M.Nii

Shoot me for a dollar, but there’s an added twist to these trunks. Yeah, they’re custom. But custom made 54 years ago. The customer was the then-US senator, Mr John Fitzgerald kennedy, later to become the 35th president of the United States and a couple of years after that, it’s fourth president to be assassinated […]

style // Mar 8, 2016

Words by stab

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Shoot me for a dollar, but there’s an added twist to these trunks. Yeah, they’re custom. But custom made 54 years ago. The customer was the then-US senator, Mr John Fitzgerald kennedy, later to become the 35th president of the United States and a couple of years after that, it’s fourth president to be assassinated while in office. Hoo! Anyway, M.Nii is a surf co that used to hand-make these custom trunks in its little shop in Makaha, on the west coast of Oahu. John Moore, the creative who gave Modern Amusement its pop, who birthed hollister for A & F, and who designed and managed vStr for Quiksilver/Slater, breathed life into M.Nii, giving us all a chance to strap our hams into something timeless, something as classic as it comes.

Stab: Tell me the story of the JFK custom “Senator” trunk just one more time…
John: On July 4th, 1959, he walked into the M.Nii tailor shop and had a custom pair of trunks built for him. Best part is the ship-to address was the US Senate in DC. The man wouldn’t be president for another six months and was probably in hawaii campaigning for office at the time he passed through the M.Nii shop.

What lil special things y’build into ‘em… Before they made trunks, the M.Nii tailor shop used to make band uniforms for the island schools which is why they had eclectic tapes and trims that the beach boys hand selected to adorn their custom trunks. So when we designed “The Senator” trunks, we hand-selected this particular tape quality from a band-uniform company here in the USA.

Convince me why a pair of 50-year-old trunks made of stiff cotton will light up my life. We sent you two colours, “The Senator” in white is closest to the twill they used in the M.Nii shop. We call it our “bulletproof” twill and this two‐ply cloth just gets better with sun, saltwater and a good beating. Sort of like your favourite jeans, these trunks just get better with each wear. The indigo pair (not pictured ‘cause your old pal Dr swiped ‘em before the shoot) is built in poly/cotton dense poplin, lighter and crisper than the “bulletpoof ” twill. This is a plain weave and due to the polyester blend, will have a better function when drying, post surf. But I prefer the original “bulletproof” cloth just like Minoru Nii (the original Japanese-hawaiian owner) used. Don’t fuck with love man.