Del Sol Cariloha

About

Del Sol's clothing and accessories change colors when exposed to sun light by using color changing crystals used in all Del Sol products!

Story

ABOUT DEL SOL
Headquartered in Sandy, Utah, Del Sol was established in 1994 and has since grown to more than 100 stores worldwide in 25 countries. Today it’s the world’s leading brand of color-changing apparel and accessories and the number-one promoted merchant onboard Royal Caribbean, Carnival, Princess, Disney, Celebrity, and Norwegian Cruise Lines.

We began selling our color-changing clothing and accessories out of a small retail cart in Murray, Utah’s Fashion Place Mall, eventually spreading our concept throughout the United States and Canada. After expanding our color-changing product line and fun-under-the-sun experience, we took our products to the world’s most popular cruise ship ports, opening the first, full Del Sol store in St. Thomas in 1997.

NASA explored earlier concepts of color change for its space program back in the ‘70s and ‘80s, but Del Sol further developed and expanded this technology, engineering its own proprietary Spectrachrome® color-changing crystals that are found in all Del Sol products today. Del Sol’s color-changing crystals are harvested from the sunniest, most colorful places on the planet and then engineered for use on nearly 10,000 color-changing retail items.

Much like a flower that blossoms in the sun’s rays, Del Sol’s exclusive Spectrachrome® crystals open and unfold upon exposure to sunlight; revealing their hidden colors.

Jeff Pedersen, on behalf of Del Sol, is the winner of the prestigious Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award in Retail, Utah’s Best of State Statue and medal, and is found on Inc. Magazine’s 500/5000 fastest-growing businesses, along with Utah’s Top 100 Private Businesses.

Through humanitarian efforts, Del Sol has donated more than a million dollars worth of product and aid to victims of the Haitian earthquake, the South East Asia Tsunami and Hurricane Katrina, as well as hundreds of other projects around the world.

Del Sol utilizes numerous registered and unregistered trademarks (both U.S. and foreign) in marketing and selling its products, including, but not limited to, “Del Sol”, “100% WOW”, “Bahama Polo”, “Cap T”, “Executive”, “Fun, Joy, Smiles & Memories”, “Island Zip”, “Just Add Sun”, “LS Scoop T”, “Polarized Pro”, “Raglan T”, “Ribbed T’s”, “Rio Havana”, “Scoop T”, “Sol Adventure”, “Sol Baby”, “Sol Bear”, “Sol Dials”, “Sol Flyer”, “Sol Gems”, “Sol Kids”, “Sol Pearls”, “Sol Silk”, “Sol Sport”, “Sol Surf Co.”, “Solar Knit Technology”, “Soles”, “Solize”, “Spectra Cool Technology”, “Spectrachrome”, “Strap T’s”, “Sun Accents”, “Sun T’s” and “Sun-Powered”

ABOUT CARIOHA

Caribbean style and Hawaiian aloha were the inspiration behind Cariloha – a combination of the two words. With more than 20 years vacationing, working and serving in the Caribbean and Hawaiian Islands and the cruise ship ports throughout the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexican Rivera and Bahamas, the Cariloha team became steeped in the culture and lifestyle of the islands and the beachfront shopping experience.

We wanted to take our love of the Caribbean and Hawaii with us everywhere, so we began celebrating Cariloha Fridays, wearing our favorite island-inspired clothing every Friday to the office. The idea caught on, and we realized that we weren’t the only ones who wanted to enjoy the islands day in and day out.

With island lifestyle on our minds, we recognized that there was a gap in the cruise and tourist market for consumers who wanted to take a piece of their vacation home with them that wasn’t a high-priced piece of jewelry or a low-end souvenir, but a perfect fit in between. Capitalizing on the opportunity, we began working with our research and development teams to design and create clothing and accessories that would capture the look and feel of the islands.

With an island-leisure line of products ready to roll out to the public, we opened three Cariloha stores in 2008 in the popular island cruise ship ports of Cozumel, Mexico, Ocho Rios, Jamaica, and St. Thomas, United States Virgin Islands. The initial product line and store build-out weren’t the right fit at first. Customers didn’t connect with the relatively unknown brand at the time, which resembled other island-leisure brands that were maybe more familiar.

Not forgetting what inspired us in the first place, we went back to the drawing board to create something all our own – a unique niche in the marketplace that would more fully capture what we and others wanted from their island vacations. Because the islands are always hot and humid, and everyone wants to wear something cool and refreshing, we began developing fabrics that would best fit our needs, hitting it off with a proprietary blend of bamboo, a unique alternative that would quench Cariloha’s thirst for the islands.

We always knew bamboo as a hard, woody plant that was green and good for the environment, but it could also be made into ultra-soft clothing, bedding, and bath goods that rivaled the softness of cashmere and silk. Bamboo is 3 degrees cooler than cotton and wicks moisture away from your body. It even helps repel odors and allergens. We didn’t waste time in developing an entire line of bamboo products that would keep you as soft and cool as the Caribbean breeze on a hot summer day.

We knew we’d found the right pathway for Cariloha to take root. We adjusted our store build-outs, promotions and marketing programs to reflect the soft, cool, clean and green nature of bamboo, and created unique bamboo educational displays and fixtures, which help inform customers on the unique bamboo features, benefits and properties.

Cariloha has now opened over 40 full, stand-alone stores in 13 countries, and has introduced an entire line of bamboo products, including apparel, bedding, bath goods, accessories, fitness wear, handbags and more all made of bamboo. Today, Cariloha is the only multi-store retailer in the world to provide an entire store experience that’s completely merchandised with products made from Cariloha bamboo. An ever-growing rich supply of bamboo makes it possible for Cariloha to continue offering an exclusive collection of bamboo products all enjoying the soft touch and green ‘footprint’ of this renewable resource.

Cariloha utilizes numerous registered Trademarks and some unregistered trademarks (both U.S. and foreign) in marketing and selling its products, including, but not limited to, “Cariloha”, "Cariloha Bamboo", “Stay Cool, Wear Bamboo”, “A Comfy Way to Save the World”, “It’s Bamboo Soft”, "Bamboo Soft", "Comfy Soft", "Bamboo Style", "Cariloha Baby", “Live Natural, Stay Cool, Wear Bamboo”, “Soft – Cool – Clean – Green”, “Bamboo – Crazy Soft”, “World’s Softest Shirt”, “World’s Softest Sheets”, “World’s Softest Towels”, "Softest Bedding on the Planet", and “World’s Softest Liner”