100 Disruptive Brands 2017

Disruptive Brands

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2016

Shinola

Detroit has been seen as an unviable economic centre since the 2008 global financial crash and the decline of the city’s car industry, but American luxury lifestyle brand Shinola has set out to change this.

Founded in 2011, the company is owned and operated by Bedrock Manufacturing, a privately-owned Texas investment group, and was launched by Tom Kartsotis, one of the founders of Fossil Group.

The company specialises in handmade watches, bicycles and leather goods and runs its head office and manufacturing facility from Detroit’s College for Creative Studies. It has a partnership with Swiss watchmaker Ronda, which also helps to train the company’s Detroit-based staff.

Shinola opened its first UK store in London in 2014 and now has more than a dozen US stores, as well as selling via department stores from Paris to Singapore. The company made close to $100m (£69m) of sales in 2015.