Twenty five years ago, downtown Royal Oak was practically a ghost town, desperate for a store like Noir Leather. Today it's one of Michigan's most vibrant urban cores. And it should be desperately trying to keep Noir Leather around for another 25 years.
Keith Howarth started what is now a local institution out of his love for punk bands and alternative clothing. It soon became his dream job, creating a career from "what you do on the weekends."
"I wanted to create a business for myself that I loved and I wanted to be my own boss," Howarth says.
The always-edgy Noir Leather also served as one of downtown Royal Oak's main boutique stores, sparking an urban revival. It was probably the best-known of the 13 prominent downtown boutiques during downtown's heyday in the early 1990s.
Unfortunately, today only three of those trendsetting shops survive (Noir, Incognito and Footprints). Howarth estimates that 98 percent of the downtown's retail tenants have changed since he opened up shop a quarter century ago. Many of them were squeezed out by the restaurants and bars (too many of them chains) that have flooded the district, robbing Royal Oak's core of the eclectic stores that gave the strip its unique flavor.
Howarth reminds us that it was his store and a few others that started the downtown Royal Oak's nightlife many years ago. They kept their stores open late and hosted events when the rest of the lights turned off at 5 p.m. Today foot traffic is at its highest on weekend nights, when yuppies and bikers roar into town.
What's lost when boutiques are squeezed out is a sense of local ownership.
Local retail owners play a pivotal role in shaping downtowns, often making decisions in the best interest of the area. Sometimes at the expense of their own bottom line.
"You have involvement in the community," Howarth says. "The store owners have a stake in how the city transforms. Chain stores can't do that."
Howarth has no plans to move Noir Leather from downtown Royal Oak as it celebrates its 25th birthday (at The Crofoot in downtown Pontiac this weekend), but he is mindful to add, "you never know what the future holds."
Source: Keith Howarth, owner of Noir Leather
Writer: Jon Zemke
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