Watch Bands for American Made Watches
One of Stern Rubber’s customers is Shinola. Shinola is a fairly new company, with a very old name, that most people will recognize.
The original Shinola brand of shoe shine was founded in 1907, and, grew in popularity and demand during WWI, due to the sheer number of army boots that needed shining. Of course, Shinola wasn’t the only shoe shine out there, but the brand name is one of the most memorable for the saying “You don’t know sh*t from Shinola.” The origin of this popular colloquialism leads us back to two people—a Private and his General. So the story goes, a disgruntled young Private decided to shine his General’s shoes one day with sh*t rather than Shinola. The rumor spread along the front lines, and when the war ended, the legacy was imprinted on the American vernacular.
Shinola is a company that embraces and encourages manufacturing in the United States. They have built a watch factory in downtown Detroit, and are now manufacturing and selling bicycles, fine leather goods, pet products, and of course shoe shine, among others.
Stern Rubber started doing business with Shinola in 2013, when they started transfer molding rubber watch bands for the sport versions of their watches. One style and size in one color has grown to 3 styles in multiple colors and sizes.
In 2015, Shinola started making watches for Filson, who is one of their sister companies, and again, Stern Rubber was asked to make rubber bands for some of the styles.
Stern Rubber continues to work on new styles and new colors for Shinola and for Filson. Check back on their websites, to see the upcoming colors and styles!
If you are interested in purchasing very high quality, American made products, check out Shinola.com or Filson.com, or stop at one of their stores.
Click here to watch a video that Shinola created about Stern Rubber.