Shop by craft
Best of Honolulu; search or filter for all 11
South Street, Honolulu
Kamaka has handcrafted ukuleles from a South Street workshop since 1916, now run by the fourth generation of the family that started it in a home garage. The company still builds in small batches from Hawaiian koa rather than outsourcing production overseas.
Best for Heirloom Hawaiian-made ukuleles
Kapahulu Avenue, Honolulu
Bailey's has stocked its Kapahulu Avenue storefront near Waikiki with more than 15,000 aloha shirts since 1980, sorting used, vintage, new and specialty stock alongside Hawaiiana antiques. The shop is a regular source for costume designers and collectors chasing discontinued prints.
Best for Vintage and rare aloha shirts
Chinatown, Honolulu
Cindy's Lei Shoppe has strung fresh flower lei on Maunakea Street in Chinatown since 1959, one of the last working lei stands on a block once lined with them. The shop still ships custom orchid and pikake lei to the mainland for graduations and weddings.
Best for Fresh flower lei
Cindy's Lei Shoppe has sold fresh flower lei from 1034 Maunakea Street in Honolulu's Chinatown since 1959. The building began as Fook Shing Lau's barbershop. Cindy Lau, born in Guangdong Province, arrived in 1951 to marry one of the owner's sons. Her mother-in-law Kam Yee Lee Lau had begun selling corsages to sailors from the shop. Lei replaced haircuts by the late 1950s, and Cindy took ownership of the business in 1961 after nursing her mother-in-law through her final years. The shop calls itself one of the oldest lei stands in Hawaii and now counts a fourth generation of the family. Daughter Karen Lee manages daily operations. She returned in 1983 and expanded the shop with her brothers Raymond and Ronnie Lau to four times its original size. Her son Nicholas Lee and cousin Alex Lau represent the next generation. Orchid and pikake lei are strung in the back room beside maile and pakalana. Plumeria and tuberose follow the season, and the counter also carries ti leaf lei and haku head lei alongside corsages. Fresh lei ship to all 50 states, and a FedEx truck collects orders daily. The Honolulu Star-Advertiser marked the shop's 60th year in 2019, when Cindy at 87 was still working ten-hour shifts. Hawaii News Now profiled the family and its fourth generation at the same counter in 2023.
Hawaii (Honolulu-based)
Hawaiian Quilt Collection produces hand-appliqued bags, pillow covers and bed quilts in traditional patterns since 1987. Designs come from local owner Michael John Gillan and are still assembled by island quilters.
Best for Traditional Hawaiian quilted goods
Honolulu
Honolulu Coffee has roasted Kona coffee since 1992, hand-roasting small batches from beans grown on Mauna Loa's western slopes. Its Pure Kona lineup spans Extra Fancy, Estate Selection and Peaberry grades, alongside a 25 percent estate-grown Kona Blend.
Best for Kona Extra Fancy and Peaberry coffee
Honolulu Coffee has roasted Kona coffee since 1992, and has since extended its reach up the supply chain to growing the beans itself, on a farm on the western slopes of Mauna Loa on Hawaii's Big Island. That farm-to-cup structure -- grower and roaster under one company -- lets Honolulu Coffee cover the process described on its own site as running 'from tree to cup,' with the downtown Honolulu roastery and its cafes serving as the retail end of what the farm produces.
The Pure Kona lineup grades by bean quality using the industry's standard categories: Extra Fancy, the largest and most uniform beans; Estate Selection; and Peaberry, the smaller, rounder bean that forms when a coffee cherry produces a single seed instead of two. For a lighter-intensity option, the company also sells a Kona Blend combining 25 percent estate-grown Kona with other beans.
Roasting stays small-batch and hand-done in Honolulu rather than automated at scale, and the company has extended its retail reach with a subscription coffee club and a rewards-linked mobile app, alongside cafes spread across Oahu, Maui and the Big Island.
Honolulu
Kahala has manufactured aloha shirts in Honolulu since 1936, making it the oldest operating apparel company in Hawaii. The family-owned label still produces most of its collection locally rather than shifting production overseas.
Best for Heritage aloha shirts
Hawaii (Honolulu-founded)
Kamehameha Garment Company dates to 1936 as one of Hawaii's first wholesale apparel manufacturers and an early producer of the aloha shirt. Garments are still cut and sewn in Hawaii, drawing prints from the company's original vintage archives.
Best for Vintage-style aloha shirts
Kaka'ako, Honolulu
KoAloha builds ukuleles in a Kaka'ako workshop recognizable for its crown-shaped headstock, a design started by the Okami family in the 1990s. The company keeps production hands-on enough to offer regular factory tours of the Honolulu shop floor.
Best for Handcrafted ukuleles with factory tours
Waikiki, Honolulu
Kona Coffee Purveyors roasts single-estate lots, including Hualalai, Mauna Loa and Konawaena, working directly with Big Island growers rather than blending in imported beans. Its cafe operates inside Waikiki's International Marketplace, alongside a 100% Kona Espresso.
Best for Single-estate Kona coffee and 100% Kona espresso in Waikiki
Kona Coffee Purveyors frames its sourcing as a matter of proximity rather than branding: the company describes its work as staying close 'to the farmer, the field workers, the plants and the process,' operating what it calls 'at origin' rather than buying through intermediaries who blend Kona beans with cheaper imports -- a practice common enough in the wider Kona market that direct sourcing functions as a real point of differentiation.
That sourcing shows up in how the coffee is sold: rather than a single house blend, the lineup is organized by estate -- Hualalai Estate, Mauna Loa Estate and Konawaena Estate -- letting customers taste differences between specific Big Island growing areas, alongside a 100% Kona Espresso for drink service. Bags run from $28 to $55, reflecting the premium positioning of single-estate Kona over blended alternatives.
The retail and cafe operation sits inside the International Marketplace in Waikiki, an open-air shopping center on Kalakaua Avenue, putting a farm-direct sourcing story in one of Honolulu's highest-traffic tourist retail settings rather than a more out-of-the-way specialty-coffee neighborhood.
Kalihi, Honolulu
Martin & MacArthur makes koa furniture in Hawaii and sells home furnishings alongside jewellery and accessories. Jon Martin founded the business in 1961, developing a workshop where experienced craftspeople worked with apprentices. Its Kalihi operation connects the furniture business with manufacture, while the wider retail assortment includes products beyond koa furniture.
Best for Hawaiian koa furniture and home furnishings
Martin & MacArthur began in 1961 with Jon Martin's intention to build a furniture workshop in Hawaii. The company's account describes experienced craftspeople working alongside apprentices and journeymen, passing on practical skills within the business. Furniture remains central to its identity, particularly pieces made from koa wood associated with the Hawaiian Islands.
Its history includes work in other timbers before koa became a major part of the range. A report on the company in 2011 places its factory in Kalihi and describes both traditional and simpler furniture designs. That distinction matters when choosing a piece, because the business is not confined to one historic decorative style.
The retail range also includes jewellery and accessories, together with art and other goods for the home. Those categories should be considered separately from the company's own koa furniture when asking about manufacture. Someone planning a furniture purchase can begin with the timber and intended use of the piece. A smaller gift purchase offers a different route through the same retailer without implying an identical production process.
Liliha, Honolulu
Poakalani & Co teaches needle-turn applique and echo quilting at weekly classes in Honolulu's Liliha neighborhood, continuing a design tradition explored with the late quilter John Serrao. The studio also sells original patterns and takes commissions for custom Hawaiian quilts.
Best for Hawaiian quilting classes and custom quilts
Neighbourhood walks
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