Meet Sara Sandoval: Business Owner/Lowrider

We had the good fortune of connecting with Sara Sandoval and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Sara, what’s something about your industry that outsiders are probably unaware of?
Our industry is more about culture, tradition and respect. We turned what used to be viewd as criminal activity into an activity that is accepted by young and old alike, public and civil leaders. Our motto is “Lowriding is not a crime, Lowriding is a lifestyle”. We went from being chased and stopped by SDPD to having formed relationships with them. It truly was a labor of love. Our business showcases the Lowriding lifestyle. Besides being a business we also run community events from our place of business. These events include however not limited to food drives and distribution, toy drives and distributions, promoting our local artists so they can sell their merchandise at The Shop. We feature local food vendors at our events. Our La Vuelta Brand is trademarked and recogognized as far as Japan. 

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
What sets us apart from others is that we are the only Lowrider store in San Diego. We design all of our merchandise, we pull from local vehicles, we feature local women to model for our Pin Up Calendars, we feature local cars. Getting here was not easy. We began in 2016 with our La Vuelta summer cruise nights, family friendly with the goal to bring business to historic Logan Avenue in Barrio Logan. It was not easy, we had to maintain crowd control, we had to make sure everyone cleaned up after themselves, we had to make sure SDPD were satisfied with the cruises, we made connections with MTS, SD Special Events, our learning curve was huge. We rented offices in a 100 year old building on Logan Avenue. We sold merchandise on the street during the cruises. We talked about having our own storefront for merchandise and events. We overcame the challenges by constantly moving forward, making contacts, sometimes it felt for every two steps forward we took one step back. We have learned that loyalty in relationships whether it is business or personal mean the world, if you cannot trust someone to come through for you then why have them around your business or life. Our brand is special, unique, our story is simple, we took a vision and turned it into a reality.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I’m very loyal to Barrio Logan especially for eateries. We have Salud Tacos, MishMash, Barrio Dogg, Maggies Cafe, Liberty Call, Thorn Brewery, Border X Brewery, so many cool places to eat it would take us a week to get through all of them. We would eat in Barrio Logan and then see all the beautiful sights that San Diego has to offer including historic Chicano Park, which I am proud to say I walked out of high school in 1970 to top the bull dozers.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
Miguel Alatorre, Bonnie Alatorre

Website: www.lavueltabarriologan.com
Instagram: @the_shop_barrio_logan
Other: instagram for La Vuelta @lavueltabarriologan

Image Credits
n/a was taken with my phone