Our Story

Valas Los Angeles began in 2012 as a way to build something beautiful out of loss.

After losing her father as a child and a close friend in 2010, founder Karina Salmeron turned to art to make sense of it, and that work moved off the canvas into one-of-a-kind accessories and shoes.

Karina’s father was a soldier in his home country of Nicaragua, and his memory runs through the brand’s quiet military influence. Together with her brother, Kenny Villagra, Karina launched Valas with its signature Voyager backpack, designed around a modern need for pieces that work as hard as they look.

From the start, details mattered: leathers handpicked from Italian tanneries, Riri zippers, custom polka-dot soles.

In 2020, Valas created a small capsule to celebrate and support the essential workers carrying everyone through the pandemic. The response was so strong, and the moment so uncertain, that the brand followed it fully into ready-to-wear. The product changed, but the values didn’t: quality you can feel, function you can rely on, and pieces made to outlast trends.

Today, Karina and Kenny still run Valas side by side, making men’s and women’s apparel and accessories built on those same beliefs: recognizable at a glance, made for real life, and ready to go wherever you do.

“Good Things Are Coming”