Today we’d like to introduce you to Darius Osorio.
Darius, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I was born in New Jersey but grew up in Hawaii. Being a kid growing up in Hawaii culturally shapes you into a laid back lifestyle of living. I grew up watching people surf and skate and to me as a kid that was everything. After 12 years, my mother and I moved back to New Jersey. Moving back to New Jersey was a big culture shock for me because now I was older and fashion was more important or who had the latest new shoes was important were in Hawaii none of that mattered I was a kid. At this age, I started becoming more aware of how I looked and what sneakers I was wearing. I remember being in my grandmother’s basement and watching a video of Pharrell’s “ice cream skate team,” and I told myself I want to own a skate team I want to be that Pharell, not the rapper, the guy that owns a skate team.
Fast wording to getting older, I started to get more into apparel and streetwear in Highschool. To make extra cash in High school, I would rip up & bleach jeans for kids to get the newest and latest shoes and designers brand clothing I wanted. I then learned to use Illustrator and Photoshop, where I just started making graphics and learning typefaces and how to properly design product.
After graduating high school, I went to school to major in graphic design and fashion design. I wanted to be a fashion designer, I was very excited and inspired. I began studied fashion houses, creative directors, and designers and to be honest, I was just lost. I started noticing that a lot of these major fashion houses were just disasters. Every year these fashion houses were changing and sticking to trends, what was cool instead of staying true to their values and their core. I felt uninspired with Fashion and was basically disappointed. I started viewing fashion houses as people who were consistently changing to appease others and I didn’t want to do that, I didn’t want to fall into that. I lost interest quickly.
In 2017, I was with my friend Anthony in LA and I told him I wanted to start my brand. He told me whatever you do just be true to myself and do what makes me happy. After that moment, everything just clicked. I knew instantly I wanted to incorporate Hawaii because it held such a special place in my heart and I wanted to include skateboarding because I had such a passion for it as a kid. So I started my company aloha worldwide.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
No not at all lol. Anyone that tells you it’s been smooth is lying, at least not in the beginning. A lot of people think starting a company/brand is easy but it’s really not, not at all. There’s so much more than just designing product or merchandise. You’re investing literally everything, Your social life, your money, your mental health. When your passionate about something and truly love what our doing you become so fixated about that you forget everything outside of it and sometimes you can drive yourself crazy or miss out on the other importance of life. Going through all those issues has allowed me to learn and continuously be aware of all the decisions I make not only in my life but for the brand.
There’s so much to learn when starting a legitimate company and brand. You have to understand the business side and the design side. You have learned how to be consistent and value every decision you make because every step on the way is important. For me, my goal was to just be real to myself, my mission, and not fall into trends or quick dollar. A lot of people when starting a brand are itching to make that quick buck or sellout so they start falling into the latest and coolest. Instead, I want to build an identity for my company.
So, as you know, we’re impressed with Aloha Worldwide – tell our readers more, for example, what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
Aloha was started about year and a half ago. I chose the name aloha, not just because of Hawaii. I’m big on balance. If you look at the logo, it has a normal lowercased (a) and it has a flipped lowercase (a) to balance the logo. Anybody that has a brand thats name is aloha or starts with aloha, has chosen a font or typeface that makes the logo looked relaxed or flowing. I didn’t want that. I wanted the logo to have a grunge look an opposite to what is expected. I did this because aloha has a more spiritual meaning rather than just the Americanized hello or goodbye. It means “your joy, is my joy, your pain is also mine. I will not harm anyone or anything unless I feel threatened. What I take from the earth, I vow to give back”.
First starting out to be a clothing brand things shifted for a more important role for me. I knew I wanted to have brand that had personal attachment but also wanted something I was going to be passionate about. I wanted a skate team, I wanted it since I was a kid and I figured out how to make it happen. I was introduced to two of the guys who are still now on the team and then they referred me to some guys and we slowly started to become a team. As I got to know them more and as we hung out more, I started to think well how can I incorporate them into what I’m doing and my vision and putt hem on a bigger platform to try and help them succeed in whatever it was they wanted to be or do. Now we’ve become this family and there’s nothing that makes me happier seeing these guys happy and thats sort of what drives me still.
Aloha worldwide is a skateboarding/product & service company fueled by social awareness, spreading peace, love, and priding ourselves on making not only our communities greater but making the world a better place. We specialize in skateboarding apparel and other creative products. Being only a year in a half in we still have so much growing to do and the journey will continue to be exciting not only for us but for our community.
I think what sets us apart from other companies is, we’re not trying to be anybody were not trying to do anything. Everything comes natural to us. Were good people we know what’s right, we know what’s important and if we can try and make the world a better place and skateboard at the same time why not.
So, what’s next? Any big plans?
With the brand being only a year and half old were looking to take some major strides and steps in these next few years to come. We’re working on releasing our first skate shoe. We’ve been excited about this project for some time and I can say right now it’s my number one priority. We’re also looking to be more active in our communities and provide another outlet for kids in the inner city. As a brand, our main goal is to remain us and just consistently improve as a brand but as people as well.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.alohaworldwideshop.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alohaworldwideshop/
- Facebook: Aloha Worldwideshop
Image Credit:
Anthony Trevino, Griffin Gher, Issac Sannchez
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