Culture

from Riverfront Times, March 31, 2021

by Riverfront Times

Cafe

25

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St. Louis’ ButtonMakers shop celebrates twenty years in business

Written by DANIEL HILL

St. Louis’ Cherokee Streetbased ButtonMakers shop took an unlikely path to get to where it is today.

It’s a story that started two decades ago, and one that saw the shop’s owner, St. Louis native Rebecca Bolte, crisscrossing the country from Florida to Washington state before settling back in her hometown. During her time away from Missouri, she lived as part of a DIY punk collective in Florida, watched her business grow in a Seattle warehouse and even royally pissed off the handlers of MSNBC’s Chris Matthews during some time spent working at the Democratic National Convention. Through it all, ButtonMakers has been her financial mainstay — and as it reaches its twentieth birthday this year, Bolte says she has every intention to keep it that way.

Bolte, now 40, says she set out on her own at the age of nineteen, and that ButtonMakers initially started as a screenprinting shop duplicating CDs for Indiana’s Plan-It-X Records.

“I met them through this band This Bike Is a Pipe Bomb,” Bolte says of Plan-It-X. “I lived in a punk collective with them in Florida, and they were on Plan-It-X, I believe, and that’s how I met those guys. They just needed somebody to make their CDs — it’s like a DI record label, you know? So we literally ust got — there’s a store in Seattle called RE-PC, and we just got this bank of computers at the time and were literally just duplicating CDs that way, screenprinting the labels on them and sending them off to Indiana. That’s how we got started.”

At the time, the company that would become known as ButtonMakers was housed in Seattle as well, in what Bolte describes as “a windowless warehouse with a bunch of dumpster-diving crazy crusty punks” living in it. As time went on, Plan-It-X tapped Bolte to screenprint their shirts for them as well. Soon, they asked about buttons.

“So we went online looking for a place to buy equipment to do that, and we couldn’t find any place that was selling that stuff,” Bolte explains. “We had to search the patent office to find a manufacturer. And so we got the equipment, we fulfilled our customer’s order, and it just kind of dawned on us that since there was no internet presence for buttonmaking supplies in 2001 that we should start retailing that stuff, too.”

Bolte says she put together a section of what was then her punk merch website just for button-making machines and equipment. Before long, she was sold out of everything.

“Most of our customers were, like, churches and schools and nonprofits, and probably not super interested in all the weird punk-rock stuff we were selling as well,” Bolte laughs. “So we then launched buttonmakers.net to be its own entity, and it eventually ust took over — it was so much more popular than any of the other things we were doing that eventually it became its own thing.

“The biggest clients are nonprofits — they’re school districts, municipalities — stuff like that,” she adds. “So people who are just not in that [punk] world at all.”

Bolte’s goods and services weren’t just popular with neighborhood organizations and the like, though. Soon enough, she was tapped to work Barack Obama’s 2008 and 2012 presidential campaigns, and even do some work at the 2008 Democratic National Convention.

“We just got a phone call from MSNBC,” Bolte explains. “Well, the design firm that MS BC had hired was doing a brand activation at the Democratic National Convention, and they hired us to do onsite buttons. So people would come over and get their name on a button. We made well over 1 , buttons in a day — it was incredible. And I almost spilled coffee on Jesse Jackson, it was great.”

That close call with Jesse Jackson wasn’t her only brush with celebrity that week, though. One day, as she and her team were wrapping up and heading out, they ran afoul of Hardball anchor Chris Matthews.

“We had worked that entire convention; it was just wall-towall people. We worked our

Rebecca Bolte first launched ButtonMakers in 2001 out of a Seattle warehouse. | COURTESY OF BUTTONMAKERS

BUTTON MAKERS

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butts off, and we had to y all the equipment and everything out there — it was a lot of stuff,” she says. “And the only way to get out is to ust pack up everything and handcart it through this crowd. So we did that, and we finally made it over to the one elevator that was the slowest elevator on Earth. And we’re waiting — it’s finally time to go home — and the door opens. e try to muscle our way in there, and some handler is like, o no no no no, Chris Matthews is in this elevator.’ And I’m like, Chris Matthews better move his ass over.’ And they got really mad at me and shut the door. And then I got a call from the people who hired us, and they were very upset with me about that. They were like, ere you rude to Chris Matthews ’ I was like, I don’t know, I guess. Sorry.’”

