Hypland founder and designer Jordan Bentley has always had an affinity for anime from a young age. The aesthetics from television shows, his fixation on streetwear, and gaming have been wrapped into one with his new store location hosted in the heart of Little Tokyo in Los Angeles. You might recognize Bentley’s face from Issa Rae’s HBO show Sweet Life: Los Angeles. Since the show premiered in 2021, we have seen the behind-the-scenes of how Bentley ran his beloved streetwear brand that he launched with his mother, Stephanie, back in 2010.
Now, at 27 years old, all his childhood dreams have come to fruition with the store as the mere beginning. When he was a child, his mother saw a large potential for him to do more with his talents. He drew often as a teenager, so his mother took him to Otis College of Art and Design for him to learn more about art. From there, he began to sell the pieces he was drawing on clothing like sweaters to other kids he went to school with. Bentley’s mother decided to trademark the budding business which would become a contemporary to streetwear brands like Supreme.
“A brick-and-mortar has been in the makings since 2021, but we had not found the perfect home for Hypland’s first retail store,” Bentley shares. “Because of Hypland’s unique aesthetic and diverse customer base, we needed the perfect place to integrate streetwear, anime, gaming, and more.” He also adds that he was on the hunt for a location that catered to all of Hypland’s fans where everyone would be comfortable.
Bentley tells ESSENCE that he believes Hypland’s secret sauce is the brand’s ability to connect to consumers through events, activities, and experiences. “The entire store is created around our community. You can hang out, shop, play video games, and talk to staff about mutual interests. This is not a common approach for most retail businesses.” He notes that even with a sales bottom line, the brand’s primary focus is on building a personal relationship with customers.
In recent years, the brand has had a myriad of pop-up events in Bentley’s native city as well as other major cities. He realized it wasn’t as sustainable to keep doing that, so he thought of something more permanent. It’s fitting for his anime-inspired brand to be housed in Little Tokyo. The space is 1,500 square feet and has past collections on display including vintage homeware, manga magazines, chess sets, and video gaming sets. The store is all about the community that led Bentley to his brand in the first place with plans for events and other ways to support the neighboring store owners.
“The creative goal behind the store was to create an environment that felt like an anime or video game lovers dream living space,” Bentley shared in an email. “Our community is deeply rooted in the love for clothing, gaming, and anime so we wanted the environment to be a space where our community could not only shop, but hang out and enjoy the genre with like-minded fans.”
The goal of Hypland’s physical space is for customers to feel like they are valued, according to Bentley. He adds: “I would like customers to feel comfortable like the store is their space as well.”
Head to 200 South San Pedro Street in Los Angeles to shop at the new Hypland location.
