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Making of: Surfboard Kids Shirts

Jonathan Longnecker / June 12, 2014

Working on brand new products is always exciting and terrifying at the same time. You have a great idea, but you're not really sure if anyone will want to actually buy it or not. Up until now all of our products have been based around shirts for grown ups. But today that changes. We're super excited to be launching our first set of kids shirts, and we wanted to show you how we made it happen. Ready? Ok, go!

1. Suppliers

Finding the right kids shirt is really hard. Well, finding the right shirt in general is really hard. Lots of people use a company called American Apparel, and while they have a great selection, good quality and make everything here in the US, we just can't use them in good conscience. They're advertising is super provocative, and they flirt the line with inappropriate poses of really young kids too often. Our mission at Last Night Ago is to help those in need, especially children. American Apparel just doesn't fit with what we believe in. So thankfully after scouring the interwebs and buying way too many shirts, we found a few other places that make good quality kids clothes that are still super comfortable. For this round Bella + Canvas was the winner, but we're still investigating some other wholesalers.

2. Design

Honestly, we had a lot of ideas for summer kids shirts. Can I just say it's really hard to narrow things down when it's your ideas? Ashely and I have gone back and forth so many times it's crazy! Anyway. We finally settled on the surfboards for the first run. But how did you end up with the design? Fantastic question!

Code:Rad - Ursa Major Super Natural Skincare Products

Jonathan Longnecker / June 11, 2014

I'll be honest - I probably shave about once a week. My poor razor blades don't last very long with the beating I give them. When I shave, I shaaaaave. You know it. But you know what I never even thought about? The shaving cream I use. Pretty sure I've ben using the same orange-lidded aerosol brand that I used the first time I shaved.

We've become pretty wholistic/eco-friendly/natural/hippie-dippie-whatever-you-want-to-call-it over the years, but it never occurred to me that my shaving cream was dangerous. Maybe it's cause I only shave once a week. But most guys shave pretty regularly. All that chemical stuff can't be good, right? Kind of makes sense when you think about it.

Thank goodness I ran across the radness of Ursa Major a month ago. First of all, nice name. Well played. Second of all there's a great story behind it - how the owner was having skin problems and started doing research on all the chemicals in modern-day men's skincare products. He was pretty horrified at what he found. And so he embarked on a quest to do something about it. Thus, Ursa Major was born. Super Natural Skincare products specifically for dudes.

Rawk. I'm all in. Let's see what they've got. First up, the essentials - Shaving Cream, Face Wash, Face Tonic and Face Balm:

Code:Rad - StandardGoods Leather & Tool Co.

Jonathan Longnecker / May 26, 2014

Today the rad comes to us from StandardGoods in sunny Visalia, California. Tim and Amber Kanallakan are trying to bring home a special needs child from China, and rather than just ask people for money they decided to start making awesome, hand-made leather products. 100% of the profits are helping fund their adoption.

That in itself is pretty darn rad if you ask me. Did I mention Tim is also a Prosthetist and that they are looking specifically for a child that he can make an artificial limb for? And their blog is called "Dad will build your leg?" Am I crying? No, I just chopped up an entire onion. Yeah, that's what happened. But then they had to go and make some super awesome products to back it up.

Handmade leather products created at their dinner table. I love it when all this stuff lines up. For instance, they make a mean wallet:

Code:Rad - Cuppow Canning Jar Drinking Lids

Jonathan Longnecker / May 19, 2014

As a general rule, I don't curse. But when I feel the need to utter an expletive my go-to choice is "Ball Jar Lids!"

Maybe I should back up.

You see, my wife is obsessed with Ball Jars - (or Mason or canning jars - whatever you like). You know, the kind with two parts to the lid: the flat part with the seal and the metal ring. And many a time during dish washing I become overwhelmed with them and shout/mutter/scream "Oh Ball Jar Lids!!!!" in frustration. 

The glass jar I can handle. I like them. The lids - not so much. We keep everything in them. Any packaged food from the store gets put in them. Leftovers? You know it. Homemade grape juice? Check. And of course, we use them to drink out of. I bet you're wondering where I'm going with this.

"Hey, aren't you supposed to be telling me about some rad, mind blowing product?" I could argue that the humble Ball Jar in itself is a pretty mind blowing product, but I digress.

Cuppow! That's where I've been trying to go with this. Cuppow came up with a great idea for the canning jar obsessed family like ourselves. They got rid of the flat seal piece and replaced it with a drinking lid! Perfect for the kids. And the adults who like sippy cups. And really any time you'd like to take your glass jar without a lid in the car and not spill it.

Code:Rad - Tumbleweeds Handcrafted Wood Veneer Sunglasses

Jonathan Longnecker / May 11, 2014

Welcome to the first installment of Code:Rad! What is a Code:Rad you ask? Simple! It's where we find the raddest stuff on the internet and tell you about it. Sound good? Ok, let's go. Ashley has had her eye on these for a while now, and after checking them out, I concur. Tumbleweeds sunglasses are indeed rad. Basically, they take high impact acetate frame, veneer wood and handcraft the junk out of them into a completely unique pair of sunglasses that own. I mean, just look at the sexy: