Hawaiian Island Products - HIP - General Tiki

K kimoaz Member Joined: May 30, 2005 Posts: 14	K kimoaz Posted posted on Sun, Jun 5, 2005 4:42 PM Aloha eveyone, Thank you for being patient. I have been away on business and I have been thinking about HIP since I left. It is interesting, as I have looked back because HIP in the begining, was not what it was when it closed. Yes we did make tiki out of the natural materials of Hawaii but that was a very small part of our business. We knew that Coco Joe had the Black Lava souvenir business locked up. Sam(my father) wanted to use more of the material that was available to bring more color to the market. So, as I look back on the process of how HIP got started and how it ended up,it is an interesting story because when HIP stopped it was doing exactly what Coco Joes was doing. In the 80's no one was using Lava anymore and everyone was basically making similar products. When we started we made tiki,key chains,paper weights,poi pounders,trivits,coasters, pins, earings and an assortment of corporate items. We made everything out of black lava,red lava,yellow lava,white coral,sand,and olivine(green). This gave us an entire range of colors we could use. As you can probably tell, Sam Bulkley was a suit and tie kind of guy. His approch was from a corporate standpoint while Coco Joe was living and making his products in Punalu in a very relaxed atmosphere. That is probably why his company lasted so long. So, tell me where you want to go with this. If you would like to know about the early souvenir business as it pertains to HIP that would be great. If you would like me to answer questions I would be happy to do that. I will let you tell me how you would like to proceed. Thank -you all for your interest. Who would have known back then that anyone would still want to know about HIP.

Aloha eveyone,
Thank you for being patient. I have been away on business and I have been thinking about HIP since I left.
It is interesting, as I have looked back because HIP in the begining, was not what it was when it closed. Yes we did make tiki out of the natural materials of Hawaii but that was a very small part of our business. We knew that Coco Joe had the Black Lava souvenir business locked up. Sam(my father) wanted to use more of the material that was available to bring more color to the market.
So, as I look back on the process of how HIP got started and how it ended up,it is an interesting story because when HIP stopped it was doing exactly what Coco Joes was doing. In the 80's no one was using Lava anymore and everyone was basically making similar products. When we started we made tiki,key chains,paper weights,poi pounders,trivits,coasters, pins, earings
and an assortment of corporate items. We made everything out of black lava,red lava,yellow lava,white coral,sand,and olivine(green). This gave us an entire range of colors we could use.
As you can probably tell, Sam Bulkley was a suit and tie kind of guy. His approch was from a corporate standpoint while Coco Joe was living and making his products in Punalu in a very relaxed atmosphere. That is probably why his company lasted so long.
So, tell me where you want to go with this. If you would like to know about the early souvenir business as it pertains to HIP that would be great. If you would like me to answer questions I would be happy to do that. I will let you tell me how you would like to proceed.
Thank -you all for your interest. Who would have known back then that anyone would still want to know about HIP.

Post #163785 by kimoaz on Sun, Jun 5, 2005 4:42 PM