The Shop at Campus Martius returns for the holiday season

The Shop at Campus Martius is back for the winter season here to show off some of the cool unique items. Lauren Dean, the Director of Parks and Public Spaces for the Downtown Detroit Partnership. Laura, good to see you again. Good to see you. Thanks for having me on. Oh, thank you for coming. And I love the hat. I know. So this hat is one of our exclusive products at the Shop at Campus Martius. It's a collaboration between Carhartt and a local small business called Pingree. They employ vets. And this is actually recycled car leather that says It has Campus Martius Detroit on it and you can find that. Find that in the shop at Campus Martius, located in the southwest corner of the park downtown. All right. And alluding to some more of the unique items you brought in today, what do we have in front of us? Where would you like to start? You know what? Maybe we can just start right in the middle. Okay, right in front of us. That's like really easy for us. So the shop at Campus Martius opened in June. We've had the pleasure of working with a ton of Detroit small businesses and artists. Really owning the Campus Martius brand, we're a non-profit that manages 18 public spaces in Detroit and the proceeds from the park come back. To make everything beautiful, to keep the 1200 free programs going, all of the things you know and love at Campus Martius, the proceeds from the store help it. So we developed a few different custom items that you can only find exclusively in the store. We call this the Michigania line. So she's on the statue of the soldiers and sailors monument in the park. She's a warrior princess that guards Detroit. So we've had a lot of fun featuring her on a lot of our apparel. We have the tulip line, which is really This is really fun for the spring because we plant over 10,000 tulips throughout the downtown every spring. So tons of products and wearables for your family and friends. We feature some Ink Detroit products. If you're looking for a Red Wings or a Lions, ornaments with English gardens. We have some really pretty, this is Campus Martius Park, but we have the Spirit of Detroit. We have so many fun little Gifts and collectibles for everyone to enjoy. Wait a minute. I'm just now noticing this, Laura. Monopoly Detroit edition? Right. We have really fun games. Our store has a little bit of everything for everyone. It's Detroit-focused, Michigan-focused. We have coffee mugs that we're selling. We're actually working with a small business, too, to have an exclusive hot chocolate mix as well for Campus Martius. Wonderful. So really fun. Items for everyone reading material. I like this right here. Memoirs of an elf. You can never forget about the elves who helped make Christmas happen. Right. They do all of that heavy lifting and then Santa brings it around. But yes, we have tons of, you know. Books in the store, we actually have a coloring book as well for Campus Martius in Detroit, which is made by a local Detroiter. And I like this, Detroit's first and foremost coloring history from A to Z. So it sounds self-explanatory, learning about the city of Detroit and its history. Correct, correct. And then we have... Plus, we have everything, you know, if you're downtown, going to the rink, going to the shops at Cadillac Square, spending time in the city this holiday season, we encourage you to stop by the store, support a local business, and support local artists that we are collaborating with. And this is just a reminder, very quick before we wrap up, Detroit has its own unique style, especially when it comes to fashion. Correct. Homegrown stuff you can just buy right in front of you. Exactly. And this is all made by local Detroiters, printed in Detroit. You know, we host the world's largest Kwanzaa Canaro, so we're going to be featuring some of that product. And there's more coming in every day. So, you know, if you stop by once or twice, you might see something different every time you come by. All right, Laura, appreciate you. Thank you so much for having me. Oh, always a pleasure.