8 years already. Crazyyy. I still remember when I was hesitant to really do something with this brand. We already were making shirts for a year or so and my friend, Jorge who I started it with, went and pursued skateboarding. He said it “You can have it”, and I really didnt want to do it without him but I wanted to still make tee shirts. The second car show I ever got a booth at was coming up and I had about 8 different VIP style designs that were super basic, just the outlines of the cars on it. I told myself if these do good, I’ll keep going at it but I really was more into skating at the time and wanted more of a streetwear brand. Jorge was actually the one to want to do a car inspired brand. I had a lot of doubts and didn’t really like the name at this time too. I think we just figured out we spelled it wrong also. My other friend Brian, was always pushing me to make tee shirts and keep going with the brand. Me and him were always supposed to start something together but then he knocked up his girlfriend, so plans changed. He always told me, If I didnt have a kid I would be going all out and hustling, so keep doing it, you got it!” I would always ask him for advice when I didnt know what to do since he was a pro at marketing. What sucked is that both Jorge and Brian lived like an hour and a half away so we barely saw each other after I quit working in LA. So the car show was all VIP cars and everyone loved the shirts. I dont think I had too much stock but I remember not having sizes left and telling people to go on the website the next day and purchase it there. After that I went home and was hyped, started really putting some time into the brand and started meeting all of the ridahs you see today. At this time, Karuma was a small group, it was only Anthony, Paul, 91, Adry, Freddie, and myself. I believe I met TJ at that meet and he’s the one who took the photos you’re about to see. Soon after that TJ introduced me to Danny H and Scott and with those 2 goofballs we started doing a lot more car stuff. Danny H was always asking about throwing a car meet, would never stop talking about it and I’m glad he was so annoying because he’s the reason why we started having them.
Before all the Rounds and Versus themed ones, the first one we did was with Royal Flush, and Liberty in a Target parking lot and it was pretty cool. A lot of people showed up and after that you know Danny wanted more. I always went into this take out spot, Musubi Monster in Orange and they started noticing how much I went there because of my HI-VIS shirt I had to wear. One of the owners was into cars and wanted to throw an event so we teamed up and threw the first KARUMA vs. Musubi Monster. It was a small lot but got filled up and for the first meet it was pretty motivating to see all the cars show up. My dad even brought his hot rod out. I’ll explain another time where the VS. came from but I think giving our meets a theme is the best part about them. What I think makes it fun, is to include another brand or group and throw something together. I always thought of it like a collaboration when 2 brands make a shirt but not only do we get to make the shirt, we host an event that will bring people together and make the car community bigger.
So a couple weeks ago we teamed up with Boost Brigade to celebrate #8 at the GReddy Performance Products HQ. We were working on the Demon Ridahs collaboration for 2 years prior to this and needed to get it out before the year ended. We were on a time crunch and I only had a month to design an event tee and plan everything. I am never doing something with only a month prep time again. That stressed me out and gave me some more grey hair. I was literally printing stuff until I had to leave and I was late and of course heard some words from grumpy Kevin. The parking tags I had to rush from another company and they were flimsy like paper and I didn’t even want to give them out. My mom came a couple nights before to try and help me laminate them but they looked even more like shit. We ended up just giving them out as is and I didnt hear anything bad but Im sure some compared it to the last ones. But hey, its a freebie so whatever. My trophies also didn’t come in time but I did have a top 8 and ridahs choice ready to go. So what I learned is I need minimum 2 months prep time. It wasn’t like a VJC meet as far as number of cars, but that was expected doing it in Irvine and on such short notice. But we all had fun and I was glad to still see people rockin with us after not having a meet for a couple years.
Thank you to all the ones who showed up and supported us. I love you. And to the guy that tried to steal a steering wheel, youre a fag. -TU
Photos by: TJ Watkinson
