18 years have passed by faster than you possibly can say “Adam Bomb.”
With The Tons of’ current announcement that it could shut its retailer on Fairfax Avenue after a virtually two-decade run, two totally different chapters have been concluded. The primary to succeed in its finish was that of The Tons of’ retail presence. The model has lengthy been identified for its immersive brick-and-mortar experiences, which, at their zenith, included — moreover the Fairfax District retailer — hyper-localized outposts on each Put up Road in San Fransisco (a design partly impressed by Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Area Odyssey and encased in rock pulled from the exact same quarry the place the California gold rush started over a decade in the past), Grand Road in New York Metropolis (an area that saluted Soho’s heritage and continued the Area Odyssey theme from the Put up Road retailer and a store in Santa Monica).
The Tons of
The Tons of
That’s not even mentioning the 2 totally different iterations of The Tons of’ flagships round Fairfax, each pictured above. 7909 Rosewood, the model’s first flagship, was tucked on a quiet, slender aspect road between Fairfax and Rosewood Avenues, completely encapsulating streetwear’s IYKYK ethos when it opened in 2007. The second, a a lot bigger institution that served as a metaphor for the model’s progress and deep Los Angeles roots, was across the nook at 501 Fairfax Avenue and featured an immersive set up impressed by the La Brea Tar Pits.
However the second conclusion — and what it represents — is probably the most bittersweet.
The Tons of is the ultimate OG Fairfax streetwear model to shut its doorways for good.
At its peak from the mid-’00s via the 2010s, Fairfax — which changed Melrose Avenue as LA’s most in-the-know purchasing stretch when Supreme LA opened in 2004 — was one of many largest streetwear hubs on the planet, rivaled solely by New York’s Decrease East Aspect and Tokyo’s Harajuku neighborhood. The retailers on the road learn like an all-star staff: The Tons of. Supreme. Diamond Provide Co. HUF. Crooks & Castles. In later days, Pink Dolphin and the Odd Future retailer (which has since been changed by a GOLF WANG retailer). In the present day, in the event you stroll down the three-block stretch by Fairfax Excessive College, you’ll discover outfits like The Gold Gods, RIPNDIP, and Heaven by Marc Jacobs nestled amongst the world’s unique Jewish companies like Kanter’s Deli and some OG holdouts like Flight Membership and Corridor of Fame.
“Once we moved in, the one gamers [on Fairfax] on the time have been Supreme and Reserve [a bookstore],” The Tons of co-founder Bobby Tons of stated in a 2019 interview. “We felt prefer it may very well be the place the way forward for LA was. We ended up transferring in, and it became our clubhouse. Ben [Hundreds, The Hundreds co-founder] and I’d work there, however folks would simply begin hanging out within the afternoon. After which I’d weblog about it. We’d be enjoying music, smoking, ingesting. We might simply grasp on the market all day and all evening.” What was initially used as an workplace area quickly turned The Tons of’ first retailer after the model made $100,000 USD (adjusted for inflation, roughly $157,000 USD in 2025) in in the future with the discharge of their ultra-popular “Paisley” hoodie and reinvested the earnings in its bodily presence.
The Tons of
The Tons of
“Swiftly, you had younger children of shade transferring onto the block and being loud, smoking a variety of weed out entrance, and simply having enjoyable constructing the subsequent era,” stated Bobby Tons of. “I used to throw a block social gathering right here each Labor Day. We might shut down Rosewood, escape a BBQ, and grill. We did that to deliver the neighborhood collectively as a result of though we have been all opponents, we understood that streetwear, as a market, was nonetheless very small. We have been all of the underdogs. So as an alternative of working in opposition to one another, on this in the future, we may all come collectively and present we supported one another.”
By the early 2010s, it was off to the races, with The Tons of and Fairfax’s different manufacturers drawing big strains that might stretch to the tip of the block. Streetwear lovers of all stripes came around: vacationers from Tokyo, discussion board children from Minnesota and celebrities together with Jonah Hill and Morrissey to Child Cudi and Drake. And it wasn’t simply the products that introduced folks to Fairfax both: it was an natural, community-focused vibe, the sort that “massive” manufacturers twist themselves in knots attempting to realize in 2025. “Fairfax manufacturers, particularly The Tons of, have been an enormous affect to us in Philly,” stated Ky Cao, the co-founder of Philadelphia boutique P’s & Q’s, who’s stocked The Tons of since 2009. “Once we opened Abakus Takeout [the predecessor to P’s & Qs], these have been the manufacturers we wished, and we felt like we made it after we obtained The Tons of.”
Cao goes on to clarify that it was extra than simply the graphics and items — it was the familial vibe that permeated the block, as upon his first journey to Los Angeles the employees struck up a dialog and provided him a beer. “Once I went to Fairfax for the primary time, I used to be instantly welcomed,” he says. “I didn’t even point out that I owned a retailer and was trying to inventory The Tons of, and so they nonetheless handled me that manner. Since then, each time I’d return, The Tons of would at all times be the primary retailer I visited.”
The Tons of
The Tons of
And the artistic neighborhood that spawned on Fairfax and reached vital mass with the success of Odd Future influenced and impacted streetwear worldwide. A few of at this time’s largest movers and shakers minimize their tooth on Fairfax within the weblog period, all of which was documented by The Tons of as a part of its long-running weblog — which means that even in the event you couldn’t make it to Fairfax you might nonetheless get an on-the-ground view of what was happening and see the expertise that was effervescent. Fairfax “alumni” embrace Tyler, the Creator (who was as soon as a Hypebeast discussion board member). Earl Sweatshirt. Josh Vides. Dom Kennedy. Sage Elsesser, a skater and mannequin who additionally makes music underneath the moniker Navy Blue. “Fairfax was a hub, a impartial zone the place folks from all around the metropolis and the world may join” says Kacey Lynch, the founding father of Bricks & Wooden and a Los Angeles native (who, in a full-circle second, collaborated with The Tons of in 2019). “It simply so occurred that the friendship and the togetherness that was established there wound up setting the tone for tradition at the moment.”
“Fairfax was the blueprint, and The Tons of was the the shop setting the tone. The clothes nearly bought itself due to the setting they created and the folks they dropped at the block.”
Fairfax will finally reinvent itself as soon as once more, as the one factor that’s a continuing in a metropolis the scale of LA is change — and the ethos established on Fairfax can nonetheless be felt at a brand new crop of institutions like Brother Brother and Virgil Regular — nevertheless it’s onerous to say that no matter Fairfax turns into subsequent can have the seismic affect of the period that formally ended when The Tons of closed its doorways earlier within the month.
That’s to not say that the model itself is a factor of the previous, in fact: it’s nonetheless carried at a world community of stockists and The Tons of’ webstore, and The Tons of Spring 2025 was launched at the start of February.
“As one of many first ones in and the final ones out, we saved our promise to the block,” Bobby Tons of stated in a current Instagram story. “To see this via, to complete what we began. And to provide it every part we obtained.”
Similar to the model’s tagline says: The Tons of is Large. Nonetheless, the world it helped construct on Fairfax feels a lot smaller at this time.
The Tons of
If you wish to study extra about The Tons of’ historical past and the rise of Fairfax, try Bobby Tons of ‘This Is Not a T-Shirt: A Model, A Tradition, A Group, A Life in Streetwear.’
