Kenna Lindsay: Hey, everybody. It’s Kenna. We’re here with the Haight Street Voice and “Z” from Further on Haight Street. I’m so happy to be interviewing you today. Awesome. I’ve got some questions prepared for you. Just starting, you’re one of the newer shops on Haight Street. Welcome! Could you tell us about yourself and your store?
Z: Yeah, so we just opened and I started the business out of my school bus, like going to Dead and Company shows. I was living in my school bus in San Francisco when I opened the shop.
K: Very cool. Yeah. Maybe that answers my next question. How did you arrive at the name Further?
Z: We named it after the, the Furthur bus that was Ken Kesey, Neal Cassady, and the Merry Pranksters drove across the country. Then they came back to the Bay Area and did the Acid Tests, and that kind of birthed a lot of the hippie culture and Grateful Dead culture that is, that’s rooted in, in this neighborhood.
K: How did you get to Haight Street or pick to open a shop here in the neighborhood?
Z: I just had these experiences and my intuition was telling me, someone maybe gave me the idea, and then my intuition was telling me to get this, do everything I can to get the spot here.
K: How long has your store been open here on Haight Street, and how long have you been in the Bay Area?
Z: It’s just been open for a few months, but I’ve been in the Bay Area since 2008. I’ve also done a lot of traveling over the years and lived at some other spots, but I’ve been mostly in the Bay Area since 2008.
K: Do you have a best or favorite, fun or famous person from Haight Street of any variety that you would wanna tell?
Z: Famous person, probably Linda Kelly. Yeah, yeah. Linda is a real sweetheart. [Awww. Just editing this now. Shoutout to YOU, Z! I certainly ain’t famous. But GRATEFUL for sure! Love, Linda]
K: What is your favorite thing about being a merchant here on Haight Street?
Z: The community is so good here. It feels like it’s one of the last vestiges of the old San Francisco. And seeing the City change so much over the recent years with the tech takeover and, uh, and now with the new mayor. Haight Street seems like it still has this community that goes all the way back to the ’60s. Yeah. Just being part of here is really special. Being a Deadhead, there’s, like, always a strong connection with the Haight Ashbury.
K: Do you have a favorite thing about San Francisco?
Z: The physical beauty of it. Just driving anywhere, it’s so gorgeous. It’s the most gorgeous city in America. The water, the hills, the mountains, the color of the houses, everything. It’s just so physically beautiful.
K: You make tie-dye, and it looks like beautiful appliqué collages. Could you tell us about your work?
Z: I learned the tie-dye from Deadheads on Dead tour. That really inspired me, so I learned to do the tie-dye. And then from there, I branched off and started adding appliqué patches that I also learned from Deadheads. Then I took the appliqué patches and put them on sweatshirts and jackets along with canvas patches. And we also were inspired by Japanese brands like Kapital, and Japanese stitching and patchwork. Kapital was inspired by American hippie culture, so they have a lot of hippie aesthetic in their clothes. It’s really high-end, so I figured we could make something, you know, by Deadheads for Deadheads, keep it in the community, but still kind of be higher-end quality and fashion sensibility.
K: Fabulous. Yeah. I love what I see here in the shop. What do you hope for the future of Haight Street?
Z: Just keep it from getting gentrified. I like how it’s been able to keep its quality and character. Hopefully, you know, it doesn’t change too much. I think it’s always been a hub for counterculture, not just hippie culture, but all kinds of counterculture. And subcultures — I want that to continue. [The Haight] is also more affordable than a lot of other parts of the City in terms of the stuff that’s being sold here. It’s catered to a different demographic. I want that to continue as well.
K: With Club Deluxe reopening, and maybe, I don’t have a timeline on this, but maybe the Red Victorian Hotel reopening eventually, I think we’re gonna see that live music vibe come back as well soon.
Z: Yeah, that’d be sick. I’m really looking forward to it. That’d be awesome!
K: How about for the future of your own life and creative work that we see here?
Z: I just wanna keep surviving as a business, and then build up the online presence. Also I’m hoping there’s some new Dead shows next year so that we can go on tour. We’re hoping they’re gonna keep it going, ’cause Bob Weir died, and his legacy, he wanted to keep it going for 300 years, keep the culture going. So we’re hoping the rest of the band members keep it going.
K: The celebration of his life and all of the Dead’s contribution creatively throughout the City over the last couple years have been really beautiful to get to witness and experience.
Z: Yeah, exactly.
K: Do you have a favorite place to eat on Haight Street?
Z – My favorite place to eat is Papa’s Kitchen. Mmm … they’re good! Yeah. I think they’re the best restaurant on Haight Street. Hell yeah!
K: What would you do differently if you could do it all over? Advice for young artists or young business people, someone, I don’t know, maybe in their teens or twenties that’s looking to follow in your footsteps?
Z: I think it’s important to take risks and try to be inspired by other artists and then, you know, feed off of that inspiration from other artists. I think traditionally, I think to get good you copy others, and then once you master something and you’re good, then you branch off and create your own style. But I think in the beginning it’s okay to copy the people that you like. And then it gives you the skill and confidence to put your own spin on it. Then you find your originality that way.
K: Totally. Like studying your own masters?
Z: Exactly … people that you respect.
K: Do you wish that there’s anything that could be different or an issue in the neighborhood that you would like to bring light to?
Z: I think If we had more vendors on the street, it might be good, like sidewalk vendors. If that was allowed more, it might bring a lot more traffic. I hear about the older days when there was way more traffic here and if we had vendors kind of like how Telegraph used to have in Berkeley, it might bring more traffic and create a more festive atmosphere to make it more of a hub, I think. We should make sure Haight Street stays like a hub for grassroots artists and vendors. Yeah, that could help it.
K: I know that there’s a strong presence of people in the community who wanna make sure that there’s like street fair type days. More than just the street fair, which is awesome, but like celebration throughout the year or that kind of thing.
Z: Exactly.
K: Do you have a favorite store or institution in the neighborhood over the years that you’ve been here?
Z: As a streetwear guy, I really love True. They’ve been here since I first came here. When I first came to Haight, I bought a sweatshirt there that I really loved, an LRG sweatshirt. I also like Love on Haight because of the tie-dye. They have the best tie-dye-artists collection. It’s really inspiring in there. They were also, before I started my shop, my biggest customer for my own tie-dyes. I love their owner, Sunny. She’s been really awesome and supportive. So probably those two are my favorite. I mean, there’s so many vintage shops that I love getting stuff from, but I have the most connection with True and Love on Haight.
