state if we can make a hub-and-spoke model work instead,” says Dela Cruz. “Leeward has the staffing to support other programs statewide.”

Learn more at www.leeward.hawaii.edu/wvapdc.

The entertainment company was founded in 1903 by Edwin Kane

“E.K.” Fernandez, who became known as the “Barnum of the Pacific.” “E.K. would take circuses to the Philippines, Hong Kong and Singapore,” Fernandez says.

Imagine a ship filled with tents and elephants and sequined costumes, all swaying their way across the ocean. “E.K. did things that were so remarkable,” says Fernandez, who was married to E.K.’s son, Kane. They worked together on the business for decades, until his death in 2001.

In 2018, the company won the Family-Owned Small Business of the Year award for the federal Small Business Administration’s Hawai‘i region.

Even for a company specializing in fun gatherings like fairs, festivals and special events, what happens behind the scenes is not always a picnic. Take, for example, the ever-present threat of bad weather.

“It takes a great deal of money to take a show to the outer islands, so you have a huge freight bill,” says Fernandez. “You fly in all the help, and everyone is in hotel rooms, all these front-loaded expenses. And then it pours for five days. That can be a total loss.”

She also remembers an alarming time – literally.

“We were doing the Maui Fair, this was the early 1970s, and there was a tsunami alert. For me, the girl from Arizona, I didn’t even know what it was. People are running through the midway, and the siren is going, and Kane runs up and says we have to evacuate all the people and the animals.” They retreated to a higher elevation, with the lions and bears and their trainers awaiting an all-clear.

Still, she says, “We are so fortunate to be in this kind of business. I must have met thousands of people when I was working at the carnivals. Many of those children are now adults bringing their own children. It’s like a highway through time.”

The company has hundreds of part-time and fulltime employees, says Fernandez, which includes team members trained and certified in ride maintenance and operation, as well as tradespeople who work in the paint and electrical shops. “The safety of families in Hawai‘i is the No. 1, No. 1 and No. 1 priorities,” she says.

Fernandez’s three children grew up working in the business on weekends and holidays. Her son Scott owns and operates the outdoor fair business; daughter Sydney is a VP of Fun Factory and a CPA. Another daughter, Shelley, owns and operates a supplier to the amusement and redemption industry, based in New Jersey, where she lives.

As for the future? Expect growth. The company has Fun Factory locations in Georgia and California, with plans to expand, says Fernandez. “And here in Hawai‘i we are always open to the opportunity and if we find it, we’ll build it, or expand stores and add on to our existing real estate.”

Some classic entertainment, like carousels, will hopefully never go out of style. But new amusements arrive regularly.

“With every tide, so to speak, every generation and decade, there are changes,” says Fernandez. “When VR first came out it was pretty rudimentary, and the investment was quite high. And now, there are really good versions, and we own them and they are in our stores. There was not enough content, but it’s getting there.”

What would the Barnum of the Pacific think about how the business has grown and thrived?

“I think E.K. would be so excited. He’d be proud.”

Among the most popular flavors are Chinese char siu, Hawaiian iced tea, Korean kalbi mix and kālua salt flavoring.

Edwin and Miriam Noh opened the first formal Korean restaurant in Honolulu in 1963. To reduce the time for preparing kimchi, they created a ready-touse kimchi mix, using dehydrated ingredients such as chile pepper, garlic and ginger – and the grocery line was born.

The line of sauces expanded quickly, reflecting local tastes, from sweet and sour spareribs to teriyaki and adobo, with the Noh family testing many recipes at home.

Edwin and Miriam’s son, Raymond Noh, took over Noh Foods in 1983, and opened an office and small warehouse in Los Angeles, he says.

“At that time, 90% of our sales were strictly in Hawai‘i in a very limited way,” Noh says.

“Today, Hawai‘i is about 20% of our sales.”

The company customizes its products for a diverse list of customers, including offering retail sizes for consumers and bulk sizes for food-service clients.

The company remains headquartered in Honolulu, but Noh Foods’ international reach encompasses countries in North and South America, Europe, Asia and the Pacific.

The company sells in the Caribbean, too, particularly in Trinidad, which saw an influx of Chinese beginning in the early 1800s. Noh says Asian cuisine is especially popular there.

“At a recent international food show in New York, we connected with a large exporter and distributor based in Miami,” Noh says. “They recognized the Noh brand and said that there was potential and opportunity for expanded distribution in stores and grocery chains throughout the Caribbean islands. We are in the process of making this happen.”

The company plans to expand into snacks, pre-marinated meats and ready-to-eat meals.

