Meet Sunshine Powers | Tiedye/ Rainbow/ Sparkle Entrepreneur & Collector

We had the good fortune of connecting with Sunshine Powers and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Sunshine, we’d love to hear about how you approach risk and risk-taking
How do I think about risk…What role has taking risks played in my life/career?

I mean, let’s get real, walking out the door in the morning is a risk, being a small business owner…massive Risk! Dealing with 175 different “hippie’ Artists…well now that is just silly…but from one risk branches another…and one failure viewed as a lesson instead, can lead to the next risk being successful…so you never know…it is all an adventure.

For me personally, there is never a risk…it is a choice of doing what you believe you need to do and having faith in your ability to make it happen.

Risk taking honestly is more actually just surrendering to life and your circumstance and being okay with it and trusting your gut. And yes, it is scary…I have panic attacks on the reg…you have to second guess yourself, but you also have to trust your gut.

I guess one might say that my entire life is a risk. I don’t really march the beaten path, and being a tall redhead, I never really fit in…sometimes you just have to embrace being weird and flaunt it.

Sometimes I need to actually rein in the risks, because my mind never stops…the rainbows…the spirals…the sparkles…wow…

When I first purchased the shop that I had managed for years, I had one main vendor, we had a contract for how much inventory I would purchase and a contract on the price. He wanted to raise the price by 25% right after we signed the contract for no reason besides he wanted to, and I was like “NO.” He said he would just stop supplying me with tiedye. I tried to work with him a little because he was my main vendor and I thought my friend, but then he called me a slut (after he slept with me) & said I would fail without him.

If there is one thing I love taking a risk on, it is proving someone wrong when they tell me I can’t do something that I know I can do…and don’t ever call a woman a slut…one is just asking for trouble on that one!

And so the Collective began… We started with one artist, and then got more. Now we are up to 175 Artists with more coming each day. If I had a better handle on my email and time management we would have even more!

Creating the Collective also widened my customer base & community…it wasn’t about what one artist did, it was about what everyone did…it was about all of us…it was inclusive…it was something that hadn’t been done before with one of a kind items. Bringing together so many artists from around the world, brightened our Rainbow to a level I did not know possible.

When we were closed for over a year due to the pandemic, I just stayed inside and built a massive online store and starting working with more artists so we could all get by. I wasn’t going to risk my health or my employees’ health, but I was not going to lose my shop either…I had a vision, and I was going to accomplish it.

When we were closed the amazing geometric mural on the outside of the shop got tagged a bunch…this beautiful beautiful piece of art that I thought defined who we were as a shop. The reality was, no matter how hard I tried, that graffiti was not coming off, and to be frank, the old owner never primed the shop before the mural was put up so no matter what I did, it was never going to be right. So I stepped back and decided to paint the shop….a massive risk with how loved & photographed the old mural was.

Everyone freaked out…I got hate mail and texts, people were pissed, the building was all white and everyone started coming into the shop trying to figure out what was going on…

I got two of the most amazing artists in the world to paint the shop. And it was a brighter rainbow than ever before, we needed it after the pandemic…

People stopped freaking out and started to thank me…it was magical and so fulfilling.

We decided to have a party to celebrate the new mural and the artists were going to come out and finish it, but emergency circumstances and they couldn’t make it out to finish…but I had the band, I had the party, I had the permit, and I was going to have to get this mural finished.

So the mural became a collective and we got almost 10 more artists, including myself, because come hell or high water, this risk…needed to work out. The shop is my baby…and my baby is always going to look EPIC!

And LOVE looks so amazing & inspiring, she is now the most beautiful shop inside and out…because putting Love and Energy into your business and community will always be a risk that works out.

I can still add to the mural as time goes by, I can always add more artists to the collective…the shop inside and out is now a living ~ breathing ~ growing thing.

I guess what I am trying to say is that you are never going to take a risk sticking to your principles, values and your gut, the risk is in how you choose to react to your circumstances and trying to achieve your final goal.

I would recommend that as you ride the “Risk Rollercoaster” of life you Breathe, Surrender and have faith that it will all work out the way it is supposed to…

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?

Love on Haight is a Women owned & operated Artist Collective. We host over 175 Artists from around the world in our space with half the blanks being cut & sewn here in San Francisco and one third of our products made by people who do/ or have worked at Love on Haight.

Love on Haight is dedicated to our community and each other. Over the years, Love on Haight has helped house over 450 homeless youth from the Haight-Ashbury Area, become a massive donation center for the North Bay Fires and played an integral part in creating a better community in the Haight Ashbury. Love on Haight is a firm believer that the more we do for our community the better our business does naturally.

Recently with the death of George Floyd, we became inspired to do our part as well as take our passion for ethical fashion one step further. In March of 2022 we opened “Colors of Love” a nonprofit Tiedye Community Education Center where we may have tiedye classes & community programs as well as host a Women’s Prison Reentry tiedye Program where we take 2-3 women for a 9 month program where we teach them the art of tiedye and how to run a business in a loving and supportive environment. Our goal is to evolve into a Prisoner Reentry cut and sew program as well.

We want to take fashion to the most Ethical Level Possible…and we want to help our Community as much as possible.

Over the years here in the Haight Ashbury, I have learned that if we simply have our focus be on Spreading Love & Community, the business naturally does well…in fact, the more we do, the better business becomes..it is this most magical thing.

Stanley Mouse once told me that Haight Ashbury was the center of the universe. I truly believe it is one of them. This Crazy ~ Prismatic ~ Vortex where it all Melts together, like a dream.

A dream you have to work really hard for, but it pays off. I work constantly, there is no giving up, there are only rainbows…and more rainbows….and it is a beautiful thing.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Love on Haight Haight Street/ hippie hill
Lower Haight
Divisadero
Golden Gate Park (go on a hunt for the fairy doors)
Valencia Street and the murals in the alley
NORTH BEACH start there and walk through Chinatown to Union Square…better to head downhill than uphill
Legion of Honor/ Land’s End

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
All of the Artists, Employees, People, Customers & Community that compose Love on Haight into the most magical Rainbow in San Francisco.

x

Website: loveonhaightsf.com

Instagram: loveonhaight

Facebook: Love on Haight