How a Detroit sports vintage store captures the enduring power of ‘wearable art’

Take a stroll down West Maple Road in downtown Birmingham, Mich., roughly 20 miles northwest of downtown Detroit, and you’ll find a small boutique store that looks as if the boxes in your parents’ attic were thoroughly combed through, dusted off and made into an exhibition.

This is ABC Vintage, a place where Detroit sports history and fashion collide with the rarity of the Big Bang. It’s also home to, arguably, the greatest collection of vintage Detroit sports clothing in the world.

“It doesn’t ever die,” Joey Skinn, the manager at ABC Vintage, said. “(Vintage clothing) is the one thing in fashion that never goes out of style.”

At any given time inside the establishment, which is co-owned by Aaron Cohen and Mike Pang, you’ll find forgotten, lost and unique clothing from Detroit’s four major professional sports teams, as well as the University of Michigan and Michigan State University, other sports teams, musical artists and movies.

Every “sports piece,” as vintage heads like to call the clothing, was birthed in the 1970s, ’80s, ’90s or early 2000s by well-known apparel companies like Chalk Line or Starter and by fashion designers like Jeff Hamilton. Others are “bootlegs” from those periods — pieces of clothing, often illegally using sports team logos or variations of them, created by civilians and sold out of the trunks of cars or hung on nearby fences during big sporting events in the city.

On store shelves or tucked away, ABC Vintage carries 200-plus vintage pieces for each of the Lions, Pistons, Red Wings and Tigers. The store highlights one team over another depending on the time of year.

Current and former Detroit athletes obtain items at ABC privately, buying rare, vintage pieces of the teams that they currently play for or other teams in the city. Wives and girlfriends of the Detroit Lions got a private shopping experience for vintage pieces earlier this month. Athletes who are brought to the Motor City by their respective league’s schedule stop by, too, like Flint’s Kyle Kuzma. Musical artists on tour, like Zach Bryan and Fred Durst, have done business with ABC for unique pieces to wear on stage that night. Artists like Maroon 5’s Adam Levine and rapper Russ have also supported. Local Detroit rappers like BabyTron, Babyface Ray and 42 Dugg are frequent visitors.

Cohen and the rest of his ABC Vintage staff don’t stumble into these rarities all by their lonesome. A vast majority of their inventory is provided by a handful of local collectors and consigners who Cohen works with and considers “the best in the Midwest.” These vintage diggers find “grail” pieces from storage units, abandoned houses, thrift stores across the country, basements, attics or maybe even have connections to those directly involved with Detroit sports teams during these periods.

“There are so many creative ways to access pieces from the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s,” Cohen said.

Sometimes finding rare pieces can be simpler.

For example, just before the Lions began their playoff run last season, Cohen was online and stumbled across a late 1980s or early 1990s Lions blue varsity jacket for sale on eBay that was as rare as any piece that he had come across. The jacket resembled that of the one Eddie Murphy wore in the film “Beverly Hills Cop,” except the base color is blue instead of black.

Ironically, around this time, Cohen and his staff sold a 1980s Lions jacket identical to the one Murphy sported in “Beverly Hills Cop” to a local customer for $750. The Chalk Line-produced jacket has “Team NFL” stitched on one of its beige, leather sleeves and a “NFC” badge on the other. It has the Lions helmet embroidered on the front and an even larger one attached on the back with the words “Detroit Lions” sandwiched in.

Aaron Cohen, co-owner of ABC Vintage in Birmingham, Mich., holds a 1990s Chalk Line vintage jacket. (Courtesy of James L. Edwards III)

Cohen was taken aback when he saw that the seller was only asking $199, which was its retail price back then. He thought it was fake because Lions vintage clothing has nearly quadrupled in price, according to Cohen, since the franchise that was the first-ever team to go 0-16 in NFL history and went 31 years without a single playoff win made it to the NFC Championship Game last season. It surprised him that someone posted that particular piece at that price point since he is aware of the demand and lack of supply of something that old in the current vintage climate.

“This seemed too good to be true,” Cohen recalled.

To ease his mind, and so that his minor skepticism didn’t cause him to miss out on such a rare piece, Cohen messaged the seller, who told him the jacket was sold at Pace Membership Warehouse back in the ’90s. Pace is what we now know as Sam’s Club. Cohen believed the seller and sent Skinn 40 miles away to meet the gentleman to check the size tag, stitching and product licensing, which are obvious giveaways for if an item is considered “real” or “fake.”

