
Marcopolini: Campbell-based Marcopolini imports high-quality, hand-made leather goods from Italy, including a few high-end streetwear shoes. I own a Marcopolini key wallet (which, for those who don’t know, is a keychain that stows your keys inside a coin-purse-like wallet, so your keys don’t punch holes in your pockets). It is extremely well made, and its leather keeps looking better as it ages.
OluKai Irvine-based
OluKai makes comfortable, well-put-together, Hawaiian-inspired footwear
for people who spend a lot of time at the beach. I own OluKai shoes (which I wear as slippers)
and sandals. My kids and wife wear
OluKai flip flops. In my experience,
OluKai products consistently are good value for the price.
North Face: Alameda-based North Face makes
pretty much everything an outdoors-enthusiast could want. They also make some fairly
uninteresting-looking streetwear shoes, which – judging by everything I’ve
bought from North Face so far – probably are as sturdy as they are dull.
Chrome: When
I lived in the real Bay Area (i.e., the Bay Area in which you can see
the Bay Bridge and the Golden Gate Bridge with minimal effort), Chrome
was the most ubiquitous brand of messenger bags and backpacks. Now,
they've expanded their line to include everything that a
bike-messenger-type urbanite needs for day-to-day living, including sneakers.
Volcom: Orange County-based Volcom is a
one-stop shop for skater/surfer/snowboarder fashion, from sneakers to board
shorts to two-piece suits. They also
make “draft shoes,” which are sneakers and sandals made of Lycra, so they’re
designed to be comfortable when wet. Because
they target skaters – who shred clothes quickly, no matter how high quality – I
did not expect Volcom to put much effort into the second-thing-to-go elements
of clothing construction. After all, why
double-stitch a garment that’s going to be rags within weeks regardless? But I was pleasantly surprised. A few years back, I bought a Volcom
button-up. It was a good purchase. The
shirt had a clean silhouette, but with slightly skewed seams that bent people’s
eyes just enough to prevent them from looking past me. And – because I do not lead a
tear-through-fabric lifestyle – it lasted for years.


No comments:
Post a Comment