Honestly, before stumbling upon the greatest shop that I’ve ever seen in an airport last week, I would’ve never even thought this would be a category. I mean, airport shops? I’ve never been even slightly intrigued by them. Sure, I’ve seen some cool gift shops, and the electronics stores in Panama’s Tocumen airport are pretty legit (and have some dope honeys working there too); but stores inside airports, as a general rule, are just pretty boring. But this one–called PlaneWear–well, this one flipped my lid!
I actually wasn’t even looking for it. I’d left the Alaska Airlines lounge at SeaTac to check the flight board, when a table out front with cool travel merchandise caught my eye. I was immediately drawn to this super cool retro-looking Havana travel poster. Wow, this was awesome…and so was everything else on the table…and wait, so was everything else in the whole store!!!
All at once, I’d hit the “travel-nerd jackpot!” An entire shop, stuffed to the brim with nothing but the coolest–and I mean the coolest–travel stuff!
From mugs with logos of defunct airlines of yesteryear, to the neatest luggage tags, to funny t-shirts with great travel quotes, this shop was like Disneyland to a travel nut like me.
But what took PlaneWear just absolutely over the top, were the actual windows and pieces of commercial jet fuselages hanging on the wall, for sale. Oh. My. God. These were amazing; I’ve never seen such a thing for sale.
Sadly, I didn’t have an extra $1,000+ to buy these amazing pieces of aviation history–but my birthday is in December, in case you want to send something nice to your favorite travel blogger! Seriously, just how darn cool are these? I’m in love.
Though I may not have left with a piece of an Aloha Airlines 737, I did leave with an airplane seatbelt around my waist. I couldn’t resist buying one, and now, I’m able to feel that “travel rush” every time I put my pants on in the morning and feel and hear that familiar airplane seatbelt “click!”
Concourse B
Seattle, Washington
