Covina…when you’re driving from Venice beach to this place, get ready for 4hours of fucking nightmare traffic, stock up on pretzel M&M’s, make sure you have an IN ’N’ OUT burger en route, and crank that air-con and the tunes up in the motor because you’re gonna be bumper to bumper most of the way. Covina is situated on your way out of LA towards San Bernadino and the desert wastelands where Mad Max lives beyond the Thunderdome (People below the age of 20 are thinking ‘what the fuck?! right now)
It’s a wicked little town, the kinda place you see in the movies, with a banging high school football team, no trash on the streets, probably a load of fit cheerleaders knocking about somewhere, and coincidentally one of the best independent streetwear stores you’re gonna find. Manabu the owner is Japanese. We all know what that means - mad love for core streetwear. He has a load of genuine authentic Supreme and Bape, actually, I would say arguably the best stockist of Supreme and BAPE in California, aside from Supreme themselves.
This gets the punters in and then he hits them with the good stuff. Rains, Dope, and going left field on the sneaker front with the likes of Diadora…Diadora?! Trust me their new stuff is on point. He also carries a lot of local brands which i think more independents need to do. Local brands get large local followings and the more support they can get from stores the better, especially if their output justifies it. Big respect to Tings for that move.
So, next time you’re in town, jump in the car (make it mid-morning to avoid the congestion) and go see Manabu and Tings…probably the best store you’ve never heard of.
@tings307