The Jedi Returns to Santa Barbara, Thanks to DJ Javier

Next Thursday night, the Lobero Theatre will be crawling with Stormtroopers, Jedi Knights, and Wookies for a community event and free screening of Return of the Jedi to celebrate Santa Barbara artist DJ Javier’s latest out-of-this-world collaboration with Stance Socks.

Over the past couple of years, the Santa Barbara–born-and-bred artist and designer has taken his unique California-cool brand of artwork across the globe, painting giant murals and partnering on collaborations that celebrate surf, skate, and music culture with some of the biggest names in the business.

But along with all these collaborations — which include a line of Vans shoes paying homage to his Filipino heritage, a clothing campaign with Billabong, murals for Amazon and Shake Shack, and design work for professional sports teams like the Los Angeles Rams and Kings — Javier has kept just as busy supplying custom T-shirt designs and artwork for locally owned businesses such as Chaucer’s Books, Rascal’s Vegan, Lighthouse Skateshop, and Velo Pro Cyclery.

“It’s cool to do stuff with people like Your Choice and Creaminal, or to make a shirt for Chaucer’s, and then do something like Star Wars with Stance,” Javier said. “I think that’s always the balance I want to have. I want to do stuff for big companies — because that’s super exciting — but also I want to use my talents to do this for my friends too.”

For the past two years, Javier has been a brand ambassador for Stance, one of the most popular sock companies in the world, serving as one of their team of “Punks and Poets” alongside the likes of Rihanna, NBA legend Dwayne Wade, and professional skaters Andrew Reynolds and Louie Lopez. 

Javier jokes that he doesn’t know how he made it on the team — “I sucked at sports; I was like third string in youth football,” he says — but in his time with the company, he has designed his own signature box set, an NBA-inspired mural for the All Star Game in Salt Lake City, and his own take on a Spider-Man design.

It was the Spider-Man collection, which was in Javier’s signature playful and bold style, that caught the attention of folks at Marvel and Disney, who reached out to Stance about a custom collection of Star Wars classic characters with Javier’s unique spin.

Working with some of the most famous and legally protected characters in media history brought its own set of challenges, including a lot of back-and-forth about which characters he could depict (no faces like Luke Skywalker) and what details needed to be included to prevent eagle-eyed Star Wars fans from pointing out inconsistencies.

After getting the green light from Star Wars, Disney, and Lucasfilm, Javier got to work on a collection featuring four fan favorites: a Stormtrooper, Yoda, Darth Vader, and Chewbacca.

The collection includes a T-shirt, hoodie, boxer briefs, and an assortment of socks for adults, kids, and toddlers. The entire collection is available online now and will be distributed in shops across the world — and eventually at Disneyland — starting October 7.

To celebrate the release of the collection, Javier wanted to try and have something that could make use of the resources of a huge company like Disney to bring something special to his hometown.

“We were trying to figure out what we should do, and it only made sense that we should do a big screening of one of the films and have a party,” he said. “And I just thought, let’s bring it back and do something for the community.”

He had the idea to do something similar to the Block Party he organized in Santa Barbara on September 14, which brought together local eateries, artists, and creatives for a fun and free public festival.

“Stance was down to bring it to Santa Barbara, which is cool because I feel like, growing up in Santa Barbara, besides the film festival, there’s not ever this kind of crazy big-scale thing, like a real Disney event. And [Disney] was down for that.”

But Javier didn’t just want a big corporate event. He wanted to make sure that Santa Barbara–based companies and creatives could be involved with the party. He enlisted his friends and contemporaries like A Smooth Exchange, who will be spinning vinyl records; MindGarden Research, a creative studio that will be doing live screen-printing (including a limited-edition tote bag); and longtime partners Creaminal, which will have a few Star Wars–themed desserts curated especially for this event.

There will be free popcorn and free drinks provided by Arizona Beverages, and guests will have a chance to mingle and take photos with Stormtroopers and giant woodcut versions of the characters Javier painted for the event.

These types of interactive elements are what Javier is trying to inject into the art world, as he continues to grow from painting to creating more large-scale sculptures reminiscent of fun-house game booths at festivals in the Philippines.

“I like that,” he said. “People can come up and put their arm around it, and it makes it less stuffy. That’s why I like doing the Block Party. Because yeah, those are original works of art, but kids are throwing wiffle balls at them. To me, that’s funny.”

He is working on a few more big collaborations that will be released over the next two years, along with a premiere solo museum exhibition in 2026 that he will be officially announcing next month. This exhibition will give him a chance to explore these interactive elements even more. 

“This is like a real contemporary art museum, which will be a huge trip, so I’m trying to wrap my brain around that and figure it out because it’s a proper solo exhibition,” he said. “This is so much room. How do I fill this? I want people to go in and be comfortable spending an hour there, not just looking but sitting in the art, touching the art, and interacting with it. I think that’s what I love about the work I’ve been doing more lately. I just want people to be a part of it.”

The event on Thursday, October 10 at the Lobero Theatre (33 E. Canon Perdido St.) is for all ages and open to the public, with festivities starting at 4:30 p.m. and the screening of Return of the Jedi beginning at 6:30 p.m. Admission is free, but is limited to the 600 seats in the theater. Arrive early to check in and receive a free ticket to the show.