Entrepreneur knows Watts cool -- and sells it

Over the years, Larry “Big Al” Jordan has experimented with a number of moneymaking schemes. He has peddled everything from cocaine to chocolate chip cookies, human hair to hiking boots.

But none of his ventures -- or misadventures -- has generated the kind of cash flow and acclaim he now enjoys from the simple sale of T-shirts featuring the name of the neighborhood where he grew up: Watts.

“People here want to feel proud about where they live, and that is what we try to do,” said Jordan, 44, a size 7 extra-large “Wattslife” T-shirt covering much of his 6-foot-3, 340-pound frame.

Jordan was one of a handful of street merchants who set up shop in Watts hawking “I Survived the Riots” T-shirts shortly after the city began burning in the spring of 1992. Today, he is nurturing -- through his Wattslife Souvenirs store -- an even greater market in Watts-labeled products, selling them locally, outside the neighborhood and outside the country.

On any given day, in addition to locals and former locals, foreign tourists show up at his shop at Wilmington Avenue and Imperial Highway, seeking clothes that feature the Wattslife name. Jordan recently began offering tours of the local Watts attractions. He installed clocks above the counter displaying the time of day in New York, Tokyo and Watts. And he posts photographs of his international clientele.

“It’s strange. People from the Westside are afraid to come to Watts, and I have people coming from all over the world,” Jordan said.

On a recent Wednesday, almost as if on cue, Uji Ota, a Japanese tourist, strolled into the shop and bought more than $1,000 in T-shirts and hooded sweatshirts with the Wattslife logo.

Ota, who owns a shop in Nagano, Japan, is president of the One O Five car club in that city. “It’s just like the Los Angeles freeway,” he said, referring to the 105, a gold replica of his club emblem dangling from a chain around his neck.

He posed for pictures with Jordan, and within 24 hours, Ota had photographs of his Watts shopping spree posted on the club’s website: www.los105.com.

It was a routine Jordan is all too familiar with. “I give him credibility,” Jordan said. “It’s authentic merchandise made in Watts.” It’s also much less expensive, Ota said. A $15 T-shirt costs two to four times more in Japan.

The shirts join the flow of U.S. pop culture artifacts -- lowrider cars, Levis, used Nike Air Jordans, thrift store sweaters -- that the Japanese have been importing for decades.

Though Jordan acknowledges that much of the attraction to the Watts merchandise stems from the neighborhood’s reputation as a tough place to live, he says his shop steers clear of some negative images of crime and gang warfare. Some T-shirts carry reminders of the 1965 and 1992 riots. But most have slogans like “Everything Butt Ugly Made in Watts” or “Someone in Watts Loves You.”

When analyzing his own journey into a life of sales, Jordan likes to point to a message on one of his shirts: “To be old and wise, you first have to be young and stupid.”

“I’ve made some mistakes, and I think I’ve learned from them,” he said.

Growing up in the Jordan Downs housing project, Jordan flirted with gangs but also found a source of salvation in the local Wattslife lowrider car club.

“I didn’t even have a car,” he recalled. “They would have meetings and I would have to leave a half-hour early to make it there on time on my bike,” he said.

Jordan fell in love with cars. But he needed money, he said, and started to sell drugs. He was arrested and spent more than three years in prison.

When he got out in 1989, he resumed his life on the streets, selling anything he could: cookies, shoes, hair.

After the riots, he became involved in the gang truce and got a job with Community Build, a nonprofit community development corporation in South Los Angeles. At one point, he was elected president of the resident association of Jordan Downs. He met President Clinton, whose photo adorns a wall of Wattslife Souvenirs, and Jordan was one of the speakers at the 1995 Million Man March.

Said Marva Smith, program director for Community Build, “He has always had an entrepreneurial spirit. We were working with him to develop his business. He has always targeted Watts, and the goal was always for him to have his own business.”

“Big Al was my anchor in the community,” said former NFL football player Rosey Grier, an activist who pushed for more social programs for young people after the riots. “He has a way with kids. He knows how to settle them down.”

Eventually, Jordan opened a store out of a house near the Watts Towers and began cultivating his contacts outside of Los Angeles. His love of lowrider culture brought him attention from enthusiasts in Japan, among other countries. Business continued to grow, but last April Jordan was arrested after police discovered narcotics waste in trash barrels in a truck on property near his house. He was released from jail five months later, after pleading guilty to the manufacture of a controlled substance.

“It wasn’t mine, I didn’t do it, but they offered me a deal and I took it,” he said. “I needed to get on with my life.”

Jordan scraped together enough money to open the current shop late last year. And despite last year’s setback, he found support among many in the community.

City Councilwoman Janice Hahn, whose district includes Watts, supports his entrepreneurial spirit but says it will take more than a message on a T-shirt to turn things around in the neighborhood.

Crime in Watts started to escalate in late 2005, with a rash of gang-related shootings and killings over a 30-day period.

“It was the worst Christmas Watts has suffered in a long time,” Hahn said. “Residents were telling me that none of the kids were going outside to play. It was an eerie feeling for Watts, and they were calling me on the carpet, saying ‘Where were you?’ and ‘What are you doing?’ ”

Things slowly improved last year, and so far this year crime has been down, she said, crediting greater participation by community leaders. On the other hand, last month, when officials announced a list of the city’s 11 worst gangs, the Grape Street Crips, based in Watts, was included.

Said Hahn: “If Big Al wants to make money on these T-shirts, then go ahead.”

Tim Watkins, president of the Watts Labor Community Action Committee, said Jordan has his support despite his setbacks.

“He has had his ups and downs,” Watkins said. But “he puts a statement on a T-shirt as part of an effort to show that the little people of Watts are struggling to be heard.

“We have issues of broken-down cars, leaking roofs and economic disparity, and some of us have functioning cars and good homes. We continue to survive,” he said.

Watkins wears Jordan’s T-shirts.

“Whenever I go to Century City, people ask me, ‘Where did you get that T-shirt?’ ” he said. “Despite the fact that the world often sees Watts as a dangerous and ugly place where nothing good ever happens, the fact is the residents of Watts know otherwise.”

john.mitchell@latimes.com