Royal on Main
Desperate dreamers from far and wide come to LA to seek out fame -- Arnold flew over with nothing but his muscles, while Axl stepped off the bus with nothing but his bike shorts. Welcome to the Jungle, Royal Elastic.
Founded in Australia in 1996, this innovative sneaker company's just now opened its first US store: Royal on Main, a diminutive hub that'll serve as both their exclusive LA retailer, and an exercise in creative business nomenclature. All their merch facilitates singularly easy slip-in-and-outage with RE's laces-free, Stretch-fit Closure System (trademark, bitches). Among the styles are the camouflage'd, full-grain leather Felifi basketball shoe, the just-released King line of high-and-lowtops, and the sleek, low-top Costes, available in white, or a black that's darker than Knight Rider, and will cause your foot to be caught on camera drunkenly gorging on cheeseburgers.
In addition to Elastic originals, the Main store'll also stock collaborations with both Andy Warhol (whose 15 minutes ran out in 1987) and OC-native Gwen Stefani -- which, if you bought a pair of the men's model, would be the podiatric equivalent of walking around in mid-thigh spandex.
Check them out online at RoyalOnMain.com