Hawaii — Stüssy Honolulu (Part 3)

We were staying next to the Royal Hawaiian Center in Waikiki, where the Stüssy Honolulu store is located. On the first day, after unpacking, we went down to get Hawaiian shave ice. We got ours and settled down on a rock in the outdoor area.

From Island Vintage Shave Ice

Across from us was a long line that disappeared into what looked like a store. We got curious. We found out it wasn't actually a store anymore. It was a space Stussy had rented to hold the long, winding line of people waiting for their turn to get into the actual store. We looked it up online. Apparently people were lining up from 6am to get their hands on the Honolulu edition. 

In the beginning, we weren’t interested. It’s just a T-shirt with an extra word on it, we said. We kept seeing the never-ending line on our way to and from the hotel. We started seeing people wearing the Stussy Honolulu chapter tees everywhere. We started to talk about it a bit more. Idly asking one another if we’d stand in line.

One evening, we noticed the line was the shortest we’d ever seen. We hesitated for a split second. A couple next to us ran to the end of the relatively short line. We followed them. Not long after we were handed pink cards each with a number on them. We were now very close to the store doors. While we clutched our pink cards, we watched the people inside taking their time, browsing, trying on clothes. We also saw quite a few people leave empty-handed. We were puzzled. Why would you wait all this time and not get anything?

My first attempt

Eventually we were allowed in. We went straight to where we’d seen the Honolulu editions. XXL. XXL. All of them XXL. I thought, maybe I could do XXL. You know, oversize fit. But it was way too many Xs. So, we left empty-handed.

The problem is, we’d had a taste. We’d held the Honolulu editions in our hands. We'd stopped talking about whether the shirts were worth it and started talking about how to get them. My niece announced she wanted to do the morning open run the next day. It was the day before we were scheduled to leave. 

My niece was going to wake up and be in line by 7am. We had heard the store’s official opening time was 10am, but they’d usually open around 9:30. I told her I couldn’t stand in line for 2 and a half hours, so I’d be down a little later. That night she worried that people behind her wouldn’t be happy if I arrived late to cut in line.

She looked at me and said, “You can take care of yourself, right?” Meaning that if someone yelled at me for cutting the line, I was on my own. She was ready to disown me for Stussy Honolulu.

I went down at 7:30 am. I counted as I went along. She had around 50 people ahead of her. No one minded, or even seemed to notice when I joined her. Turned out quite a few people were doing the same thing, with family members arriving later or sitting nearby. There were groups of families, young mothers with babies in strollers, a few lone grandfathers, uncles, aunts, couples. (It was Hawaii and everyone was on holiday after all)

Coffee helped (just a bit.)

We waited patiently. In the mornings, the lines were super, super long. That extra space for lines? The line twisted and turned, eventually spilling back outside, nearly reaching our hotel (ok, slight exaggeration, but you get the idea.)

We finally got our pink cards. And then, we were inside.

My niece handed over her phone with the list of items we wanted. The staff went into the back, came back with our orders. 

We returned triumphantly to our hotel, where the rest of our family members were waiting. The way back, my niece’s back was slightly straighter, her head held slightly higher. The Stussy shopping bag on her shoulder had given her elite status in that area, in that moment.

Mission accomplished

This had been our own kind of odyssey, culminating in the open run. We'd been lured in by the siren song of the long lines and by seeing the shirts everywhere. 

We had managed to "return home." In our case, home was a couple of T-shirts. But it was the journey itself that had made these shirts special.