“I guess it was always a cool place to shop” says Appeal style correspondent Eric Butler (Age: 23, Oakland native). Appeal staffer Tim Ehhalt (Age: 36, SF resident since 1979, Home Turf appearances: 2) says it was “the place we all got our Adidas gear” in middle school. Regardless of how old you are or how long you’ve lived in the area, though, you have got to admit that this 80’s-vintage commercial for about Fillmore district clothing store Harput’s is about as good as it gets.
As Tim recalls: Everyone I know went there for their Adidas and sweatsuit needs, boys AND girls. People would save up and take the bus there after school just to look what had come in. They were sort of riding on the Adidas/Run DMC craze. They had great deals on sweat suits, had a short, catchy, original name, and advertised a lot.
Eric’s Harput’s habit started a decade later: The first time I went to Harputs (maybe around 2004-05) there were old and new Adidas shoe boxes stacked nearly to the ceiling, the entrance was lined with rolling racks of deadstock Adidas sweatshirts and track jackets. In short, it was packed with cool things old and new. It took all I had not to buy anything.
A year or so later I started seeing ads for “Harputs Market” but they had a totally different look and feel than what I had seen with Harput’s Adidas. They expanded, and turned the space next door into Harputs Market, which housed some high end, cutting edge designers like Maison Martin Margiela, Yohji Yamamoto and Comme de Garcons as well as Harputs Own. It was almost like a complete 180 from the retro vintage feel of Harput’s Adidas, but still totally hip in a whole new way.
Any of y’all out there have Harput’s nostalgia? If so, let’s hear it.
