KAILUA-KONA — Working as a production designer for monster movies in the film industry, Brad “Tiki-Shark” Parker said he never imagined he’d one day be getting ready to open up a retail store in Dubai.
Monday in Honolulu, though, Parker, a local artist and now the president of “Tiki Shark,” signed a deal with Hawaiian Island Creations chief executive officer Leigh Tonai to do just that in a bid to bring local style to the largest city in the United Arab Emirates.
“We’re spreading aloha slowly to the rest of the world,” Parker said last week before the formal announcement.
The local artist, whose Hawaiiana designs appear everywhere from international galleries and retailers to the Royal Kona Resort where he was interviewed, credits a lot of success to his business partner, Abbas Hassan.
“Abbas is really an amazing businessman,” he said. “He’s legendary at helping creative people.”
It was Hassan, after all, who got Parker’s work into La Luz de Jesus, a Los Angeles art gallery Parker called “the most world-famous gallery for Lowbrow tiki art on the planet” within a year of Parker starting to paint.
For the company’s new venture, Parker and Hassan partnered with Billy Meistrell at Dive N’ Surf, a Redondo Beach-based dive and surf shop. The Meistrell family owns and operates Dive N’ Surf.
“We’re super excited to see an expansion of the store,” Meistrell said.
Tiki Shark previously established an agreement with Meistrell.
That agreement, three years in the making, will let Tiki Shark, through their Middle East partners, Tiki Style ME, open up a Dive N’ Surf storefront along Dubai’s Kite Beach.
It’s their first retail venture, Hassan said and they’re looking at an April soft opening.
Parker said the Dubai government wanted to bring some stores out to the area and make it “the new Venice Beach,” adding that there’s an effort to bring a “surf lifestyle” to Dubai. The consul general for the United Arab Emirates in Los Angeles approached Tiki Shark about the possibility.
Hassan said the outreach to Hawaii was an obvious move.
“When you’re going after the beach lifestyle and you want to copy somebody, where will you go? Hawaii,” he said.
Hassan added that his brother already runs several businesses in Dubai and his nephew will be the general manager of the project.
Before they knew it, Parker said, they were in Los Angeles to meet with Abdulla Alsaboosi, the United Arab Emirates consul general.
“This is a trip,” Parker recalled thinking. “How is this happening?”
“We’re very proud of our state and where we live,” Hassan added. “So it’s a big honor for us to kinda carry that badge.”
When the Dive N’ Surf location in Dubai opens, it will also carry Hawaiian Island Creations-branded merchandise.
Tiki Shark also plans to open up a standalone Hawaiian Island Creations store in late 2017, said Hassan.
Parker will also be designing some merchandise for HIC – a company he said he’s admired for years – as well as Dive N’ Surf and Tiki Shark.
HIC chief executive officer Leigh Tonai said the opportunity to expand into the Middle East market is an exciting point for the brand.
“For years and years, people have been buying surf products from that territory,” Tonai said, calling the expansion a “natural evolution” for the company.
“It’s a beachy area so that’s kind of up our alley,”
It’s also a great opportunity for a traveler and surfer like Tonai. While he said he’s never been to Dubai, he looks forward to the opportunity to visit once the standalone store opens up.
“It’ll be exciting to go to the shop and see it open,” he said.