King's Hawaiian sweet bread has gotten some mainstream exposure with shoutouts in the movie Chef, starring Jon Favreau and again in his Netflix special The Chef Show. In 2017 and 2018, we sent a bunch of shirts to King's Hawaiian and to groups working with them. Since the company color is orange, they requested the Tropic Flavor orange Hawaiian shirts. And when we saw some of the shirts in their recent TV spot, we were super excited!
Their TV commercial starts with two guys wearing the orange shirts while delivering King's Hawaiian bread to a party in the city. We love the sentiment of the commercial. It makes us feel like putting on those shirts and having a rooftop or backyard BBQ party.
King's Hawaiian started in Hilo, Hawaii (on Hawaii Island) in the 1950s by Robert Taira under the name Robert's Bakery. He was known for his soft loaves of Hawaiian Sweet Bread. In the 1960's the bakery moved to its famous King Street location in Honolulu (on Oahu) and was renamed King's Bakery. Since their bread was so popular on the Mainland, they opened up a location in Torrance, CA in 1977. And their bread has been growing in popularity ever since as they have reached national brand status.
Here in Hawaii, there are two things that most kids grow up eating, spam musubi and King's Hawaiian Sweet Bread. For many of us, those big round loaves of bread that come in a pie pan bring back fond memories of a more innocent and simpler time in our lives. And even today, we still love it! The TV commercial featured their hotdog and hamburger buns but here in Hawaii, we usually see their big round loaves as well as their square dinner rolls.
We're glad we were able to provide them with at least some of their orange shirts for their events. Now, whenever we see their bread in the store, we think of those shirts. And when we see those shirts, we think of their bread.