Shinola

This store is a gorgeous slice of Detroit pride. The store is classy, clean, and contemporary. Shinola’s products are top-​of-​the-​line, so prepare for highly price points and incredible craftsmanship. The staff are knowledgeable and friendly. We had a very stimulating conversation with one of the sales associates about architecture and design! The store also has a café built in which gives it a very cool, big-​city vibe. This store reflects Shinola’s concept of quality and local artisan work. It’s a really great space to dream and lust over their products until you aren’t a broke post-​grad!

Great store, beautiful handmade watches, leather, bikes, journals. Friendly team… thanks Crystal! They monogrammed a journal on the spot for me and packed up my purchases for travel. I will go back on my next trip.
An American classic.

I came in looking just to get a good notebook for my travels this summer. They have a great selection ranging from small to large, plain to ruled to grid paper, and soft and hard linen covers. The best part of these notebooks is that they are 90gsm paper, slightly thicker than Leuchtturm and much thicker than Moleskine, so it’s ideal for inkier pens. Monogramming in gold or silver was included with the purchase. For valentine’s day, they also had someone doing personalized designs on the notebook covers, although I didn’t get a chance to see if it was free or not.
I hope they include dot grid paper some day; I’d be sworn to them for life if that’s the case!

Customer service was awful. I went in to purchase a gift for my husband, knowing exactly what I wanted — an orange football. Sign in the window says leather goods can be monogrammed for free, so I ask for it to be monogrammed, but only flat things can be monogrammed. Ok, fine — put that on your sign. Associate goes to get football (3 – 4 min), comes back with flat football. I ask if she can pump it up (because the thing is $ 150 for crying out loud), so she does, takes 5 min, and comes back with the ball flatter than when she left. She says she can go to the M-​Den to pump it up, I say ok, wait another 10 min at least. Then time to pay. I give her my card and info, she goes to get a bag and my receipt, takes at least 5 min and comes back with a carbon copy (and no football) because the machine is broken (or whatever). I wait another 5 min before going upstairs to track down the football, and finally it comes out a few min later. Basically a half hour to purchase something that I knew I wanted walking in the door. This is ridiculous. These people need to take a page from Zingerman’s book. I won’t be back for the leather goods.

I’m grateful for the chinilla drink the barista made for me on a recent chilly day. This is a nice blace to browse while in A2. I love the high quality materials, and although they come at a higher price, will last significantly longer. I love the alpaca & wool blend hats they have as well as the leather zip wallets. The staff is very friendly without being in your face, which I appreciate as i’m browsing.

I really, Ike this store and am very happy there is an Ann Arbor location! I bought a gift for my husband for our anniversary. It is a great «gift» store. Great quality, made in America items. The staff is helpful and knowledgeable and friendly. I had an enjoyable shopping experience.
And, a Shinola bike is now on my Christmas list! I sure hope Santa reads Unilocal reviews!

Not going to sugar coat it– this stuff is pricey. Like I can see someone’s parents saying «Here’s a Shinola watch as a college graduation gift. Make sure it’s on your wrist the day you die because you need to wear it that long to get our money’s worth». But guess what– that watch will probably stand the test of time and wear that long because of how it’s made and the quality that went into it. Not to mention, it’s sleek, easy, clean styles make it a fashion go-​to for your wardrobe.
In addition to their watches, they have other leather goods and small gifts that look like they belong on a lawyers desk.

I came in needing a last-​minute gift in a hurry and they were so helpful! The person who helped me monogrammed a wallet right in front of me while she got another salesperson to cash me out. Saved me so much time, super friendly, and got a win on my birthday gift!

Yes, they do still sell shoe polish (that’s where the name comes from), but this brand bears little resemblance to that company. Shiny luxury bikes, big chrome watches, and lots of leather phone covers — New Detroit Chic, I guess you’d call it?
The hipsterish staff is less haughty than many places with this sort of wares, but this place is definitely more about style than utility.
Not much here grabs me, but it’s a pleasant enough place. It certainly provides some chromed scenery for the Commonwealth Café in the same space.

I loved my experience at Shinola. The staff goes above and beyond what is necessary. They were knowledgable and helpful. I was in on a Saturday and while the store was extremely busy and I still received great service.
I’ve also been to the Detroit store and I would recommend this store over the one in Detroit. The design is industrial and beautiful, it feels cozy and everyone was so friendly. The coffee shop and study space downstairs was an added bonus as well. A necessary stop for any trip to Ann Arbor!

Walking into Shinola, I immediately felt intimidated. They are a bit pricey, but they are a lifestyle brand with high quality American made products.
Wandering further into the store I found the notebooks, which are made right here in Ann Arbor, according to the sales associate! They are cute and affordable, so I bought a red linen cover with graph paper to practice my lettering. It’s been a great little notebook, and the free monogramming is an excellent touch.
There are other little accessories I wouldn’t mind getting some day or even purchasing for a friend come Christmas time. There’s a little something for everyone here.