“In April of this year we will be launching three Noh Hawaiian Surf Snax items: Thin & Crispy Beef Jerky Chips flavored with three of our popular sauces, Korean Barbecue (kalbi), Hula Hula Sauce and Chinese Barbecue (char siu),” Noh says. “These are delicious!”

GoLeanSixSigma is the software as a service company he founded to do just that. It offers project-based training modules using the Lean Six Sigma model – a project management method that helps businesses reduce costs and boost productivity.

“We teach people how to be more efficient, like reducing waste in their companies,” says Tanjuakio. “It’s a very Asian mindset, essentially because a lot of Asian cultures didn’t have that many resources – they had to be efficient as possible.”

Tanjuakio was born in the Philippines and moved to the U.S. when he was 4. His father was in the military so the family moved frequently. In high school, he taught himself to code and do web design and after graduating, he moved to California to freelance for businesses in product development, marketing, branding, social media and management consulting.

He founded GoLeanSixSigma in 2011, around the same time that he moved to the Islands.

“Hawai‘i has been a place that helped accelerate my business because I saw so much potential in the people here and it made me want to work harder,” says Tanjuakio, who now lives in Mākaha.

GLSS has served over 6,000 companies in 231 countries and territories, Tanjuakio says. It has ranked among Inc. magazine’s 500 fastest-growing companies in the U.S. and was also ranked in Hawai‘i as a fastest growing company four straight years starting in 2016.

GLSS’ clients include Amazon, Apple, Costco and CVS, according to Tanjuakio, and locally he has worked with the Hawai‘i State Federal Credit Union, Kona Brewing and Farrington and Waipahu high schools.

He offered a couple of specific examples of how his company can help other organizations. The Sheraton and Westin hotels in Kansas City, Missouri, had problems with collecting late cancellation fees from reservations booked through online travel agencies. GLSS helped the hotels conduct a six-month pilot project and managed to improve the collection process by 60%, Tanjuakio says. The Nature Conservancy in Virginia used GLSS training to improve its IT operations by streamlining a coding process by 95%, he says.

GLSS’ training means teams and organizations can pass along better and higher standards and knowledge, Tanjuakio says. “It’s optimizing education for future generations.”

“We wanted to focus on lifestyle,” says Carpenter. The two friends explored Hawai‘i Island – where Carpenter’s uncle Flint was a founder of Big Island Jewelers – and fell in love with the place.

After getting jobs at Kona Boys in 2000, they took over the business from the original owner in 2003.

“We’re not motivated to amass great fortunes,” says Carpenter. “We are in this to be part of the community. The Big Island has really embraced and supported us.”

Today they have a team of 15, and offer rentals, tours and retail for ocean sports. The business is based in Kealakekua and includes a beach shack in Kailua-Kona. The most popular offering at the main location is the twice daily cultural kayak and snorkel tour at Kealakekua Bay. At the beach shack, outrigger canoe rides are most popular.

“We talk about the history and, of course, look for marine life,” says Stratton. “We also do rentals by the hour for things like beach chairs and snorkel gear, and serve as a resource for things to do, places to go, things to see. We try to have that spirit of the old beach boys, to be a liaison between the visitors and the locals.”

They are proud to have been part of efforts to develop the Kealakekua Bay Master Plan, which was finally approved in late 2023 after 40 years of community work. The plan helps protect cultural and natural resources and improve safety, and importantly, acknowledges the place as a part of an active and ongoing Native Hawaiian culture.

Going forward, the two want to continue to be leaders in ecotourism and are also champions of small business. “We have developed a little commercial plaza that we’ve stocked with small businesses,” says Stratton. “We want to find ways to give back to Kona. We both have relatively young kids and want to bring them up to the business and give them an opportunity to learn about small business. We want to make this area a wonderful place to work and to do business.”

Owner Renee Tillotson founded the studio in 2011 after falling in love with Nia, a holistic fitness practice that she says “includes moves from the dance arts, the martial arts and the healing arts.”

While sports provide great exercise, they can strain the body and elevate your risk for injury, Tillotson says. In contrast, the activities taught at Still & Moving Center are designed to promote longevity and alleviate pain.

“I started out as a gymnast, so I was a very high-performance kind of athlete,” says Tillotson, “but gymnastics isn’t a particularly sustainable activity in later years of life. Whereas Nia, with its emphasis on moving the body in a way that is quite sustainable, is great at any age.”

Nia’s goal is not for participants to perfectly mimic the instructor’s movements, she says. It’s about moving the body in ways that feel good and purposeful.

