By Arielle St. Cloud
It’s indisputable that self-proclaimed socially-responsible businesses are dominating the markets in today’s consumer culture. Whether it’s a company’s dedication to be transparent with their supply chain, its commitment to establish an inclusive workplace and stand against bigotry, or its role in the urban revitalization of a torn city, as in the case of Shinola. Shinola emerged in 2011, as a semi-affordable, upscale lifestyle brand in the business of watches, leather goods, and bicycles. It is markedly emerged as a leader in the movement to restore integrity and fiscal opportunity to the economically depressed city of Detroit. Although the Midwestern city was once the shining patriotic symbol of American manufacturing, it is now an urban grief-stricken ghost-town; therefore, perfectly positioning the fallen city to be the backdrop for Shinola, a corporate “White Knight.”
While Shinola’s cool aesthetic and “Made in Detroit” slogan has garnered the praises of many Americans, the company is faulted to its core, and the recycled name grossly demonstrates how. Unknown to many of us today, a quick Google search of Shinola reveals that it was formerly a popular shoe polish company of the early and mid-twentieth century that utilized images of a happy-go-lucky minstrel shoe shiner who is so vulgarly objectified that his body is that of a canister of shoeshine. The poster tells the story of America, in which blackness has always been a commodity, readily at the convenience of white businesses to use as a means of marketing, which has been exploited by both the old and new Shinola companies.
I would not be accusing enough to say that we know today Shinola, was named so as to intentionally uncover the racist advertising of the former Shinola, but it is ironic. The Shinola of the 21st century is certainly profiting from its images of Black Detroit natives dutifully assembling watches in their rustic, yet modern and sleek factory located in a newly gentrified neighborhood. The backbone of the company is neo-colonialism and cultural appropriation, both of which are passively accepted in America, and that is the unpleasant truth. Shinola’s founder Tom Kartsotis is merely making use of a system that is rigged in his favor as a white entrepreneur.
While I wish to see Detroit resurrected by its own with a thriving culture of black-owned local businesses, the current outlook is grim. The benefits of this city-wide gentrification will be measured by the growing pockets of those like Kartsotis, not the struggling Detroit native. The reality is that in this radically capitalist economic system, just because a company is heralded as “philanthropic,” that may not actually be the case. After taking a closer look, Shinola may not be as good as it seems.
