The quartz analog movement that makes our flagship timepiece tick is made up of 40 delicate components and requires 16 steps to build. It’s called the Argonite 1069, and it’s the caliber—or tiny engine—that taught us how to be Shinola. All Shinola watches are built in the U.S. with Swiss and other imported parts. Elements […]
About two and a half years ago, jewelry designer Pamela Love made an offhand remark to her mentor, Karen Harvey, about wanting to partner with a company she believed in—“you know, like Shinola,” she said. Harvey’s response: “Why didn’t you say so?” As it turned out, Harvey knew Shinola’s founder. After a quick call, she […]
Mark Daugherty has always been good with his hands. He built a wildly innovative company by learning to manipulate sophisticated machinery, but his most precious tools are still the two he started out with. “I didn’t come from money,” Mark said. “When I was a kid, I sold newspapers until I had enough cash to […]
The partnership between Shinola and GE is monumental, not only for our Detroit factories but also for other small American manufacturers across the country. When we set out to make premium power cords, production was kept close to home by working with Western Michigan-based Byrne Electrical Specialists, Inc. Byrne shares the same goal as Shinola — to create […]
It’s 8 a.m. on a Tuesday in Detroit, and 2,500 feet of our signature bourbon leather has just arrived at our facility. Incoming Quality Specialist Damond Love and his counterpart Chris Maxwell inspect the hides personally under a lightbox custom-made for Shinola. They match each hide against the master color swatch, measure it, then check […]
Inside our Detroit leather factory, attention to detail is not only an essential part of every job, it’s also an art form. Our leather team takes extra care to make sure the raw leather edge of every watch strap is painted for a clean, finished look. On average, we paint 500 straps a day, many […]
Manufacturing American selvedge jeans from the Motor City isn’t an easy task, but then again, nothing worth doing is. Detroit Denim Co.is a design studio and shop located on the second floor of Detroit’s Ponyride, a 30,000 square foot warehouse-style collective of artists and entrepreneurs. In addition to the brand’s staple 13 oz. selvedge “Heritage” straight-leg […]
There’s something supremely satisfying about a letterpress shop—opening the drawers of lead type, applying ink to the press, manually cranking the paper—the whole deal is just so tactile and hands-on. Right up our alley. Which is probably why we jumped at the chance to collaborate with Signal-Return here in Detroit on a letterpress poster to support our […]
We were prepared to scour the country to find a woodworking company able to build custom-designed displays for our watches, leather goods, journals, and bicycles. Turns out we didn’t have to search any farther than our own backyard. Great Lakes Woodworking has been a Detroit fixture for three decades. What started in the garage of co-founder […]
Detroit is a passionate city, and the community-minded folks here are living examples of what’s possible when industrial ingenuity meets old-fashioned grit and determination. That spirit is what drew us to Detroit in the first place, and it’s why we’re such fierce proponents of this city. But we feel the only way to truly understand […]