Los Angeles – Over the years, Larry “Big Al” Jordan has experimented with a number of moneymaking schemes. He has peddled everything from cocaine to chocolate chip cookies, human hair to hiking boots.
But none of his ventures – or misadventures – has generated the kind of cash flow and acclaim he now enjoys from the sale of T-shirts featuring the name of the neighborhood where he grew up: Watts.
“People here want to feel proud about where they live, and that is what we try to do,” said Jordan, 44, an extra-large “Wattslife” T-shirt covering much of his 6-foot-3-inch, 340-pound frame.
Jordan was one of a handful of street merchants who set up shop in Watts hawking “I Survived the Riots” T-shirts shortly after the city burned in the spring of 1992. Today, he is nurturing – through his Wattslife Souvenir store – an even greater market in Watts-labeled products, selling them locally, outside the neighborhood and outside the country.
On any given day, in addition to locals and former locals, foreign tourists show up at his shop at Wilmington Avenue and Imperial Highway, seeking clothes that feature the Wattslife name.
“It’s strange – people from the Westside are afraid to come to Watts, and I have people coming from all over the world,” Jordan said.
On Wednesday, as if on cue, Uji Ota, a Japanese tourist, strolled into the shop and bought more than $1,000 in T-shirts and hooded sweatshirts with the Wattslife logo.
“I give him credibility,” Jordan said. “It’s authentic merchandise made in Watts.”
Though Jordan acknowledges that much of the attraction to the Watts merchandise stems from the neighborhood’s reputation for a hard life, he says his shop steers clear of negative images. Some T-shirts carry reminders of the 1965 and 1992 riots. But most have slogans like “Everything Butt Ugly Made in Watts,” or “Someone in Watts Loves You.”
Growing up in the Jordan Downs housing project, Jordan flirted with gangs but also found a source of salvation in the local Wattslife lowrider car club.
But he needed money, and started to sell drugs. He was arrested and spent more than three years in prison.
When he got out in 1989, he resumed life on the streets, selling anything he could. After the Watts riots, he became involved in the gang truce and got a job with a nonprofit community development corporation in South Los Angeles.
After another run-in with the law, Jordan scraped together enough money to open his current shop late last year.