“I will often congratulate someone for doing a move differently or for sitting down during the middle of a practice because that’s what their body is telling them they need to do.”

Still & Moving Center also offers a variety of classes that draw on traditions from different parts of the world, all intended to strengthen the mind and body connection through mindful movement. Mindful movement involves being fully present and attuned to your body, allowing you to experience the here and now, in all of its glory.

Some activities are well-known, such as yoga, Pilates and hula. Others are less known, like Feldenkrais and the ELDOA method. “ELDOA was commissioned by the French government because they were spending so much of their time and money on national medical plans for people’s back pain,” explains Tillotson.

ELDOA was the government’s way of helping people to avoid and alleviate that pain, while saving itself time and money, she says.

One reason patrons love coming to the center is the community they find there. “We’ve seen so many strong friendships develop, cultivated by us coming together and having fun,” says Tillotson.

“Several women this past year moved to the island from afar, and they knew nobody when they arrived. Then they found Still & Moving Center, which welcomed them with open arms, and they made all these friends and had activities to do with them. They’ve been getting healthier and more fit together.”

He says that in auto repair, “the field has a reputation that at a lot of places, you will get ripped off.” He focuses instead on being reliable and honest. “I tell my employees: Whatever you’re doing on a customer’s car, it’s like you’re doing it for my mom’s car. I wouldn’t want my mom driving around in an unsafe car.”

Smith is from Mobile, Alabama, where he grew up tinkering with vehicle repairs alongside mechanics in his family. He furthered his passion for hands-on problem-solving with a career in the U.S. Navy as an aircraft engine mechanic.

After he left the military, he worked as the head mechanic at A-1, then took over as owner in 2009. It was a scary time. “Because of the recession, business had dropped off,” he recalls. But the business survived and these days, the team has four employees and hopes to add another mechanic. In 2022, A-1 received a Carfax top rated service center award.

The shop usually has 10 to 15 cars in at a time. “Some are in here for the day and some for longer, like if we’re doing an engine change,” he explains. “Whatever comes in the door, we try to help everyone we can. We’ve had everything from old Hondas to Ferraris and Lamborghinis and Maseratis.”

Smith does some volunteer car-repair work with area churches. “We try to help people out who are not as fortunate; it’s one of our ways to donate back to our society,” he says.

Two factors make car maintenance trickier in the Islands, he says. One is the wait-time for parts to arrive. “Sometimes we wait over a month for parts,” he says. “We get more frustrated than the customers do!” The other is the traffic on O‘ahu, which causes cars to linger in idle or to run at very low speeds, which over time can hurt the catalytic converter, as well as other car parts.

“I tell people to take the car out for a drive when there’s no traffic. Get it up to freeway speeds and hold it as long as you can.” Sounds like good advice for a small business, too.

Later, while working at an environmental company in Hawai‘i, he met a colleague, Gregory Perry, who would become his partner at EnviroServices & Training Center.

April marked 30 years since the founding of the company, Yee says. “April Fool’s Day, to be exact,” he adds with a smile.

But taking the big step to launch ETC was no joke.

“After some conversations, we found we had a common vision – a vision that would be driven by a matrix prioritizing client satisfaction and employee value over everything else – and decided to set off on our own,” Perry says.

Since its launch by Yee and Perry, the company has grown into the state’s largest locally owned and Hawai‘i-based environmental engineering and consulting firm. Its 65 employees help clients navigate a maze of environmental regulations.

The company has tallied thousands of projects in Hawai‘i, Kwajalein, Saipan, Guam, Johnston Atoll, the Federated States of Micronesia, Oklahoma, New Mexico and Texas.

“There are roughly 11 active environmental statutes or laws that regulate people,” Yee says. “We decided to focus on a few … subsurface soil, subsurface groundwater and surface waters.”

The consultancy guides its various public- and private-sector clients toward their business objectives while complying with laws on stormwater management, solid and hazardous waste management and drinking water quality.

And while they do that, Yee and Perry are making good on the other part of their vision by ensuring their employees are productive and satisfied. One proof of that is ETC has been among Hawaii Business Magazine’s Best Places to Work every year since 2012, including this year. Yee says that employees are allowed to bring their children to the office if that eases their workday and makes them more productive – one of the many company policies aimed at ensuring a good work-life balance.

“And one of the blessings of Covid – and I think this was an issue for many people – is we discovered that remote work was very possible,” he says.

Individual employees may differ on what makes ETC a good place to work, Perry says, but the common thread is that people at the company “sincerely care, respect and want success for our team, both in and out of the office.”