East Lansing’s newest independent clothing store, the Refinery, just whizzed past its one-year anniversary and is gearing up for a second year that will include a fine-tuned product line and Web presence.
“April was our best month ever,” says Refinery's co-owner, Dean Miller. Around Christmas, the Refinery launched its online shopping site. Miller says opening the store to the online community has gone well, but now the company has to get smart about competing outside of East Lansing.
The Refinery is well known among college students and hipsters as a place to go for the latest gear. It opened in the winter of 2006 in downtown Lansing near Dublin Square and Harpers.
When they were looking for a location, Miller and his well-known, hockey-star son, Ryan Miller, who co-owns the shop, knew they wanted to be in downtown East Lansing. They wanted to be near other independent retailers rather than blend into the big-box crowd at Eastwood Towne Center.
“We wanted to be a destination shop,” Miller says. “We wanted to bring business to this city.”
Growing the customer base has allowed Miller to focus on the brands he really wants to carry. Many big-name clothing brands will not sell clothes to a retailer until that retailer has hit a certain customer capacity.
“Now we’re sort of dialing into the brands we want to play with,” Miller says.
Source: Dean Miller, Refinery
Ivy Hughes, development news editor, can be reached here.
All Photographs © Dave Trumpie
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