Obviously, things were going well for the business. But by 2011 her overhead costs became too great. That same windowless warehouse full of crust punks had skyrocketed in rent from 9 a month to , . She knew then that it was time to go, and she decided to move back to her hometown.

“I love St. Louis I’ve always felt that this is my home,” she says. “Seattle never quite felt like home. Cherokee Street, though, was ust calling my name, I feel like. I was able to move back here and pay a third of the rent for a comparable space. My business is primarily an internet business, so not only is the rent more affordable here, but all of my suppliers are closer. So the transit is faster for shipping, inbound and outbound — I can get packages to ew ork quite a bit faster, etc. So that was helpful, and I was able to buy a really nice house here and start a family, and have a much better life really, ust because it’s so much more affordable.”

Bolte opened her Cherokee Street storefront in January 1 . Since then, she’s become a go-to for nonprofits, politicians and punks — she’s worked with many local bands, but also with local politicians including Alderwoman Cara Spencer and former state Rep. Bruce Franks. She’s even started a summer program called Pin Squad wherein she lets kids from the neighborhood come in and design their own buttons to take and sell. If those kids then come back to her with the money, she holds it for them until the end of summer, when she matches their savings dollar for dollar.

“They come into the shop anyway to charge their phones and use iFi, so I figured I’d start trying to impart some entrepreneurial and financial literacy skills on them,” she reasons. “They always have access to their money, but saving it makes it grow. And if you can find a hustle, even something as silly as buttons, you can get by without the risk of getting locked up.”

Bolte’s own hustle took a ma or hit at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. The shop’s customer base, by and large, is centered on people and organizations who are promoting events — making her and her team something of an ancillary liveevents-support industry. ith the restrictions on gatherings that came with the pandemic, Bolte, whose business is proudly union run, was forced to lay off employees. At present it’s ust her and her partner icholas James running things, with the latter handling the shop’s sticker-making side of things.

But Bolte makes it clear on no uncertain terms that the business she founded some twenty years ago isn’t going anywhere.

“It’s been difficult for sure,” she says. “I think those punkrock ethics definitely kicked in, because I’m ust like, if I have to pack up and move into the basement — if I have to make buttons out of my van on Cherokee Street, I will do that. ou know what I mean This company is not going anywhere. Really, it’s because I don’t have any other options. So I gotta make it work — and I’m gonna make it work, no matter what.” n

“ I love St. Louis; I’ve always felt that this is my home. Seattle never quite felt like home. Cherokee Street, though, was just calling my name, I feel like.”

Free Play

Up-Down arcade bar o ering $5 in tokens to anyone who gets vaccinated

Written by DANIEL HILL

Following hot on the heels of Krispy Kreme’s free doughnuts promotion for anyone who has been vaccinated against COVID-19, the Up-Down chain of barcades is offering $5 worth of tokens to anyone who has had their shots in an initiative the company has dubbed “Tokens for Poke’ns.”

Up-Down’s St. Louis location (405 North Euclid Ave, 314-449-1742) made the announcement last week with a post on social media.

“Here’s how it works: Show us your vaccination card that has both doses accounted for if you’ve received the Moderna or Pfizer vaccines, or the single dose accounted for if you’ve received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. We’ll give you $5 in free tokens as our thanks to you for helping to keep us and the community safe!” the post reads. “For the first three weeks, anyone who has their full vaccination recorded can stop in to redeem their tokens. After that, guests must stop by within three weeks after getting their final dose to redeem.”

According to the New York Times, UpDown’s communications manager, David Hayden, conceived of the idea while waiting in an observation area after receiving his own shot. He tells the paper that the giveaway is meant to give people something to look forward to after getting vaccinated.

