jeff yokoyama in nylon guys

Right around this time last year as the snow and ice were pummelling New York City, I started planning my yearly trip to Costa Rica--which of course leads to searching for new surf trunks, thus somehow landed me on a little website for a place called Yokishop. There wasn't much on the site, but what few items I saw were original and totally radical. I checked back on the site every few weeks, and as the product line grew and the site changed, everything Yoki-related just seemed more and more awesome. I just wanted to learn about what this brand was all about and where it was going, and luckily I work at a magazine, so calling them up and asking a bunch of questions didn't seem so crazy.

It turns out Yokishop is the brainchild of Jeff Yokoyama who founded Maui and Sons, Pirate Surf, Modern Amusement, Generic Youth and Pidgin Orange, as well as consulting for brands like Stussy and Quiksilver. This legendary dude (along with a pattern-making maniac named Sergio and a graphic design guru named Scott Andrews) has come up with what I believe is going to be one of the biggest movements in apparel this decade. What's the deal? Well, in short these guys make super awesome stuff out of other stuff...I'm not gonna go into it too heavy because you can read the whole story on page 32 of the current NYLON Guys issue.

I'm seriously stoked that I got to talk with Yokoyama, and as I check back with the Yokishop website monthly it continues to grow. Check the site for yourself HERE, follow the guys on Twitter HERE, and get inspired by the story of this innovative dude.