This week’s business spotlight are the owners of Route 99 Hawaii. Charlie Teixeira and her husband Washington, are the proud owners of this Hawaii based business, located on the north shore of Oahu. Although they started out small, their hats are now just about all over the globe, with customers posting photos of their Route 99 caps from almost every nook and cranny as they travel! Check out their profile on Instagram or Facebook and you will see just how far these Hawaii made hats have travelled. With the motto of “Bringing Aloha Worldwide” –From the North Shore of Oahu, Hawaii, how can you go wrong? Here is this week’s interview with (Mrs) Charlie Teixeira from Route 99 Hawaii.
Me: How did you get started in the business of embroidery?
Charlie: My husband, Washington, actually does all of the embroidery work. His father worked on Naval ships in Brazil and he grew up doing a lot of repair work on engines and things like that. He grew up fixing a lot of machines, and he kind of fell into embroidery when he was fixing a lot of the machines for their crew and learned how to embroider. He’s been doing to for over 20 years and when he moved to Hawaii he transferred his skills here. When I met up with him, I thought it was an interesting trade and I told him I’d like to help out with the business so I do all the other parts of the business like the marketing and networking outreach etc.
Me: Tell us a little about your business.
Charlie: It started about 5 years ago with North Shore Embroidery, which is our custom embroidery side and then from having done custom embroidery, our brand, Route 99 Hawaii, came out of that. We were working at the Haleiwa Farmers Market booth and we needed some hats to display, so we came up with a couple of designs to begin with. Our brand, Route 99 Hawaii, came from the fact that it’s the highway that takes you up to the north shore.
Me: How many people do you currently have working for you in your business?
Charlie: Including full time, part time and independent contractors, we have 8 of us.
Me: What is your mission with Route 99 Hawaii?
Charlie: It’s to represent the Aloha spirit and spread Aloha both here in Hawaii and abroad. So all of our designs are inspired by the islands and we work with local designers and artists to embody the Aloha spirit.
Me: What products do you manufacture at Route 99?
Charlie: For right now we manufacture hats and we also have some shirts as well, but we are primarily a hat brand, and we embroider all of the hats here in Waialua, out of our home.
Me: What made you choose your current location for your business?
Charlie: This is where we both wanted to live and potentially spend the rest of our lives. It represents Hawaii, but it has the country living and we love the laid back pace of the town as well.
Me: Where are some of your hats located? Where can we buy them?
Charlie: You can definitely order them online from our website. And we are also in 30 stores island wide, from the Dole Plantation and WholeFoods to one of our very first stores, the Wailua Sugar Mill. We are also represented on Maui, Kauai and Oregon.
Me: What has been one of your proudest moments as a business owner?
Charlie: I think it’s something that a lot of business owners don’t talk about that much and that is the financial ebb and flow of being a small business owner. When you grow as a company you are see greater influx of revenue but you are also needing to spend a lot more. You are responsible for a team of people and not just yourself any more, but taking care of them, too. There have been some moments that have been scarier, like when the market is not buying as much and it effects your business, which in turn effects everyone. And I think a lot of business owners don’t talk about it. I’m not sure if it’s because it’s embarrassing or if it’s just too hard to talk about but coming through those times, even though they are scary, make me proud.
Me: Do you have a lot of different designs or different styles of hats?
Charlie: We have a lot of different designs. We work with local artists and designers, like Naomi Midori of Midori designs and Joe Grande of We Ride by Train Clothing and I love the process of designing the most. You’re working with the designer to design for example, a wave, so working with them to design a wave, translating that into what can be embroidered well and then actually seeing it turn out on a hat is pretty cool process.
Me: Tell me a little bit about your Ambassador Program.
Charlie: Our Ambassador Program is for us to work with other local companies to cross collaborate. Specifically on the north shore, we are working with a couple of artists and a couple of photographers, and they are promoting our Route 99 hats but we are also in return promoting them as artists. They are usually artists just starting out, but they are up and coming. Some of the painters are really good and could be professional in time. Bottom line is, we help each other grow our businesses and brands.
Me: Do you have an ideal client for your Ambassador Program?
Charlie: Someone who represents the Aloha spirit, and what I mean by that is someone who is pretty grounded, pretty generous already, that has some kind of field in the aesthetics, whether it’s drawing or painting or art and kind of where we are at as far as followers on Instagram, so someone with about 2000 followers. Then the collaboration is mutually beneficial.
Me: Is there anything else you want us to know about Route 99 Hawaii?
Charlie: I guess just that it’s been built out of a lot of hard work. We did a lot of farmer’s markets for years, setting up booths every single week and so that gave us a really good chance to listen to the people and they kept asking us about designs and styles and that has been a really important part about growing our brand. We listened to the customers.
Me: What other kind of community involvement does your company have?
Charlie: We still do some of the craft fares, but now it’s more the community involvement like being on the Chamber of Commerce and other non profit groups.
Me: If you have someone come to Hawaii and visit for the first time, what would you recommend that do?
Charlie: Drive the perimeter of the island and just really take it all in.
Me: When you’re not running your business, where can we find you?
Charlie: Either in the ocean, eating really good food, or at the movies!
Me: What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?
Charlie: Haha, actually, one of them is something the movie star, Andie McDowell said. This is kind of random advice, but she once said, “As we get older, we all start to gain a little bit of weight, especially around the belly, but don’t worry about an extra inch or two. There’s more to life than that!” And for some reason that really just stuck with me because it was very real.
Me: What is your favorite thing to do here in Hawaii?
Charlie: Go hiking up the mountains. My favorite is Peacock Flats up in Mokuleia.
Me: What is your favorite book?
Charlie: The Tao of Pooh by Benjamin Hoff. It follows Pooh around and it talks about being present and kind and generous. It’s an interesting take on how you live your life.
Me: Do you have a favorite drink?
Charlie: I enjoy Bloody Mary’s.
So if you or anyone you know would love to share the Aloha this holiday season, check out Route 99 Hawaii online or at any of their 30 locations island wide. And if you think you would be a great candidate to be an Ambassador for Route 99 Hawaii, contact Charlie to find out more!
Charlie Teixeira
Route 99 Hawaii
“Bringing Aloha Worldwide” –From the North Shore of Oahu, Hawaii
T: 808.726.5769
Email: info@NorthShoreEmbroidery.com
