An Ever-Evolving Retail Shop
Once the address for a furniture store and a beauty salon, an 85-year-old California bungalow in Long Beach, Calif., now houses Keiro Koga’s multiple projects, all of them called Krow.
“It’s ’work’ spelled backwards,” said Koga, a 36-year-old Japanese expatriate. “It is sort of my hobby. I’m a workaholic.”
By night, the former resident of Fukuoka, Japan, concentrates on his collection of men’s sportswear. By day, he sells other people’s unique sportswear at the 500- square-foot shop in the front of the house at 3322 E. Broadway.
The store emphasizes clothing with a retro preppy or streetwear feel. Big sellers are 1980s-style polo shirts, such as those from Original Penguin by Munsingwear, which retail from $39 to $42. Also popular are Nike White Label T-shirts, which bring back the sportswear company’s classic graphics from the 1970s. These shirts retail for $34.
T-shirts are one of the boutique’s specialties. Long Beach–based Cardboard Robot is popular with Koga’s demographic, a hipster crowd ranging in age from 25 to 35. Koga said customers like Cardboard Robot for its neon colors, such as the fuchsia found on women’s tees, and for its irreverent humor, which features 1950s science-fiction robots in ridiculous situations. The shirts retail for $28.
Other favorites include St. Louis–based T-shirt maker Hullabaloo. The shirts, which retail for $18, feature vintage heat-transfer sheets, many of them reminiscent of black velvet paintings from the 1970s.
Few boutiques are complete without a denim selection, and Krow is no exception. Koga sells PRPS jeans, designed in New York and manufactured in Japan, for $190. Japanese denim collection Evisu Genes sells for $290.
Unlike many boutiques, Krow stocks a large assortment of hats. New York–based Block headwear’s baseball caps with corduroy-quilted fronts are popular and retail for $30. Straw fedoras, also made by Block, sell for $48. Beige Rasta caps made out of a hemp/cotton mix by Livity of Santa Barbara, Calif., have been well received. They sell for $27.
Krow also sells exotic accessories, including wild handbags from Germany-based Ichichich that go for $150 and sandals from English/Moroccan company Baboosh that range from $50 to $75.
Koga forecasts a 2005 where sporty doesn’t necessarily mean T-shirts.
“I’m going to try a more sophisticated look. We’re going to start carrying sportswear lines like Fred Perry and Lacoste,” he said. —Andrew Asch