What happened after Skinn met with the man selling the jacket still leaves everyone at ABC Vintage in awe to this day.

“He showed me the one we came there to buy and it checked out,” Skinn said. “As I was leaving, he’s like, ‘Just to let you know, I still have a couple more of these jackets. I bought them for my sons and they didn’t want them.’ It was crazy. I got into the car and called Aaron, told him the jackets were perfect.”

The back of the 1990s Chalk Line Lions jacket. (Courtesy of James L. Edwards III)

ABC Vintage also has pieces that it doesn’t know what to do with because of their rareness, whether it is test pressings or misprints that were never supposed to see the light of day. Locked away in a basement, not yet made for sale, there is a vintage T-shirt that, on its surface, looks like a teal-era Pistons item from the 1990s. However, when you look at the back of the shirt, it shows a drawing of a Lions quarterback throwing a pass to a wide receiver.

Nearby is a black Pistons T-shirt that has a caricature drawing of Rick Mahorn but reads “Joe Dumas” underneath it. On the back, there’s a caricature of Vinnie “The Microwave” Johnson that properly states his name, but if you turn the shirt inside out, there is a caricature of John “The Spider” Salley with his name properly spelled.

“I don’t even know what to price stuff like this at,” Cohen said with a laugh.

Pricing of rare vintage items can be off-putting to those not in the know. Vintage hats, shirts, sweatshirts and jackets inside ABC Vintage can range from $30 to several hundred dollars. Nowadays, those bootleg items from the ’80s and ’90s can fetch hundreds, sometimes thousands of dollars on the resell market because of their rarity.

An average person may laugh at the $650 price tag for the smelly, 30-year-old Chalk Line Lions jacket that Cohen stumbled upon and bought for around $200. However, those entrenched in vintage understand how these price points are determined — like the rarity of the item, condition, how many patches something has, leather trim, which apparel company made it, as well as several other things — and are willing to pay what it takes to hold onto what many in these circles consider art. Nearly every piece that ABC Vintage houses is in decent-to-great condition, despite age.

“For me, the first vintage tee that made me think this was cool was a 50 Cent shirt,” Mitch Mulcahey, a 25-year-old salesman at ABC Warehouse and vintage enthusiast said. “That was one of the first rap songs I ever heard, ‘In Da Club’ by 50 Cent. Seeing that shirt, from that era, and the original watermark with the year on it, I thought it was cool.

“I love fashion and putting things on, and it came down to how cool the artwork was and the quality. You can’t find anything better than the quality from those shirts from that time, especially when it gets broken down over time and the fabric is soft. You can’t mimic anything like that. I think that is what separates vintage.

“I may have not been around for that time, but I can appreciate the crazy bootlegs, the art they put on this stuff. They’re not doing it like that nowadays.”

A framed Bob Probert memorabilia piece owned by ABC Vintage co-owner Aaron Cohen showing the rare, bootleg vintage piece Probert would wear during games. (Courtesy of James L. Edwards III)

Not only is it nearly impossible to find a bootleg, skull-and-bones”Bad Boys” inspired Detroit Red Wings shirt that the late, legendary enforcer Bob Probert would often wear under his jersey when playing for the NHL franchise in the late ’80s and early ’90s, but it’s even more unlikely that you can find one in good condition.

People don’t just have these items lying around and easily accessible anymore if they hold onto them at all. If they do, they’re not often popping up on any of the virtual marketplaces. Somehow, though, ABC Vintage has multiple stashed away in their vault.

The bootleg, “Bad Boys” inspired Red Wings piece was often worn by Bob Probert and other Red Wings that ABC Vintage has stored away at its business. (Courtesy of James L. Edwards III)

“Some stuff is priced that way because you might not necessarily want to sell it right away,” Cohen said. “Yeah, it’s a business and you want to put someone in the piece, but I also want to be able to tell a story with my store. I also want to be able to try and locate a second piece if possible or it’s a marketing decision or promotional decision.

“If I were just turning out rare, vintage Lions jackets every day … a specific one, in good condition, with many patches, the back hit, the leather hits … there is a chance I might not get my hands on another one.”

The popularity of vintage continues to rise. People hunt for pieces to make significant profits. Some dig to find a part of their childhood that they thought they lost. The beauty of the entire culture is in the eye of the beholder.

In the Detroit area, though, ABC Vintage provides for all who share the same appreciation for their sports teams, their history and fashion as they do. The pieces inside their store evoke memories, conversations and emotions. You can’t put a price on those things.

“It’s like art,” Skinn said. “Wearable art.”

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