Home-town hero: Detroit brand Shinola ventures overseas

Making its first foray on foreign shores, Shinola opened in London’s Soho district in October 2014. Set over two floors, the store shows off Shinola’s range of luxury watches, collaboratively produced supply goods and pet accessories.

The store captures the American craft ethos of the brand, which manufactures in Detroit, in a bid to inspire a manufacturing renaissance. Products such as the Henry Ford Pocket Watch speak to Detroit’s heritage as a former beacon of America’s manufacturing might, while black and white portraits of the city’s patrons beam down from the walls, and examples of nostalgic Americana sit alongside its watches.

Simple wooden tables support display boxes with a hand-made aesthetic, while other luxury-crafted goods such as leather-saddled bicycles and burnished-steel lamps complete the concept.

‘We’re starting with the re-invigoration of a storied American brand and a storied American city,’ Shinola says on its website. ‘We believe in the beauty of industry, and the glory of manufacturing.’

Read LS:N Global’s Retail Analysis on Shinola’s New York store, and for more on the rise of US industry-led initiatives, read our article on the Made in the USA movement.