I enjoy the simplicity of Shinola, and I enjoy visiting the Detroit store when I am in the area. I was pleasantly surprised to see there was an Ann Arbor location…
When we walked in this past weekend, I was a bit surprised and disappointed.
Where was the staff??? There were 2 hipster guys standing and the coffee bar talking to each other, but neither could acknowledge a single customer. I looked around for someone to help us, yet there was no one around. It’s amazing to me that with such ridiculously priced merchandise you would have no one around to help. Your coffee boys were so absorbed in conversation, I’m honestly surprised that this place wasn’t robbed blind. Very disappointing experience.

Great store with an open layout and they offer a cute little study corner upstairs with coffee and a few baked goods. I tried the latte and it was even better than expected. If you walk down the steps they have an entire floor dedicated to being a sit down area with games and all! They had a bar also, but I don’t think it has been set up yet due to only having been open for about a month. Everything is really modern and sophisticated with an industrial vibe.
Lots of greats products to peruse through when you first walk in. Their leather products although quite pricey seem to be well made and of pretty good quality. I love the wallets and bags! My favorite part is the bookshelf made in the shape of the US that hold all the great paper and leather journals that are for sale. The best part. free monogramming on all of them! Get as many as you want and you can have all of them monogrammed for freee. I got two 2-​packs and had all four monogrammed as gifts and it only took about 10 minutes. Love it!
My husband has a lot of experience with timepieces since he runs a vintage buy and sell watch business and says that the ones there are purely fashion watches, so we won’t be getting any of those in the near future but they sure were pretty to look at. He was a little disappointed that they didn’t have any with automatic movement. If you’re into fashion watches though, they have a pretty wide selection there. I like minimalist designs and did find a couple that looked decent.

My review is on the service I received today from a particular sales person and it may not represent the store’s services at large. I understand that this store is new in this location but I still think they really need to train their sales persons better.
I was excited to see Shinola Detroit had finally opened in AA. Today was my second visit to the store and I was looking for a small gift for my buddy. Overall, I love this store; its décor, its atmosphere, and of course its products.
Perhaps, I was unfortunate that I was helped by this sales person, but she was very clumsy for everything. They said they’ve got a new system today, but it took forever for her to check out only the two items I was going to purchase. Finally, she got help from another sales person and everything went smoothly when she was being helped. But once the helper left, my sales person had a problem with the system again. ahh…
It was nice that they can get the item personalized by monogramming it. So I asked her to get my buddy’s initials on it. At first, I thought someone else, like, a craft man?, would work on it, so I was wondering why she kept the item with her while she’s having trouble with the check-​out. I just found it inefficient because monogramming would be done during this idle/​wasteful time.
The mystery was solved after the check-​out. She’s the one who’s going to monogram the item. I screamed within myself, «Noooo, please let somebody else do it, not her!» I was about to ask that but I couldn’t because I didn’t want to hurt her feelings. …well, as I suspected, she was again clumsy. She made me compromise as to how it is monogrammed because she was not able to fulfill my request. Even with the new simpler task, her first attempt was a failure. She brought another one from the stock and tried it again. I wasn’t completely happy with the result, but I didn’t want her to ruin the store’s products one after another, so I took it by compromise.
…so that was my somewhat lackluster experience at Shinola AA today. In conclusion: Here’s my request/​suggestion to the store. Train your sales persons, or please hire someone only for monogramming and let him/​her work on it while a customer is paying. That would be much more sophisticated and efficient, I believe.
Thank you for reading.

Beautiful new Store open in the heart of Ann Arbor. Great service, extremely friendly staff. Big choice of watches leather goods and other stuff. You got to come and see it.

Shinola AA has finally opened! Even though I’m from Michigan, I never visited them in Detroit but have been familiar with their items. While they do offer their watches, bikes, and leather goods, they also do coffee and pastry goods.
Overall, the place gives off a hipster, industrial vibe, but I still love their minimalist design. I’m incredibly excited that they opened up the basement which has a ton of seating available along with a large bar with some beer taps installed. I’m guessing they’ll start offering alcohol in the near future once they’ve had a good grip on Ann Arbor.
The only thing I can actually review is the Americano I ordered, which is a bit watered-​down, but that may be because it’s their first day and all drinks and pastries are free. Prices are actually reasonable so they may give The Espresso Bar a run for their money. They do charge extra for almond milk though…
Anyways, the place has a TON of potential and I’m glad they’ve expanded from their leather goods and such to beverages and possibly food. Can’t wait!
EDIT: Found out that the beer taps are reserved for special occasions and parties :(