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McALLEN — Anyone who’s ventured into some local coffee shops or the gift shop at the International Museum of Art & Science may have noticed some Rio Grande Valley-themed merchandise.
There are a plethora of 956-themed clothing brands that aim to capture the pride of residents, but the designs of 9INE 5IVE 6EIS stand out for their success in capturing the nostalgia of growing up in South Texas.
9INE 5IVE 6EIS is the brainchild of co-founders David Salinas, Devin Garcia and Andy Pena — a group of local creatives who aim to shine a light on what makes the region unique.
“It is a clothing brand celebrating South Texas culture, history, and celebrating a bit of the nostalgia that it has,” Garcia said.
Garcia and Pena have owned and operated Palo Santo Prints for five years, which produces shirts and garments for local businesses throughout the Valley. They began brainstorming with Salinas, who has been a longtime collaborator, about establishing a brand that captures the spirit of the Rio Grande Valley.
The three men felt that the Valley was lacking in quality merchandise that celebrates the South Texas region.
“We’ve just had a long time idea of kind of having fun and making merchandise for South Texas, the RGV,” Garcia said. “Obviously a big driver was kind of reminiscing about a lot of things that we’ve seen growing up with coming from here in the Valley.”
The trio began collaborating roughly 20 years ago when Salinas began designing merchandise for a band that Garcia and Pena were in. Salinas, who managed a coffee shop back then, gave the band the opportunity to play their first show there.
“We’ve had a friendship with him ever since,” Pena said. “He’s got a big background in design. He’s a great designer, and (Garcia) used to do booking for bands and stuff. I pretty much handled production stuff for a lot of the Palo Santo stuff.”
Salinas began designing his own brand of clothing, which he said he had to outsource to places like Los Angeles, Chicago and Kansas City. He said that with the establishment of Palo Santo, they were able to bring quality clothing production to the Valley.
“What they’re positioning with Palo Santo has really been unique because they’re in the main artery line of all the creatives,” Salinas said. “I just look at their feed when I want to see what’s happening in the Valley and what’s new, because the new businesses and new restaurants, every chef, the new chefs, the new anything goes through these guys.”
“I think they’re constantly being inspired by a lot of local talent, a lot of creativity,” he continued. “It is really eye opening to see how creative the Valley really is now.”
Salinas, who currently lives in Austin, said that through his visits to the Valley and meeting with Garcia and Pena, they began coming up with ideas for their own RGV-inspired brand.
“I think we started talking about how there’s no lifestyle brand for the Valley,” Salinas said. “It’d be cool to do a throwback of like Gus and Goldie or Gorilla George’s — just kind of like, it’d be cool if this were to exist, not necessarily, let’s make millions. We just wanted to see it happen.”
With those ideas in mind, 9INE 5IVE 6EIS was launched in June. The trio have since produced a number of items that tug at the heartstrings of anyone who grew up in the Valley. Their shirts feature nostalgic themes including those mentioned, as well as one celebrating the famed Edinburg waterpark, Super Splash, Stars Drive-in, and more recently, a shirt celebrating B-104’s popular segment, Midnight Magic.
The trio said that their goal is to foster pride in the Rio Grande Valley by taking its history and presenting it in a fresh new way.
“Right now we’re just having a lot of fun,” Pena said. “We’re just kind of introducing it. We released it over summer, and we’re just kind of playing around a little bit and seeing what people are responding to.”
With their merchandise popping up throughout the Valley, and a four-month residency at La Plaza Mall set to begin in October, the trio said that they hope to continue building relationships with other local artists and entrepreneurs as they continue to grow and celebrate the 956 with newer merchandise and ideas.
“There’s a few other avenues of storytelling that we want to get into and that we’re excited to kind of pinpoint once we kind of get through this kind of ground foundation,” Pena said. “We’re really kind of digging in deep and being able to celebrate and kind of pinpoint certain stories.”
“I’ve had so many conversations with so many individuals about this brand, about other avenues of storytelling,” Salinas said. “I think the greatest value of this brand is going to really lie within the plurality of voices that we start to include as we start to extend the table.”
To learn more about 9INE 5IVE 6EIS and view their products, visit 9ine5ive6eis.com.
