Active Ride Shop, a seller of clothes and shoes inspired by skateboarding and snowboarding, is trying out an idea that could make its way to the company’s six Orange County stores.
The Mira Loma-based chain’s Santa Monica store has carved out space for nonprofits and clothing makers that donate part of their sales to causes.
Among them are Santa Ana-based Obey Clothing, Santa Monica-based Toms Shoes, Costa Mesa-based Krochet Kids International and Falling Whistles of Los Angeles.
The area, dubbed “the workshop,” is an outgrowth of Active Ride President Esmail Mawjee, whose family bought the retailer out of bankruptcy last year.
The Mawjees originally are from Tanzania.
“This is nothing new to us,” Mawjee said. “To me, it’s just a humanitarian way of conducting business.”
But will Active Ride’s shoppers—boys ages 13 to 17—even care?
“Maybe it’s ambitious,” said Brent Futagaki, Active Ride’s marketing director.
But young people today are more savvy about world issues, he said.
“We have the ability to affect kids at a young age,” Futagaki said.
Active Ride is looking to roll out the idea in all 21 of its stores, according to Mawjee.
“We’re committed to this idea of raising awareness,” he said.
The section features T-shirts and whistles from Falling Whistles, a nonprofit dedicated to the plight of child soldiers in Africa’s Democratic Republic of the Congo. The group takes its name from the whistles child soldiers wear and blow when they see an enemy.
Toms gives a pair of shoes to the needy for every pair it sells. Obey’s Awareness collection includes T-shirts and other items that support causes, such as rebuilding Haiti.
Krochet Kids sells handmade goods to help support women who live in war zones.
Back to School
Sweden’s H&M Hennes & Mauritz AB is opening a store at The Shops at Mission Viejo in time for back-to-school shopping.
The 20,500-square-foot store is opening in the space that Old Navy is giving up as it shrinks its store at the mall.
H&M recently opened at The Block at Orange in time for back-to-school sales, the second busiest time for retailers after the holidays.
“They’ve been doing very well,” Blake Windal, general manager of The Block, said of H&M.
A Levi outlet store is set to start construction at the mall, according to Windal.
“Our sales are up and our leasing activity is up,” he said.
Back-to-school sales have been brisk at Westminster Mall, according to Lindsay Hermance, director of marketing and business development.
The number of shoppers is up this year from last, she said.
“There are a lot of people with bags in their hands, which is great,” Hermance said.
An annual back-to-school survey by Deloitte shows shoppers are more at ease with spending this year.
Sixty percent of shoppers surveyed said they plan to stick to low-priced items, down from 64% last year. About 57% said they’d only buy what they need this year, down from 65% last year.
Three out of 10 of those polled said they’d spend more on back-to-school clothing, shoes and supplies. Seventeen percent said they’d spend less. About 55% said they’d spend about the same.
Some 52% said they believe the economy still is in recession, though the economy is technically in recovery.
Other Retail News
Fabshow, which sells tiles, counter tops and cabinets for kitchens and bathrooms, is expanding from 1,500 square feet to 2,500 square feet in the Ralphs Center on Marguerite Parkway in Mission Viejo.
San Juan Capistrano-based Fabshow Inc.’s other stores are in Yorba Linda, Orange, Huntington Beach, Irvine and San Juan Capistrano.
A handful of Macy’s stores—including the one at South Coast Plaza—are selling “Gleek” wear, or T-shirts, hoodies and other gear for fans of the TV show “Glee.”
Irvine Spectrum Center is getting ready for its third annual Style Week Orange County, a series of fashion shows and other events designed to promote retailers at the mall. It runs Sept. 27 through Oct. 3. Mall operator Irvine Company puts on the show.
Nordstrom is slated to present a fall fashion runway show.
“Project Runway’s” Nick Verreos and David Paul are set to show their spring 2011 collection. Students from the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising will present what they’ve come up with for Irvine-based Ezekiel Clothing Inc.’s 2011 spring line.
Sprinter Service
Mercedes-Benz of Laguna Niguel has opened a service center for Daimler AG’s Sprinter business van. The dealership’s service center has custom lifts for the vans, which feature seven feet of headroom.
The dealer also sells Sprinters, which go for about $40,000.
Auto Sales
OC’s new auto sales took a bigger hit than the nation during the downturn but now appear to be recovering faster than the rest of the U.S., according to the Newport Beach-based Orange County Automobile Dealers Association’s report on the first half of 2010.
New vehicle sales here fell more than 50% from 2005 to 2009.
But for the first half of the year, new auto registrations—a barometer of sales—were up 16% in OC. New auto registrations nationwide for the same time period were up nearly 10%.