“It’s something we anticipated for so long,” he says of the vaccine.

The Times notes that the Krispy Kreme and Up-Down giveaways are part of a larger trend wherein companies across the country are offering incentives to those who choose to get vaccinated. The paper also highlights a brewery in Cleveland that is giving ten-cent beers to the first 2,021 customers who come in and prove they’ve been poked, as well as a Michigan marijuana dispensary that is handing out free joints to vaccinated people through the end of the month.

But, this being the year 2021 and all, when everyone is hopelessly divided and no one is happy, such promotions have already earned the ire of anti-vaxxers and COVID-19 vaccine skeptics, who have bafflingly found a way to regard such kickass things as free doughnuts, free weed, free video games and cheap beer as bad, somehow.

As noted by Vice, Krispy Kreme’s promotion resulted in a deluge of negativity in its Facebook comment section almost immediately upon its announcement.

“Looks like you are part of indoctrination [sic] of American citizens,” wrote one commenter. “If we’re good and follow along we get presents. Soon we can get all kinds of free stuff if we go along with getting micro-chipped too, is that how it’s going to work?”

“Would you like the unvaccinated to wear a yellow star on their chest?” asked another. “Since you’ve decided to stray into an area that has nothing to do with your actual business I’d like to know how far you’re willing to go.”

“We are getting close to the end times, when there will be no buying or selling unless you ‘have the mark [of the Beast],’” warned another ominously.

It’s worth noting that no one is forcing those who don’t want to get vaccinated to get a shot, and that the companies that are offering incentives to those that do are free to run their businesses how they choose. It also seems reasonable to point out that these promotions are more likely than not a savvy way for companies to get their names in some headlines and some bodies in their doors, where customers are likely to plunk down some cash on additional items while they’re already there. Far from a sign of the End of Days, what we’re really looking at here is simply a clever marketing campaign.

For our part here at RFT: Sign us up. Doughnuts, video games, beer, weed and I can hug my parents for the first time in a year?

What’s next, more awesome shit that rules? n

[ICONS]

Tina Turner Doc Hits HBO Max

Written by JAIME LEES

We’ve been worshiping at the altar of Tina Turner for decades here in St. Louis, but thanks to a new HBO documentary, the whole world is about to learn all there is to know about the Queen of Rock & Roll.

TINA aims to be the definitive account of Turner’s life. The documentary is almost two hours long and includes interviews with Oprah Winfrey, Angela Bassett and Kurt Loder.

Born Anna Mae Bullock, the entertainment icon got her start in St. Louis playing venues like the legendary Club Imperial on North Tucker Boulevard. From there, she went on to split with Ike Turner (famously only asking for her name in the divorce) and left him in her dust, becoming an international superstar who earned unprecedented success.

Her ambition, her pain and her ability to bounce back are highlighted in this film, along with disclosures about her current health situation as she nears the end of her life. Reviewers have said that TINA is essentially a goodbye film from her to her fans, where she sets the record straight about her life on her own terms.

From HBO:

“With a wealth of never-before-seen footage, audio tapes, personal photos, and new interviews, including with the singer herself, TINA presents an unvarnished and dynamic account of the life and career of music icon Tina Turner. Everything changed when Tina began telling her story, a story of trauma and survival, that gave way to a rebirth as the record-breaking queen of rock ‘n’ roll. But behind closed doors, the singer struggled with the survivor narrative that meant her past was never fully behind her. Directed by Dan Lindsay and T.J. Martin, the documentary charts Tina Turner’s early fame, the private and public personal and professional struggles, and her return to the world stage as a global phenomenon in the 1980s. Angela Bassett, Oprah Winfrey, journalist Kurt Loder, playwright Katori Hall and Tina’s husband Erwin Bach are among the interviews in the intimate documentary.”

Subscribers can catch TINA on HBO Max now. n

“ Here’s how it works: Show us your vaccination card. ... We’ll give you $5 in free tokens as our thanks to you for helping to keep us and the community safe!”