A T-Shirt for Hypebeast Barack Obama
One of the coolest stores in the world made the perfect t-shirt for grabbing matcha.
Photo illustration by Ben Park.
Union in Los Angeles is easily one of the best men’s stores in the world. I am not going to go through the whole history here, but you should know that it originally opened in New York City in 1989, which is probably before a good portion of people reading this were born. The owner Chris Gibbs takes risks and just buys what he thinks is cool, which is a refreshing approach. It doesn’t feel contrived and it doesn’t feel too trendy; it feels like a store where you can walk in and discover a new brand that you haven’t seen before.
They finally launched their in-house line last year, and yes, it is… fire. The line includes—of course!—t-shirts, usually created for special events. For Art Basel in Miami last year, they made an excellent graphic t-shirt that reads “WHA GWAAN” in green and yellow block letters. Are you unfamiliar with this phrase? It means “what's going on” or “what's up” in Jamaica—see this example of former President Barack Obama saying it for some context. Anyway, can’t you see me wearing this with some old Levi’s, cruising in a late model Prius to meet a friend for a matcha at Maru on a sunny afternoon in Los Feliz? I sure can!
