The year 2022 turned out to be a year of change. We moved operations from beautiful Morro Bay, CA to sunny Honolulu, HI and migrated from our old store platform to a new one. But the one constant through all of this is our passion for Aloha shirts. We order and offer shirts we think our customers would like. But as you might expect, guessing what customers want can be hit or miss. And sometimes we just offer shirts because we like them, regardless of whether we think it will sell like hotcakes or not. As this year comes to an end, here are the 10 most popular shirts of the year.
Honorable Mention: Elvis in Hawaii - This shirt did not make it into the top 10 because it was just introduced. But if it was released earlier in the year, it would have probably finished in the top 5.
10. Vintage Air Power - We love this airplane shirt from RJ Clancey. It is just one of several aviation and military themed shirts that we carry but this one was the most popular on this year.
9. Diamond Head - This scenic shirt from Reyn Spooner captures the essence of old Hawaii when Waikiki was more open land than buildings. We like the slightly retro vibe of this shirt.
8. White Ginger - This Aloha shirt that is both tropical yet understated making it a good shirt to wear when you want to embrace the Aloha lifestyle without drawing too much attention.
7. Opuhi - This cool Opuhi shirt by Reyn Spooner comes in both this Poseidon (blue) color and black. The black one is quite striking in person but it is this blue Poseidon version that snapped up by customers.
6. Star Orchid - We've offered this shirt on our website for a number of years and it is always a top seller. This shirt comes in the traditional black shown below but also a new navy version.
5. Ohia - Unlike the Star Orchid shirt above, this Ohia shirt by Paradise Found is new and became available in the summer of 2022. It comes in navy, sage, and this black version below. It is an elegant yet understated shirt, especially in the black and navy colors.
4. Sithmas - As soon as we saw a preview of this shirt in the Reyn Spooner office, we had a very good feeling about it and ordered a bunch. We love the classic Star Wars characters celebrating Christmas on a white Hoth-like background. What's even more impressive than being #4 on this list is the fact that it made it to #4 despite only being on sale for a couple months at the end of 2022. This shirt is sure to be a collector's item to be enjoyed for years to come.
3. Hawaiian Christmas - As early as July of 2022, people started emailing us asking us when this year's Reyn Spooner Christmas shirt would be available. And when we finally made them available, people started ordering them that very same day. This shirt came in both red and navy versions and both sold extremely well. In fact we ran out early and ordered what few remaining shirts Reyn Spooner had available for us.
2. Star Wars: A Galaxy Far, Far Away - We saw a preview of this Star Wars shirt way back in the summer of 2022 at the Reyn Spooner showroom in Honolulu. Like with many of their shirts, we were super excited and ordered a ton of them. In fact when we received the boxes and boxes of these shirts, we thought maybe we ordered too many! But that worry was misplaced as this shirt became our #2 shirt of 2022.
1. Jungle Bird - This red Aloha shirt may not seem like much until you realize that this is the iconic shirt that Tom Selleck popularized in the original Magnum PI. Over the years, it has appear on many movies and TV shows including the new Magnum PI with Jay Hernandez. This shirt is available in either 100% rayon or 100% cotton and also comes in black (rayon only). If you're starting an Aloha shirt wardrobe, you can't go wrong with this one.
