Making What You Like Mo’ Betta
Lora and Greg Yamamoto at their newly opened shop. Photo courtesy Greg Yamamoto
For Greg Yamamoto, owner of Ev’ryting Taste Betta Wit, it all started with that one simple slogan that soon catapulted to a thriving custom slogan T-shirt company. Yamamoto founded ETBW in October 2009, initially as an online store, and then began branching out and selling his merchandise at craft fairs. Now he has retail space to call his own, having celebrated a grand opening last month at 320 Ward Ave., Suite 206.
“We are located across from Wahoo’s Fish Taco, and are in the same building as Supercuts and Honolulu South Shore Surf Shop,”
Yamamoto says. “The business concept is basically geared toward companies to use as creative marketing advertising for all types of products, starting with condiments and more.
“The idea come about while having our regular Friday night family dinners at my dad’s house. There were some veggies with mayonnaise on the side, and Dad, who doesn’t like mayo on anything, just so happened to start to mix some shoyu into the mayo, and that was the only way he would eat it. After my brother-in-law saw that, he said, ‘So, Dad, everything taste betta wit shoyu!’ We looked at each other and said, that’s a great slogan!”
With that, ETBW’s first design was “Ev’ryting taste betta wit SHOYU.” Today, the company now has a total of 17 slogan designs.
ETBW caters to a vast clientele including businesses, churches, schools, private clubs and more.
“The average cost is $20 per shirt,” Yamamoto says. “This is a product that can be appreciated by everyone. For customers, they’ll have a fun, custom-designed shirt or product that is directly related to what they like to eat or do, and it’s a great way to advertise any product.”
Yamamoto creates and draws all ETBW designs by hand, and also relies on his dedicated team of employees to keep the business going strong.
“We love seeing the happy customers come in. It’s a lot of fun to design our slogans and shirts, and it’s hard to stop,” he adds with a smile.
Currently, ETBW also is offering flavor of the week T-shirts. According to Yamamoto, if a customer purchases an “Ev’ryting Taste Betta Wit Ketchup on Top” T-shirt, for example, they’ll receive a free fullsized bottle of ketchup. There are a total of 17 designs to choose from with a related product giveaway for each.
ETBW is open for business Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Saturdays 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. For more information on Ev’ryting Taste Betta Wit, visit https://evrytingtastebettawit.com/, call 808-593-0000 or email etbw.llc@gmail.com and find them on Facebook.
