SOCAL NATION   - How it all began

 

I am Cierra Gray, I was born and raised in Southern California. SoCal was my home consisting of dozens of coastal cities, each one unique to their own expression, surf shops, small mom and pop businesses, ice cream shops in the salty summer afternoons; these places became my family and made our community strong and alive.

 

After graduation I moved to Philadelphia for college. I wanted to see the world and have different experiences. I took a 3-week long road trip across the country. The further I got away from SoCal the more I understood what being “from SoCal” meant for the people I met.  It was the California vibe people loved, the fantasy of sun and surf, the romance of endless summers and bikini clad sun soaked girls on every beach. More importantly people wanted this lifestyle, they wanted to claim it with purchases of products that were made locally in my hometowns, like Vans, Hurley, Frankies Bikinies and Volcom. 

 

When I came back to Southern California after realizing that Philadelphia was not for me, I had a completely new perspective on my home. It was mid-pandemic and I came home to closed doors and the hometown community businesses shuttered and gone. I was sad to find community by community lost to the loss of business, yet the big businesses were thriving selling SoCal, the style, and the lifestyle. With the disappearance of the mom and pop shops the feeling of community was gone. The gaps in our coastal communities and local businesses were great. No one was there to protect against this change. It was here the idea of SoCal Nation was born. SoCal needed to step up, band together and protect and promote our original businesses and customers.

 

We are SoCal Nation, we are an all inclusive, loyal member based community of patrons supporting and promoting SoCal by uniting coastal communities through like-minded economic awareness and objectives.