Printable https://www.crainsdetroit.com/node/722966/printable/print September 16, 2018 03:31 AM Stormy Kromer ventures south of the bridge TOM HENDERSON ! " # $ Scheduled to open in late fall on Main Street in downtown Cheboygan Part of a four-building makeover by Marcella and John Costin Boutique, pub among other businesses the couple has opened Tony Johnson Marcella and John Costin at Simply Marcella, their boutique in downtown Cheboygan. A boutique owner in downtown Cheboygan persuaded Stormy Kromer that the iconic 1 of 7 10/2/18, 7:37 AM Printable https://www.crainsdetroit.com/node/722966/printable/print Michigan brand would be safe with her. There's big news coming to the city of Cheboygan: Stormy Kromer is coming to town. Until now, the clothing manufacturer known for its iconic winter cap with ear Haps has had just one store, a factory store in its headquarters of Ironwood in the far western reaches of the Upper Peninsula, so far west the city is on Wisconsin time. Retailers around the state and Midwest carry only a limited range of Stormy Kromer items. Cabela's and Dunham's Sporting Goods carry hats and other items. Small independent retailers carry mostly hats. Now, though, the Prst nonfactory store dedicated exclusively to the entire range of Stormy Kromer products is scheduled to open in late fall on Main Street in downtown Cheboygan. The store is part of a four-building makeover in the 200 North Main Street block by Marcella and John Costin that is a key component to the widespread renovation going on downtown. She has been selling some Stormy Kromer items in her Simply Marcella boutique, which opened on Main Street in June 2017, but as she and her husband have expanded business operations to the boutique's three adjacent buildings, she decided she needed a store dedicated to Stormy. The wool cap has been a must-have piece of apparel for outdoor enthusiasts since it was invented in 1903. George (Stormy) Kromer had been a semi-professional baseball player, but when it became clear he wasn't going to make a living playing ball, he took a job as a railroad engineer. He got tired of having his caps blow off while manning his train and asked his wife, Ida, to design something better. The result was a modiPed baseball cap with Haps that kept the hat Prmly in place. 2 of 7 10/2/18, 7:37 AM Printable https://www.crainsdetroit.com/node/722966/printable/print Aaron Peterson The Stormy Kromer wool cap has been a must-have piece of apparel for outdoor enthusiasts since it was invented in 1903. Stormy and Ida formed the Kromer Cap Co. in 1903 and built a factory in Milwaukee. In 2001, the Kromer Cap Co. announced it was going to stop making the hats, the rights to which were then bought by Jacquart Fabric Products Inc., which moved production to Ironwood. Production of the caps skyrocketed, from fewer than 10,000 a year to more than 50,000. The product line was expanded and now includes annel shirts, wool jackets, pullovers, cotton vests, tees and long-sleeved cotton shirts, vests and hoodies. 3 of 7 10/2/18, 7:37 AM Printable https://www.crainsdetroit.com/node/722966/printable/print MORE FROM THIS SPECIAL REPORT Crain's Michigan Business: Northeast Michigan Jeff Daniels, the actor and Michigan resident, has long been a fan of the Stormy Kromer hat and frequently wears one on his various TV appearances. He even wrote a piece for the Stormy Kromer web site about wearing his hat in Manhattan. "Every time I wear my brimless Stormy Kromer on the streets of New York City I get looks, which is saying something because it's hard to catch the eye of a native New Yorker. They tend to be elsewhere. It has a lot to do with having seen everything there is to see and knowing everything there is to know. After a half dozen double takes, I started answering the unanswerable. 