In response to the August 2023 Maui wildfires, local business owner Jared Nagura quickly responded by releasing merchandise that read “Maui Nō Ka ʻOi,” or "Maui is the best,” with a lokelani rose design. Proceeds were donated back to the community he calls home as it rebuilds.
“Growing up on Maui, I always appreciated the tight-knit, close community feel that there is here. On a smaller island, the call to that phrase 'Maui Nō Ka ʻOi,’ I think it really speaks to the people more than anything. And just how we love and care for each other and really fight for that sense of community,” said Nagura, who grew up in Pāʻia on the Valley Isle’s northern coast.
“It’s still considered upcountry but it’s lower elevation. Low enough that us neighborhood kids used to walk down to the beach and go bodyboarding, mess around, you know, normal kid stuff. … And I think [this community] definitely influenced me as I grew older and started a business. I asked myself, ‘How can we be more than just selling things? How can we really impact community?’”
In 2016, he launched Aloha Ke Akua Clothing Co., a Christian apparel brand that includes Hawaiʻi-designed clothing, hats, bags and other small items. Its name derives from the Bible in 1 John 4, meaning “God is Love.”
Nagura told Aloha State Daily that even though he grew up in church as a pastorʻs kid, it wasn't until he went off to college at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa that he took his faith more seriously.
“At first, I wanted to be a lowkey Christian, or believe what I believe, but go out and party and live the way I wanted to in college,” he said. “In my sophomore year, I started feeling more convicted about my faith. So I made a shift, and decided to start going back to church and commit myself more to Jesus. I stopped partying and naturally made different friends, who helped me pursue Jesus more actively and truthfully.”
He met his wife, Tatiana, as a teenager at King Kekaulike High School, and though college took them on separate paths, they later reconnected and dated long distance until they were married.
“So, she’s part of that (faith) journey, too,” Nagura noted.
During his senior year in college, Nagura said he “fell into business,” adding that at the time, he observed other clothing companies in the Christian space as “just selling designs and not necessarily contributing to community.”
“We started ordering a few sets of shirts, selling some and giving them out,” he said. “There was one conversation that set the tone for how our brand would move forward. Someone had visited our church and we shared about what we were trying to start and build. They [said], ‘You could be a Christian clothing brand, but you probably won’t grow as big, so maybe you should just be a Christian [owner] with a brand.’ And in my heart and mind, that just didn’t sit right with me.
“We leaned really hard into, ‘OK, we’re going to be the Christian brand here in Hawaiʻi.’”
Aloha Ke Akua Clothing Co. later debuted its Iesū (Jesus in Native Hawaiian) Collection, which today continues to be a best seller. From there, product releases have aimed to point people toward the Bible, while celebrating local culture and making a difference through its pass it forward program, among other initiatives.
“One of my favorite things is when we do end up in a Christian space and we give products away for free, but mention, ‘You may not need this shirt or hat but maybe someone else does need that encouragement.’” Nagura said. “So, my hope is, keep it if you like. But that you would use it to share Jesus with somebody. I love doing that!”
Recently, Aloha Ke Akua Clothing Co. donated around 600 hats to more than 20 different high school Christian clubs statewide. “I guess the idea is just to give and see what God does,” he said.
Not to mention, he’s been quick to jump into disaster relief efforts, like with the Maui wildfires and the more recent Kona Low storms this spring.
“We’re just one family, one small team trying to do all this, so you can’t always go out and be everywhere. But what I can do is design. I can make something that has meaning tied to a relevant event and then sell it, and we’ll donate all the profits back to a nonprofit organization or somebody that is doing something.”
Other campaigns have benefited Aloha House, Mālama Pregnancy Center of Maui (now operating as Pregnancy & Wellness Maui), Zeo Worship, Mālama Family Recovery Center, Mo’olelo Kū’i’o and more.
In the early beginnings of the business, Nagura said he schooled himself in screen printing via YouTube videos to bring that part of the operation in house and got to work on improving the brand's designs.
Where does he get his creative inspiration? “I like to be inspired by the original creator, so I look to God and I see the world He made. Inspiration from the Bible, so sometimes it’ll be a verse of Scripture. Or inspiration from some kind of plant or animal here.”
The husband-wife team currently employs one part-time employee, although one of Nagura's goals for the near future is to offer them a full-time position and hire a small team.
“God has blessed us. He’s provided for us through this business, and we’ve been able to impact our community. Within the next year, I want to be able to grow enough that we can also start providing for other families.”
Aloha Ke Akua Clothing Co. can be shopped online and wholesale in stores at Simply Local on Maui; the Blessed Life and Noʻeau Designers on Oʻahu; among others. Nagura adds that he is not planning to open his own storefront just yet.
Oftentimes the brand pops up at various events and markets across the Islands, including the Maui County Fair and Merrie Monarch Festival in Hilo — and for the first time this year, Made in Hawaiʻi Festival, which will be held Aug. 20 to 23 at the Hawaiʻi Convention Center. (ICYMI: ASD is an ‘Ohana Sponsor for this year’s four-day event. Come say “aloha” at our booth for free games and prizes. Tickets drop at midnight Aug. 1 here.) As Hawaiʻi's largest annual celebration of locally made products, the 32nd annual Made in Hawaiʻi Festival will showcase more than 500 vendors and expects to attract thousands of shoppers, according to recent reporting by ASD.
When asked in late June how preparations are going for the festival, Nagura noted, “It’s a big one for us. We’re in prep mode right now. All our designs and ideas are finished, so we’re just going to be screen printing in the next few weeks and getting ready.”
According to him, the biz will be selling alohawear manufactured in Hawaiʻi, along with an exclusive collab/collection (More details to be shared on Instagram).
He added: “As much as we can, we’re trying to locally produce the things that we can’t screen print ourselves. Anything that’s more garment manufacturing, we’re doing our best to have it produced on Oʻahu [with a small family business, Aloha Cut + Cloth]”
Looking ahead 10 years from now, Nagura says he and his wife will hit 20 years of marriage and their two young keiki now will be in high school then. He intends on being “really involved in their lives,” sharing his desire for them to be involved in the business, as well.
“The main thing is still representing our faith,” Nagura said. “Being a father, growing with children, I look at the verses that share who a man of God is. 'Husbands love your wives, just as Christ loved the church' or as 'Iron sharpens iron, [so one person sharpens another.]'— various things that encourage the biblical values in my own life ... I see how other fathers in our community live, too, [and] that’s an area of focus for me right now: to be the best dad and husband I can be.”
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Kelsey Kukaua Medeiros can be reached at kelsey@alohastatedaily.com.
