Hawaiian Island Products (HIP)
From the son of the Founder of HIP. "We moved to Hawaii in 1964. Mom, Dad, 4 boys, 2 dogs and 13 pieces of luggage. After 2 weeks in Waikiki, Dad started to research opportunities in Hawaii. Coco Joe's owned the Tiki business at the time, which was products made out of a black lava blend. Dad did some looking around and realized he could take that idea a bit further and he developed the molds and process to make tikis, ashtrays, keychains, poi pounders, pen holders and other products not only out of black lava, but red lava, coral, sand, olivine and anything else he could mix and mold. We started in the kitchen, in Manoa, making molds of checker chips and filling them with different material mixes until we came up with the right mix.
This story goes on but before we go any further, my dad's name was Sam Bulkley. He fell in love with Hawaii on a few business trips and had the courage to move us all from Colorado to Hawaii. Then he found a way to put us all to work starting HIP. It is interesting, as I have looked back because HIP in the beginning, was not what it was when it closed. Yes we did make tiki out of the natural materials of Hawaii but that was a very small part of our business. We knew that Coco Joe had the Black Lava souvenir business locked up. Sam (my father) wanted to use more of the material that was available to bring more color to the market. So, as I look back on the process of how HIP got started and how it ended up, it is an interesting story because when HIP stopped it was doing exactly what Coco Joes was doing.
In the 80's no one was using Lava anymore and everyone was basically making similar products. When we started we made tiki, key chains, paper weights, poi pounders, trivits, coasters, pins, earrings and an assortment of corporate items. We made everything out of black lava, red lava, yellow lava, white coral, sand, and olivine (green). This gave us an entire range of colors we could use. As you can probably tell, Sam Bulkley was a suit and tie kind of guy. His approach was from a corporate standpoint while Coco Joe was living and making his products in Punalu in a very relaxed atmosphere. That is probably why his company lasted so long. So, tell me where you want to go with this. If you would like to know about the early souvenir business as it pertains to HIP that would be great.
We started HIP in October 1964. Sam(my father) joined the Hawaii Manufacturing
Assoc. early in 1995 and 3 other members wanted to invest in the company and
since we always were short of money Sam quickly agreed. He had the company until
early 1967 at which point one of the investors took over the company. He then
sold the company 6-12 months later(1968) to Chuck Harvey who was one of the
original outside salesmen. He had the company for about 2 years and he sold it
to a couple of ladies,I do not know their names, in 1970 or 1971. They had it
the longest but then sold the company in 1985 and the company folded in 1988.
The progression of the products follows this timeline. The early pieces did not
look at all like Coco Joes. They were designed to look as historically accurate
as possible. As time went on HIP and Coco Joes began to look very similar. Sam
wanted to have a very different image for HIP.
About the famous fire. I remember Coco Joes burning down in Punaluu but I don't
ever remember HIP burning. Usually the pieces bent because they weren't cured
properly. I threw alot of stuff away because of that. The heat from a fire would
just melt everything.
The early design work was done by Sam and an artist/sculptor that worked with
him. Many of the early designs came from the Bishop Museum. We used their
material for our Kii, poi pounders and petrogliph designs.
Polynesian Art Page