Aloha kākou!
For our Spring 2016 collection, rather than look elsewhere for inspiration, we chose to turn our attention to those closest to us—our FITTED ‘ohana. This season, we’re getting up close and personal with our “hui” (Hawaiian for club or company), as we allowed each of our team members to dream up two hats, each utilizing their choice of silhouette (59FIFTY fitted or 9FIFTY snapback), front logo, color-blocking, and materials—resulting in unique pieces that hold special value to the team members that created them. A few of our stockists on the Mainland will release their own store exclusives in the near future as well. Please note that all hats in this collection were produced in limited quantities.
Each piece has a special story behind it, and what better way to hear those stories than from the creators themselves? Every release will be authored by the team member responsible for that design, for an even more personal touch. This Spring season, we hope to share a little more about our hui with you.
Name: Sebastian J. Valdes
AKA: Bobby Filipino
Title/Position: Wholesale Manager
Favorite place in Hawaiʻi? Wherever the BBQ and FITTED EZ ups are
One thing you can't live without? My family
What are you doing when you aren't working? Playing with my son
Favorite FITTED hat? Pantanama Snapback and Kala Set
What inspires you? My son, my family, my team
73-9: BAYWAII KULĀIWI SNAPBACK
By Sebastian Valdes
What’s good y’all?! For those who don’t know me, my name is Sebastian and for those who have been rocking with us since Day 1, it’s me, “the first kid on the team.” A young buck hired at the tender age of 19 and been riding this ride with my FITTED family ever since.
A quick little background story on me for those of you who don’t know me. I am originally from San Francisco, CA. I moved to Honolulu in August 2004 to attend Chaminade University on a tennis scholarship (yup, you read that right, tennis). It was January 2006, when I walked into FITTED with my 2XL tall tee, Girbaud jeans, SF hat and my gold fronts, which at that time was the SF and whole Bay Area dress code haha. Cuzzo was working the shop that day. We chopped it up for a bit, he sold me a SF hat and I was on my way. Now, growing up, I was all about New Era baseball hats—SF hats to be exact. It didn’t matter what color, as long as it had SF on it. It was a whole pride thing, repping for your city, your home. That pride of repping SF went with me everywhere I went, including Hawaiʻi. So, when I left the shop that day I thought to myself, “This is the perfect place for me to work!” The very next day, I went back to the shop and now Keola was working, so we chopped it up for a bit and I basically asked if they ever needed help at the shop, I would be more than down. That very next weekend, I got a call from Cuzzo to come in on a Saturday and it was a wrap ever since! Fast forward 10 years—which is like, a thousand-something Coors Lights later/rum and cokes later, infinite amount of BBQs at the beach/in front of the shop/at the warehouse, and countless amounts of Tuesday/Saturday releases—I am living back in the Bay Area, married, a father, and am bridging the gap between Hawaiʻi and the mainland by trying to build our wholesale program.
Now, to what you all have been waiting for, the background story of the hat! I mentioned that I was proud to be from SF, repped it everywhere I went and after living in Hawaiʻi for 9 years and working at FITTED, I developed that same amount of pride for Hawaiʻi that I have for SF—it’s home. So with my first hat, I tied together the color way of my NBA home team which is my favorite team (whom are the reigning NBA champs and about to repeat, by the way), the Golden State Warriors. The colorway is an ode to the throwback “City” logo colorway with its yellow crown along with blue featured on the visor, top button, eyelets, New Era logo, and snap enclosure. The front logo is stitched in white while the back crest combines both blue and white together. I also added the kelly green undervisor to add to the whole throwback feel, which represents the first 18 years of my life living in SF. To tie Hawaiʻi into the hat, I decided to use the Kulāiwi logo because like I said above, Honolulu is my second home. It is where my wife and I met (shoutout to Manifest), where I grew as an adult and as a man, lived on my own, met life-long friends who will forever be family to me, and it’s where I grew to learn, love, appreciate, and respect the culture and lifestyle of Hawaiʻi. So this hat is really my story, my life and the love I have for both my homes. San Francisco, Bay Area + Honolulu, Hawaiʻi = “Baywaii.” Oh yeah…and this hat is coming out after the Warriors finished at an NBA best 73-9 regular season record and it’s just in time for our playoff run and road to the repeat! So with all that said, I present to you the “73-9: Baywaii Kulāiwi” snapback. Go Dubs!
Alongside Sebastian’s first release, we’ll also be releasing two matching Who The Crown Fits 2 tops. The first is a royal blue tee with white print, while the second is features blue print on a heather grey tank top.
