Shady uke companies? Leolani/Kumu

Kaelrie said:

Is it possible that before their increased web presence, Google's algorithm just didn't show these to me? I swear to God those results weren't there in the google search 10 months ago.

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Omi International
This is one of the main brands responsible for importing poor quality "tourist" Ukuleles into Hawaii and this is big part in this business, however they also use the brand name Leolani for supposedly better than budget quality Ukuleles that are at least partly assembled in Hawaii to justify the "made in Hawaii" tag. The Leolani range covers all the scales from Mini to Baritone in a variety of, usually laminate, woods and I have seen Pineapples, Lili'us and Taropatches too In 2012 they started with a new branding of the Waikiki Ukulele Company, (makes for a crowded headstock logo), and I have seen Sopranos Concerts and Tenors carrying this branding. They may well own other brand names too but it is difficult to work out what they own, what they just distribute, and what they have received from their, (I believe its Rockson Music) manufacturing supplier and not rebranded?

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Rllink said:

I wonder what's going on with these? You never hear anything about them. They were here one day and gone the next.

http://shimaukulele.com

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Rllink said:

I wonder what's going on with these? You never hear anything about them. They were here one day and gone the next.

http://shimaukulele.com

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merlin666 said:

Strange. Well a few months ago I picked up a very cheap uke at GoodGuys of a brand "HanoHano". I never heard of that brand before but the uke is just very sweet, and way better than some instruments in the store that cost five times as much, and they had a bunch in the store. When I looked up the name I found a fairly old facebook post where a store announced that they have them, and a brand website with little information:

https://hanohano-ukulele97.webnode.com/

The salesperson in the GoodGuys store said they were related to the Leolani group as well. I guess they produced a bunch of them years ago and GoodGuys got the rest of the inventory. It's a mystery but I'm fine with having a uke that no-one has heard of before.

It seems they had only one shipment of 150 ukes, so it's a relatively "rare" one:

https://www.importgenius.com/importers/hanohano-uke-inc
https://importkey.com/i/shenzhen-pengxinghui-imp-exp-ltd

The address of imports points to Tzu Ling Hawaii Inc. that has a store on Kuhio not far from the hotel where we will stay in March. So I will investigate further.

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gochugogi said:

Actually I've seen Hanohano 'ukuleles in my classes at Leeward Community College many times the past few years. Really well made and attractively designed for the budget price. Puts Kala and Luna to shame in that price bracket.

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Rllink said:

I wonder what's going on with these? You never hear anything about them. They were here one day and gone the next.

http://shimaukulele.com

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Kaelrie said:

$300 for a Chinese laminate soprano that doesn't even come with a gig bag probably had something to do with that.

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Kaelrie said:

Are your classes ever open to the community? Paid, I mean. I wouldn't expect that to be free. Or are they only for music degree students?

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This is a new model koa tenor in from Kumu, a line from our friends at Leolani. Leolani is a small family run Hawaii based company and we've carried their ukes in the store for over a decade now. They keep getting better and better so we are now offering them here at the website for all of you.

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