Aloha to this new line of national park shirts
America’s national parks are getting a bit of the aloha treatment. Celebrated Hawaiian shirt maker Reyn Spooner pays homage to two of California’s natural treasures, as well as one each in Hawaii and Wyoming, with its new limited-edition national park series.
The Yosemite National Park shirt features pen-and-ink drawings of soaring hawks, towering trees and thundering waterfalls in a design created by artist Nathan Douglas Yoder. Yoder’s inspiration came from the early morning hikes he took when he first visited the Northern California park. Fittingly, Yucca brevifolia — the Joshua tree — is the star of woodcut artist Valerie Lueth’s Joshua Tree National Park design, and hand-painted volcanoes are the focus of the shirt designed by artist Lewis Orchard to celebrate Hawaii Volcanoes National Park.
Orchard also designed the woodblock-style Yellowstone National Park shirt that depicts geysers, camping and fishing scenes, and bears — lots of bears. The inspiration came from the artist’s childhood visits to national parks with his father and a leaflet warning about bears that he has to this day. Although only four parks get their own dedicated shirt, another half a dozen — Mt. Rushmore, the Grand Canyon, the Everglades, Haleakala, Crater Lake and Mt. Rainier — make an appearance on the brand’s 2019 summer commemorative aloha shirt.
The shirts, which cost $98 to $108, are available at reynspooner.com, REI stores and rei.com.
The Reyn Spooner brand was founded more than a half a century ago in Honolulu and in 2017 relocated its headquarters and design studio to downtown Los Angeles. Earlier this year, it paid homage to another local treasure, the Los Angeles Lakers, with an NBA collaboration that combined the team’s logo with a palm tree print on shirts and shorts.