Ballardite and owner of KAVU, Barry Barr, has always followed his passion and lives with the philosophy “Have a KAVU day.”

KAVU, an acronym for “Klear above visibility unlimited,” embodies the ideals Barr grew up with, where you seize the day, live in the moment and feel positive.

The philosophy has been the driving force in Barr’s life and success. His outdoor apparel store, KAVU, celebrated its 21st anniversary last week. Barr partnered with Ballard Food Bank and offered discounts for customers who brought food donations. In addition Barr had celebrated the anniversary with a party at the store where customers enjoyed half off any purchase. 25 customers won the opportunity to attend the party by submitting a written narrative of their ideal “KAVU day.”

“It was really a way to give back to Ballard. I see Ballard every day and I just wanted to do something for the community. I have friends that do food drives during the holidays and so I thought a food drive in the middle of the year would help them out. Its also a really good reason to have a party,” said Barr.

Barr is from the San Juan Islands and grew up being very active in the outdoors with skiing and fishing. At the age of 17 Barr was in Bristol Bay as a captain owning his own purse-seining vessel. He went to Washington State University for pre-law and business and near the end of his senior year he was working on something to make his start. He invented a unique style of a strap-hat. The idea was to keep the hat on a wearer’s head while being active in windy conditions. Barr said he sewed the original prototype himself.

“I learned a lot in the first phases about material, sewing and how to start a business. I spent a lot of time going through the yellow pages. … I just wanted to be out there with the best product with really good quality and design. ”

The first strap hats were made in Ballard. Soon after, Barr started the KAVU store in Fremont but moved to Ballard at 5419 Ballard Ave. N.W. and has remained there for the last 21 years. Through the years KAVU has grown and now offers outdoor clothing for men and women from pants to hats.

“ Our products are focused toward people with a mental age 22 to 30 -- kind of fun, free and unlimited and that’s our slogan. I don’t like to pigeon it as a world-travelor or a free person, but more so someone who’s appreciating what their doing, who their with and are being in the moment.”

Today customers can buy KAVU outdoor apparel at their flag ship store in Ballard and 1300 retailers like REI and other sporting goods stores, as well as in South Korea, Japan, and parts of Europe. Moreover, KAVU employs 24 people all of whom are Washington residents.

Barrs said that in the future he plans to just keep producing the things his customers love.

“We may open up some more stores locally, but we are not out there to be the biggest but certainly the best at what we do and just be a great brand. If you do everything right rewards come. We are selling the philosophy of live the KAVU day and it’s something so real and something I was brought up with in my family. Hopefully that reaches people and they love the products we have.”

Barr is not only giving back locally but also globally. KAVU has started a program in Haiti where they provide activities programs for kids and teach people to parasail. Barr said that traveling around the world he has noticed that the tourism business provides lots of opportunity for people to make a living and teaching skills that lend that attract tourists might help tinder a tourism industry and help the economic situation in their community.