The First Rising Breath
Off the coast of West Maui, a koholā lifts her calf to the surface. One breath. Everything that follows depends on it. Hawaiians have a word for that moment: kahākūkahi. The first rising breath. It's also the name of the foundation this season's Islands Collection is built around.
Kahākūkahi Foundation is a Hawaii-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit focused on ocean education, cultural programs, and community building, particularly for keiki and families across Hawaiʻi. Their programs run ocean safety, Hawaiian cultural education, and environmental science out of the Kahākūkahi Ocean Academy. The mission is specific, not aspirational. Uplift the mental health of local youth through free mentorship rooted in ocean safety, cultural connection, and environmental guardianship, connecting kids to the environment and giving both youth and the wider community safe access to the ocean. Since 2025, that mission has reached more than 3,000 community members across 250-plus programs, including six summer camps in 2026. Every one of them free to the community.
The academy took shape during COVID, formalizing work that was already reaching local youth. After the 2023 fires, Kahākūkahi built a community center in Lahaina. Not as a retreat from the water, but the same mission extended onto land that needed it just as much.
For community gatherings, Kahākūkahi partners with AccesSurf Maui, an organization built around a single idea: the ocean should be open to everyone. AccesSurf's mission is to provide life-changing, accessible water programs for people with disabilities, with a vision of leading a global movement of adaptive water sports. They call it an ocean of possibilities, inclusion and accessibility prioritized in every community they reach.
This year, the two organizations partnered on a community day built to put exactly that into practice, getting people with disabilities, and the wider community around them, into the ocean together. Our team from the Lahaina Customer Experience Lab was there, working alongside Kahākūkahi founder Zane Kekoa Schweitzer.
Our relationship with Kahākūkahi didn't start with this event. It started when we opened our Customer Experience Lab at Whaler's Village in Lahaina, with a stated goal of working with nonprofits doing real work in the communities we operate in. Kahākūkahi was one of the first, but not the only. Maui Food Bank, Maui Sports Foundation, Lahui Foundation, Hawai’i Foodbank, Max Holloway Foundation, and Ama Olukai are some of the great organizations whose mission we support through our Islands and 808 Collections.
We’ve carried that spirit into our latest Islands Collection, Chain Camo, inspired by Hawaii’s black sand beaches, formed where lava meets the ocean. That volcanic black carries through the custom camouflage pattern with the Hawaiian Island chain secretly worked into the design, custom Hawaiian-inspired logos, and the Islands Gel Welded onto the undervisor.
The hats aren't the point of this one. A portion of every sale goes directly to Kahākūkahi Foundation's mission, helping the community enjoy, access, and learn about the water that surrounds them.
To shop the collection, click here.
To learn more about the Kahākūkahi Foundation, click here.