'It's a Stormy Kromer.'" So, when Gina Thorsen, the president of the Stormy Kromer division at Jacquart, heard from a sales rep that a new business in Cheboygan wanted to open a Stormy store, she wanted to protect the brand. It wasn't going to be a company store, she would have no control over its operations and would need to vet the would-be owner. "I already had a trip scheduled to the Lower Peninsula last spring, so I coordinated a visit to Cheboygan. I sat down with Marcella and her husband for dinner, and it was one of those cases where you feel you've known someone your whole life," said Thorsen. The next day, the Costins took her on a tour of their buildings and shared their plans for them, including one building whose 1,000 square feet would be dedicated to Stormy Kromer. "It was incredibly impressive. Construction was already under way. I was blown away," said Thorsen. "I know how important it is to revitalize the downtowns of small towns, and I know the Costins will do right by the Stormy name." There will be one exception to the Stormy Kromer-only products in the store. The Costins will sell a Stormy-themed beer made in Cheboygan, 4 of 7 10/2/18, 7:37 AM Printable https://www.crainsdetroit.com/node/722966/printable/print marketing it with the motto: "A frosty head only looks good on a beer." Other business ventures In late August, the occial grand opening and ribbon cutting was held at another of the Costins' ventures in Cheboygan, The Queen's Head wine pub, though it had been open for a month and the Costins say it had been packed most nights. The small pub is behind Simply Marcella and can be entered either through the Marcella's entrance on North Main or through a door off the parking lot around the block. Though called a wine pub and serving a wide range of wines at prices ranging from $18 to $114 a bottle, a variety of cocktails and beer are available, too. The pub seats 38 inside and about 25 outside, weather permitting. The modestly priced food includes a variety of gourmet cheeses, appetizer platters, soups and seafood dips. The name of the pub and the name of some of its platters — the Queen Mary's platter, the Queen Anne's peasant platter and the Queen Caroline platter — can be traced to John Costin's native England. He was an executive with General Motors from 1992-2007; owned his own St. Clair-based consulting Prm from 2008-2010; was president of Helsinki- based Delta Motor Group from 2010 to 2012 and was its chairman for another year after moving back to St. Clair; and has been president of Troy-based Humvee Export LLC since 2012. Marcella taught theater and language arts in the East China school district for 22 years. A lover of pearls who thought them too expensive, in 2005, she began a hobby business out of the basement of her St. Clair house designing and importing pearl-based jewelry. She began selling to her teacher friends, hosted shows at her house and at her friend's houses, then in 2010 opened her Prst Simply Marcella boutique in what had been a Gulf gas station across from the St. Clair Inn. She opened another Simply Marcella in Lake Orion in 2012. She continued teaching for a while but quit to move brieHy to Helsinki with her husband. 5 of 7 10/2/18, 7:37 AM Printable https://www.crainsdetroit.com/node/722966/printable/print The Costins had frequently taken their boat from St. Clair to Cheboygan. In 2012, they had propeller trouble and had to dock in Cheboygan to get it Pxed. They went for a walk, saw a property they liked on Lake Huron, bought it and ended up buying the house on the lot next door. In 2014, John was diagnosed with leukemia and given a year to live, but a stem cell transplant in Boston proved successful and he has been declared cancer-free. In the fall of 2015, "I woke up one day and said to John, 'There's a cute little store downtown. I wonder what the chances are they'll give me a short-term lease,'" recounted Marcella. What she had in mind was a pop-up store in an empty storefront in the 200 block of N. Main Street to sell Simply Marcella merchandise. The idea popped into her mind on a Monday. Eight days later she opened the pop-up. It did land-occe business, said John. Over the holidays the next year, she opened the pop-up, again, and again it did a brisk business. "We found out the people of Cheybogan needed us," said Marcella. It was time to make this Marcella permanent. In May 2017 they bought the building, opened up their boutique in the front and began construction on the wine pub in the rear. Marcella sells a wide range of jewelry, all designed by Marcella and all incorporating pearls. Prices range from $15 to $12,000. Other items include women's evening jackets, dresses, purses and Scottish plaid vests. Last November, the Costins got a Pnancial boost of $10,000 to help defray expenses for the wine pub when they won Prst prize in the Prst annual business-plan competition hosted by the Cheboygan Area Chamber of Commerce. Marcella beat out the other nine Pnalists by dressing like Queen Elizabeth and reciting her four-minute pitch in rhyming verse.