It is the type of stuff that makes you smile, or grin, or laugh out loud, and it is made by a mom-and-pop business with the kids’ help and input — though this mom and pop, Terri Dux and Karl Miyashiro, are not married to each other.
Gasp!
But back to the amusing.
Some of the most popular designs of the brand idkwhat2wear riff on Japanese words or sayings, such as “Eat a Duck I Must,” which is based on “itadakimasu,” a Japanese phrase uttered before one takes the first bite of a meal.
Another, “Don’t Touch My Mustache,” is a takeoff of “doitachimashite,” or “You’re welcome” in Japanese. On another shirt, a pair of geta (Japanese footwear) precedes the word “life.” Get it?
“Karl is the artist,” Dux said, though many of the ideas come from both Dux’s and Miyashiro’s kids. On the Miyashiro side, Garrin is 26, Darci is 24 and Kelli is 22, while Laura Dux is 19.
“Kelli is the one who suggested we create a T-shirt design saying ‘idk,'” Dux said. When it became clear that neither parent knew what “idk” stood for, an Abbott and Costello-like conversation ensued.
“What does ‘idk’ mean?” Kelli was asked. “‘I don’t know,'” she replied, and so on. Once it was asserted that yes, Kelli knew what it means, and it really does stand for the words “I don’t know,” “we all laughed. … We liked it so much, we named our company idkwhat2wear,” Dux said.
Now popular at the annual Kawaii Kon anime convention, the Made in Hawaii Festival and other venues listed on its website, the company grew out of previous efforts under the Papaya Press corporate entity established in 1995.
“We started to do graphic design for publications, and that’s kind of how we started Papaya Press,” said Dux. The main publication for which it did layout and ads folded, but it wasn’t really the creative outlet Dux and Miyashiro envisioned anyway, “so our direction changed.”
Miyashiro was a craft fair veteran, and Dux started her own craft fair efforts selling women’s clothing until the decision was made to combine forces. Wear Hawaii was registered in 1998.
At first the partners “just did T-shirts, but then we got into buttons,” she said, and once the funny “idk” conversation took place, re-branding to idkwhat2wear became official in 2007.
The buttons are the cute or amusing type one pins onto a shirt, lanyard, messenger bag or pretty much anywhere a button can be pinned.
They also are a rapid-fire product to make, compared with the T-shirts: After Miyashiro comes up with a concept, he can “design it … produce it and have it on the table the same day,” and it’s easy to make four-color designs, Dux said. They sell for $1.50 each or four for $5.
T-shirts and ladies’ racerback tank tops, on the other hand, are more complicated and time-consuming, especially if the design requires more than one color.
Aside from Dux and Miyashiro having regular day jobs in the advertising department at HomeWorld, they don’t own their own screen-printing equipment.
They have a friend in Wahiawa who does, though, so they coordinate use of his printing gear, mostly during weekends.
Tees cost $19 each or two for $36. The racerback tank tops are $21.
In addition to getting design inspiration from the grown kids, Dux and Miyashiro use the idkwhat2wear Facebook page for market research, to float new concepts to loyal fans. “We have really, really great customers, and they give us good feedback,” she said. “It’s instant; we find out right away.”
As many businesses know, Facebook also is a good, free venue through which to promote a company, its wares and its whereabouts, especially come craft fair time. Individual orders also can be taken online, though the bulk of idkwhat2wear’s business is done at craft fairs.
The newest merchandise line is titled “Sew Sketchy.”
“It’s like peeking into Karl’s sketchbook,” she said. He will draw on fabric, and she will sew over the design to make the sketch permanent. Dux makes the one-of-a-kind designs into pouches that sell for $12.
In addition to the apparel, buttons and pouches, idkwhat2wear makes bucket bags — tote bags with round bottoms — primarily from upholstery samples. They sell for $29, but she also posted a tutorial on the website so those who sew can make their own.
Dux “has learned so much” from tutorials on other websites, she thought she would share the bucket bag tutorial on her own site.
Another tutorial she posted online shows how to convert luxuriously fuzzy socks into cute, soft, stuffed cats.
“Big Bang Theory” fans should be hearing the “Soft Kitty” song in their heads about now.
But Dux no longer makes the critters, so you, your fuzzy socks, needle, thread and a few other accoutrements are on your own.
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“Buy Local” runs on Aloha Fridays. Reach Erika Engle at 529-4303, erika@staradvertiser.com or on Twitter as @erikaengle.
