Craving a sourcing trip with beautiful beaches and a whole lot of sun led me straight to Trinidad. Was it a risk? Hellz yeah. But it paid off BIG. Everything about the Trinidad sourcing trip was golden. From finding the dope goods on the first day of our hunt to the homies working Pablo’s Doubles food stand on the Ave, waving from across the street every time I walked by.
I spotted a tiny neighborhood office supply shop on the way to an art gallery. Couldn’t believe my luck. The shop was only a few blocks away from where I was staying. Their selection wasn’t too impressive but what they had, they had a lot of it!
Spotted notebooks with covers the color of Trinidad’s “official” hot sauce - gold. Everything I ate felt the heat of the totally grubbin’ hot sauce. And it got better… the page layout is like nothing I’ve ever seen in any other country. Double lines? Yup. Dope as hell! Purchased their entire inventory, and glad I did ‘cause I later learned that the notebooks are no longer in production. The former family-owned, local company was purchased by a big company that replaced the super rad lo-fi cover designs.
After securing the notebooks, the search continued. Didn’t find anything for the Mystery Item in the shop but… FI-FI-FINALLY! Pencils! Trini pencils with rich-lookin’ ferrules like blingin’ 24k-gold bracelets stacked on a wrist. Gangsta!
Hi-fivin’ and jumping up and down from scorin’ the double hit of golden goods, I practically ran out of the shop and the moment I hit the street, I didn’t even know which way to go! No worries though - took my Trini pimp walk and headed real slow in the direction of sun.
Ended up in an office supply shop that was crackin’. Long-ass line of people waving paper in the air (like they just don’t care) and what were they waiting for? The copy machine! Kinda crazy but I haven’t seen so many people queue up to copy just about anything and everything. But it wasn’t just the copy machine that people were waiting for. They were also waiting to get documents laminated, to use the paper cutter and to get loose leaf sheets bound into a book. And this craze wasn’t just at this one shop, it was standard at every office supply shop I visited.
Maneuvered around the lines of people and spotted rows and rows of awesome labels that felt very Frenchie. Couldn’t believe that they’re made locally. Noticed these labels in various sizes at all the shops. They use them for labeling products on their shelves, displaying information and for just about everything. Phat rolls of 100 and so damn cute. What was I waiting for? The labels? Mos def perfect for the Trinidad Mystery Item!
The trip to Trinidad was dope as hell. Hanging with locals, liming on the Ave, scoring amazing goods, chilling in the sun… golden. Can’t wait for everyone to fall in love with the Trini goods like we did!
oxxo Hen