The Mollusk surf shop in Santa Barbara, California is a beautiful showpiece of a retail space. It’s the recent addition to a small chain of Mollusk shops in the state that include stores in Los Angeles’ Venice Beach and San Francisco.
The Santa Barbara shop is cavernous space in the city’s gentrified, former industrial neighborhood called the Funk Zone, a dozen or so city blocks filled with large re-purposed warehouses sandwiched between the beachfront strip of hotels and the famously elegant Spanish-style downtown.
Mollusk has used this space to create a warm, stylish retail and event space filled with surfboards and all the usual various surfy apparel and accessories. But the space is big enough to host events, music performances, film screenings and parties in the parking lot and art and photography exhibitions in a small side gallery space.
It’s a precious hub of California surf culture created and managed by surfers with keenly sharpened tastes and vision. Worth a visit even if you have no interest in surfing whatsoever.
GLOBAL GRAPHICA 