A Sports Fan’s Paradise

Northville man’s sports gear business began at Tiger Stadium

By Sue Voyles | Photos by Ken Voyles

It started out simple enough.

Two brothers, ages 11 and 13, wanted to make some extra money. So on opening day of the Detroit Tigers 1982 season they tried selling peanuts to fans outside of Tiger Stadium.

For the next season they added Tigers souvenirs, along with hats and helmets from every major league baseball team, and then 1984 happened. Even as the Tigers created a memorable, 104-win season with a World Series championship, a new Corktown business was being born, known first as the Designated Hatter and later as the Detroit Athletic Co.

Loved by diehard Detroit sports fans, what was started by two Redford Township boys, Steve and Dave Thomas, who just loved baseball and had an entrepreneurial spirit, is now known worldwide as the Vintage Detroit Collection.

Four years ago, while looking for more space, and after a name change to the Vintage Detroit Collection, the business launched a new chapter in Plymouth Township, moving to 44692 Helm Street.

But even now through more than four decades serving fans, the same excitement a young man once had being around the ballpark still rings in Steve Thomas’ voice.

“For me, it was a thrill to be outside the ballpark. I was 11 years old and also intimidated and scared,” says Thomas, a Northville resident and sole owner of the company today. “We would each do our own thing, selling peanuts, and meet up after the game. At first it was only before-the-game business for us. When we started to sell souvenirs, we stayed after the game, and it became more demanding. But we found that we sold more after the game. That’s when it started to be more like a business.”

Steve and Dave were no strangers to Corktown and the Stadium at the corner of Trumbull and Michigan Avenue.

The Redford Union High School graduate fondly recalls those early hectic days when everyone in the family gave him and his older brother a helping hand with their burgeoning enterprise.

“We had two years to get ready for what happened in 1984. I don’t know if we could have timed it any better. The team … had one of the most magical seasons of all time. By that time our parents had to help us, our older sisters had to help us, and it became a family enterprise,” said Thomas. “There was such a demand for what we were doing. We had no way to anticipate that season. To think that team would win the World Series … there was a tremendous amount of luck in the timing of our business.”

The 52-year-old Northville resident added that brother Dave moved on to work on another business. “We were partners in multiple businesses and there’s one he gravitated to and the one I gravitated to, so Dave left to work on the other business.”

Secrets To Success

In addition to the 1984 Tigers, Thomas has seen many Detroit sports hallmarks over the years including the return of the Stanley Cup to Detroit in 1997. And no matter whether the Detroit teams are winning or losing, he’s always kept the business focused on the fans. In fact, Vintage Detroit Collection sells only merchandise for all four Detroit major sports teams to fans both here and around the globe.

That’s right, you won’t find a Yankee cap or a Bruins jersey anywhere in the inventory. (Although Thomas noted that they have just started to sell merchandise for Michigan State University and University of Michigan athletics.)

And as for the notion that Detroit sports fans are found across the globe, one only needs to look at Vintage Detroit Collection’s shipping records.

“We ship to Australia and surprisingly, there is a large contingent of Red Wings fans in Australia. We have shipped to Japan,” says Thomas. “We have shipped to multiple countries in Asia and just about every country in Europe.”

In addition to creating the customer jersey niche, Vintage Detroit Collection also was an early adopter when it came to the online aspect of business. They started selling online in 1998 and host more than 2,500 blog entries on the website, which are full of stories about Detroit sports history, players, coaches and thoughts on the current teams.

“As soon as blogs became prominent it didn’t take us long to pick up on it. We hire local writers to write the blogs,” says Thomas. One of the most well-known is sports journalist

Bill Dow, who was a customer in the retail store and active in the Tiger Stadium Fan Club, where Thomas met him.

Being a pioneer in digital marketing certainly helped the 10-person company pivot to an all e-commerce business during the pandemic, a model that sustains them today (although customers can walk in to the Helm Street location).

A True Fan

When talking to Steve Thomas, it’s clear that he’s a true Detroit sports fan at heart doing what he loves. And like many fans in Metro Detroit, he has sports memories and favorites he likes to reminisce about.

“There are two things that stand out to me. The 1984 Tigers season was just magical from beginning to end. It was almost like living a dream. I remembered right around July and August, I was almost praying that the season would end because I didn’t want it to go downhill,” he said with a chuckle. “That is at the top of my list. The second is the 1997

Detroit Red Wings season when they finally broke the (losing) streak and won the Cup. What made it more enjoyable was it happened in the summer, in June. I remembered how the city and suburbs reacted – they went crazy.”

When asked his opinion on whether the Motor City is a great sports town, he answered without missing a beat.

“There’s no question that Detroit is a great sports town,” he said without hesitation. “There are a lot of cities that have two or three major league teams, but we have all four and very few cities would have the sports history that we have in Detroit. I would say that Detroit is in a very elite category.”

For more information about Vintage Detroit Collection, call (313) 961-3550 or visit vintagedetroit.com.