Thank you for all of your votes. It looks like our fried Joe Posch has won the grand prize in the Hatch Detroit competition. The following clip is from Crain’s:
After several months of buildup and two rounds of voting, Hatch Detroit announced men’s accessories shop Hugh is the winner of its retail contest.
Joe Posch, the man behind the idea, will get $50,000 toward establishing a storefront for Hugh, which sells 1950s-and-’60s-inspired men’s accessories and household goods online and also in the past as a downtown pop-up shop.
Posch also will receive $25,000 to $30,000 worth of in-kind services from Honigman, Team Detroit, PM Environmental Inc. and Strategic Staffing Solutions.
Hugh is planned to go into the Auburn, a residential and retail project slated for the corner of Cass Avenue and Canfield Street in Midtown.
Posch said he expects to be able to open in September and is aiming to have about 1,000-1,200 square feet of space.
“Everything starts in earnest at about the first of the year,” Posch said…
The only bad thing is that now I need to give up trying to recruit him to Ypsilanti… at least for the time being.
Congratulations, on making the transition from pop-up to full-time, Joe… and for finally finding a job.
8 Comments
Can some of that money go towards taking the online presence seriously? The clip says he sells online… and I can find the blog… but not the actual store (not even an obvious link within the blog). Or is it just THAT hip?
Congratulations to Joe. I’m so happy for him.
“tie being”
no pun intended.
congrats to joe. pays to be supergay.
That $50,000 better cover one hell of a grand opening party, Joe. I was to see an ice sculpture covered in shrimp, and a girls in circa 1964 bikinis handing out shots brandy.
It’s cool to see everyone so excited about vintage highball glasses and lightly used copies of Playboy. And I don’t mean that sarcastically.
Is this part of that insidious gay agenda I keep hearing about?
If so, good work, Joe.
Hey Mark! Thanks for the kind words. This is really amazing and I’m so thankful for the support I got in the contest. And I appreciate the props from folks here too!
To address the question – the article got it wrong, Hugh sold online when it was open but not since. I thought I’d explained that pretty clearly but sometimes the message gets lost. As it apparently does with Edward above, to whom I can only say if you think that tiny portion of what Hugh sold defines the store you’ll be quite surprised with the final result.
So we’re all on the same page, the first iteration of Hugh sold mostly new and some vintage merchandise (which I have been doing in my stores since 1998). The vintage stuff did GREAT, the extent to which I really wasn’t expecting, and it seems to be what people really latch onto in discussing the shop. The permanent Hugh will continue to be mostly new merchandise, like the six month long first Hugh. It does also have a budget for a well-executed online presence.
What is so great about a win for Hugh is that it brings well-executed independent traditional retail to an area that really needs it. And quite honestly, while I am passionate about the ability of independent retail to shape neighborhoods, Hugh is not so earnest. Sometimes it’s nice to just have fun with something, even if it’s a lightly-used 1968 Playboy.
Oh! Speaking of fun, the Supergay portion of the program ramps up Doggy Style, the weekly gay night at the Park Bar, on Tuesday. Cool Ypsi homosexualists and their friends are highly encouraged to check it out!
The new Hugh is now open.
http://www.thrillist.com/home-gadgets/detroit/mi/48201/midtown/hugh_art_drinking-tools_furniture_kitchen-barware